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Untitled Article
one . The greater probability undoubtedly is , tbat all \ Va 3 a blank from the moment of ceasing to breathe to the moment of breathing again . But the supposition that this unconsciousness remains till a far distant period , when all who have lived will be reanimated at once , is attended with insuperable difficulties , and with no substantial evidence whatever .
Who that looks round him or calculates for a moment can suppose that human bodies can be raised entire ? We all speculate somewhat in Hamlet ' s mode when we watch the revolutions of churchyards . We see how the earthy barriers between the graves are broken through , how dust is mingled with dust till all becomes an indistinguishable mass ; how , in course of time , the foundations of dwellings for the living are laid among the ruined abodes of the dead ; how , when these dwellings have also crumbled away , the
plough turns up the clods , and food is raised from the elements of a former organization to nourish frames which must afford the same service in their turn . Other changes succeed . When generations have reaped their living harvests from the harvest-field of death , green pastures are spread , or still waters expand , or the sea comes sweeping over all , and a new species of vegetation begins in the hollows , and a new influx of life pervades the scene
of so many vicissitudes . Thus is it in every region . The caravan of the desert leaves no trace of its perished thousands when the moist wind and the dry , the jackal and .. the carrion bird , have done their work . The sunken vessel , with all that it contained of human or inanimate , is dissolved into its elements before the neighbouring coral reef has been built up to the surface . And what is to be said of cannibalism , where one human frame is
immediately incorporated with another ? The resurrection of each entire human body is manifestly impossible . But , it is maintained , though the body may not be raised entire , some portion of it may be indestructible : some indistinguishable atom may be preserved in a state of organization from which life maybe at length evolved , and in which a consciousness of identity may be renewed .
On the fate of indistinguishable atoms we certainly cannot speak positively ; but it is reasonable to require some evidence of the existence of the kind supposed . We know of no such evidence , and perceive no need of such a supposition . The Mahometans and Jews held the same doctrine ; but as their notions were grosser than ours , their choice of the indestructible part was more open to refutation . They each fixed on a certain bone which was to be incapable of decay , and prepared to sprout up into a complete human form in the fulness of time . These bones , however , were found to
crumble into dust like other bones , and the conjecture was overthrown , as would probably be that of these other speculators , if their *« atoms * ' were not " indistinguishable" and therefore beyond the reach of argument and tesiimony . Thus much , however , may be said , —that if only a particle remains to be
revived , its renewal of life , or development , or whatever else it may be called , is something wholly different from that resurrection of the body which is contended for on Scripture grounds . It cannot be supposed to be the doctrine which Paul had in mind when he wrote on , the subject to the Corinthians and the Thessalonians ; it removes to the furthest limit the
analogy between the resurrections of the gospel history and our own . It is not only a mere hypothesis , but it is as much discountenanced by Scripture as the doctrine of a separate soul . There is yet a third supposition , which , though not free from difficulties , avoids the most perplexing which beset the other two , and as it was prima-
Untitled Article
220 Physical Considerations connected with Man ' s Ultimate Destination .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 220, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/4/
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