{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_34569/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_34569","id":"gutenberg_34569","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34569","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Immortality"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by Larry B. Harrison, Louise Pattison and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBy John Fiske\n\nESSAYS AND PHILOSOPHY\n\n\nA CENTURY OF SCIENCE, and other Essays.\n\nMYTHS AND MYTH-MAKERS: Old Tales and Superstitions interpreted by\nComparative Mythology.\n\nOUTLINES OF COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. New Edition. With introduction by Josiah\nRoyce, and index. 4 vols.\n\nTHE UNSEEN WORLD, and other Essays.\n\nEXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST.\n\nDARWINISM, and other Essays.\n\nTHE DESTINY OF MAN, viewed in the Light of His Origin.\n\nTHE IDEA OF GOD, as affected by Modern Knowledge.\n\nTHROUGH NATURE TO GOD.\n\nLIFE EVERLASTING.\n\n_For complete list of Mr. Fiske's Historical and Philosophical Works,\nand Essays, see pages at the back of this work._\n\n\nHOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK\n\n\n\n\nLIFE EVERLASTING\n\n\n\n\n          [Illustration]\n\n\n         LIFE EVERLASTING\n\n               BY\n\n            JOHN FISKE\n\n\n          [Illustration]\n\n\n        BOSTON AND NEW YORK\n      HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY\n\n    The Riverside Press Cambridge\n\n\n  COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY ABBY M. FISKE,\n             EXECUTRIX\n        ALL RIGHTS RESERVED\n\n    _Published September, 1901_\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nNOTE\n\n\nOn the evening of December 19, 1900, Mr. Fiske delivered in Sanders\nTheatre, Cambridge, the address here printed. It was given at the\nrequest of Harvard University, in accordance with the terms of the\nIngersoll lectureship, but it stood clearly in Mr. Fiske's mind as a\ncontinuation, and in a sense the completion, of that series of\nphilosophic studies successively issued under the titles, \"The Destiny\nof Man viewed in the Light of his Origin,\" \"The Idea of God as affected\nby Modern Knowledge,\" and \"Through Nature to God.\" Mr. Fiske delayed the\npublication of \"Life Everlasting,\" and it is possible that he designed\namplifying it. Yet, as he stated in his Preface to \"The Idea of God,\"\nthat both that book and \"The Destiny of Man\" were printed exactly as\ndelivered, \"without the addition, or subtraction, or alteration of a\nsingle word,\" so he may have intended to print this study in the same\nway. At any rate it is now printed exactly as it was delivered, his\nperfectly clear manuscript being carefully followed.\n\n  4 PARK STREET, BOSTON\n  _Autumn, 1901_\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nTHE INGERSOLL LECTURESHIP\n\n_Extract from the will of Miss Caroline Haskell Ingersoll, who died in\nKeene, County of Cheshire, New Hampshire, Jan. 26, 1893._\n\n\nFirst. In carrying out the wishes of my late beloved father, George\nGoldthwait Ingersoll, as declared by him in his last will and testament,\nI give and bequeath to Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where my\nlate father was graduated, and which he always held in love and honor,\nthe sum of Five thousand dollars ($5,000) as a fund for the\nestablishment of a Lectureship on a plan somewhat similar to that of the\nDudleian lecture, that is--one lecture to be delivered each year, on any\nconvenient day between the last day of May and the first day of\nDecember, on this subject, \"the Immortality of Man,\" said lecture not to\nform a part of the usual college course, nor to be delivered by any\nProfessor or Tutor as part of his usual routine of instruction, though\nany such Professor or Tutor may be appointed to such service. The choice\nof said lecturer is not to be limited to any one religious denomination,\nnor to any one profession, but may be that of either clergyman or\nlayman, the appointment to take place at least six months before the\ndelivery of said lecture. The above sum to be safely invested and three\nfourths of the annual interest thereof to be paid to the lecturer for\nhis services and the remaining fourth to be expended in the publishment\nand gratuitous distribution of the lecture, a copy of which is always to\nbe furnished by the lecturer for such purpose. The same lecture to be\nnamed and known as \"the Ingersoll lecture on the Immortality of Man.\"\n\n\n\n\nLIFE EVERLASTING\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nLIFE EVERLASTING\n\n\nFew incidents in ancient history are more tragic than the death of\nPompey. The spectacle of the mighty warrior who had conquered the Orient\nand contended with C\u00e6sar for the mastery of the world, a defeated and\ndespairing fugitive, treacherously murdered and lying unburied on the\nEgyptian strand, was one that drew tears from C\u00e6sar himself and from\nmany another. Yet among the poets of the sixteenth century Renaissance\nthere was one who took a different view of the matter. In an epigram of\nincomparable beauty Francesco Molsa exclaims:--\n\n    Dux, Pharea quamvis jaceas inhumatus arena,\n      Non ideo fati est s\u00e6vior ira tui:\n    Indignum fuerat tellus tibi victa sepulcrum;\n      Non decuit coelo, te, nisi, Magne, tegi!\n\nIt is almost impossible to preserve in a translation the peculiar charm\nof these lines, but a friend of mine in one of the pleasant student days\nof forty years ago produced this happy and fitting paraphrase:--\n\n    We grieve not, Pompey, that to thee\n      No earthly tomb was given;\n    All lands subdued, nought else was free\n      To shelter thee but Heaven!\n\nHere the art of the poet lies in the boldness with which he seizes upon\none of the most subtle and startling effects of contrast. In the very\ncircumstance which to the ancient mind was the acme of humiliation and\nhorror his genius discerns the occasion for most exalted panegyric, the\nbitterness of death is lost in the abounding triumph of the soul\nenlarged and set free, the attributes of woe are transformed into\ncrowning glories.\n\nIt is just in this spirit of the Modenese poet that mankind has sought\nto take away from death its sting, from the grave its victory. That\nsolemn moment in which, for those who have gone before and for us who\nare to follow, the eye of sense beholds naught save the ending of the\nworld, the entrance upon a black and silent eternity, the eye of faith\ndeclares to be the supreme moment of a new birth for the disenthralled\nsoul, the introduction to a new era of life compared with which the\npresent one is not worthy of the name. [Greek: Tis d' oiden], exclaims\nEuripides,\n\n    [Greek: Tis d' oiden ei to z\u00ean men esti katthanein,\n    To katthanein de z\u00ean?]\n\nWho can tell but that this which we call life is really death, from\nwhich what we call death is an awakening? From this vantage ground of\nthought the human soul comes to look without dread upon the termination\nof this terrestrial existence. The failure of the bodily powers, the\nstoppage of the fluttering pulse, the cold stillness upon the features\nso lately wreathed in smiles of merriment, the corruption of the tomb,\nthe breaking of the ties of love, the loss of all that has given value\nto existence, the dull blankness of irremediable sorrow, the knell of\neverlasting farewells,--all this is seized upon by the sovereign\nimagination of man and transformed into a scene of transcending glory,\nsuch as in all the vast career of the universe is reserved for humanity\nalone. In the highest of creatures the Divine immanence has acquired\nsufficient concentration and steadiness to survive the dissolution of\nthe flesh and assert an individuality untrammelled by the limitations\nwhich in the present life everywhere persistently surround it. Upon this\nview death is not a calamity but a boon, not a punishment inflicted\nupon Man, but the supreme manifestation of his exceptional prerogative\nas chief among God's creatures. Thus the faith in immortal life is the\ngreat poetic achievement of the human mind, it is all-pervasive, it is\nconcerned with every moment and every aspect of our existence as moral\nindividuals, and it is the one thing that makes this world inhabitable\nfor beings constructed like ourselves. The destruction of this sublime\npoetic conception would be like depriving a planet of its atmosphere; it\nwould leave nothing but a moral desert as cold and dead as the savage\nsurface of the moon.\n\nWe have now to consider this supreme poetic achievement of man--his\nbelief in his own Immortality--in the light of our modern studies of\nevolution; we must notice some distinctions between its earlier and\nlater stages, and briefly examine some of the objections which have been\nalleged in the name of science against the validity of the belief.\n\nHere, as in all departments of the efflorescence of the human mind, the\nbeginnings were lowly, and necessarily so. Nothing very lofty or\nfar-reaching could be expected from the kind of brain that was encased\nin the Neanderthal skull. Among existing savages there are tribes\nconcerning which travellers have doubted whether they possess ideas that\ncan properly be called religious. But wherever untutored humanity exists\nwe find the conception of a world of ghosts more or less distinctly\nelaborated; the thronging simulacra of departed tribesmen linger near\ntheir accustomed haunts, keenly sensitive to favour or neglect, and\nquick to punish all infractions of the rules which the stern exigencies\nof life in the wilderness have prescribed for the conduct of the tribe.\nThis crude primeval ghost-world is thus already closely associated with\nthe ethical side of life, and out of this association have grown some of\nthe most colossal governing agencies by which the development of human\nsociety has been influenced. It is therefore not without reason that\nmodern students of anthropology devote so much time to animism and\nfetishism and other crude workings of that savage intelligence of which\nthe primeval ghost-world is a product.\n\nIt is not at all unlikely that the savage's notion of ghosts may have\noriginated chiefly in his experience of dreams, and this is the\nexplanation at present most in favour. The sleeping warrior ranges far\nand wide over the country, while he chases the buffalo and joins in the\nmedicine dance with comrades known to have died yet now as active and as\nvoluble as himself, but suddenly the scene changes and he is back in his\nfamiliar hut surrounded by his people who can testify that he has not\nfor a moment left them. It is not unlikely, I say, that the notion of\none's conscious self as something which can quit the material body and\nreturn to it may have started in such often-repeated humble\nexperiences. It can hardly be doubted, however, that this savage\nconception of the detachable conscious self is simply the primitive\nphase of the Christian conception of the conscious soul which dwells\nwithin the perishable body and quits it at death. Through many stages of\nelaboration and refinement the sequence between the two conceptions is\nunmistakable.\n\nAt this point the materialist interposes with an argument which he\nregards as crushing. He reminds us that if we would estimate the value\nof an idea, as of a race-horse or a mastiff, it is well to take a look\nat its pedigree. What, then, is to be said--he scornfully asks--of a\ndoctrine of personal immortality which when reduced to its lowest terms\nis seen to have started in a savage's misinterpretation of his dreams?\nWhat more is needed to prove it unworthy of the serious attention of a\nscientific student of nature? On the other hand, the student whose mood\nis truly scientific will feel that one of mankind's cardinal beliefs\nmust not be dismissed too lightly because of the crudeness and error in\nthat primitive stratum of human thought in which it first took root. In\nhis perceptions within certain limits the savage is eminently keen and\naccurate, but when it comes to intellectual judgments that go at all\nbelow the surface of things his mind is a mere farrago of grotesque\nfancies, wherein, nevertheless, some kernels of truth are here and there\nembedded. It is a long way from the dragon swallowing the sun to the\ninterposition of the moon's dark body between us and that luminary. The\ndragon was a figment of fancy, but the eclipse was none the less a fact.\n\nNow if we may take an illustration from the workings of an infant's\nmind, it is pretty clearly made out that as baby sits propped among his\npillows and turns his eyes hither and thither in following his mother's\nmovements to and fro in the room, she seems in coming toward him to\nenlarge and in going away to diminish in size, like Alice in Wonderland.\nIt is only with the education of the eye and the small muscles which\nadjust it that the larger area subtended on the retina instantly means\ncomparative nearness and the smaller area comparative remoteness. At\nfirst the sensations are interpreted directly, and the impression upon\nbaby's nascent intelligence is a gross error. The mother is not waxing\ngreat and small by turns, but only approaching and receding. If,\nhowever, we consider that in baby's mind the enlarged retinal spot means\nmore and the diminished spot less of the pleasurable feelings excited by\na familiar and gracious presence, the approach of which is greeted with\nsmiles and out-stretched arms, while its departure is bemoaned with\ncries and tears, we see that as to the essentials of the situation the\ndawning intelligence is entirely right, although its specific\ninterpretation is quite wrong. Mamma has not really dwindled and\nvanished like the penny in a conjurer's palm, but has only flitted from\nthe field of vision.\n\nTo come back now to our primeval savage, when he sees in a dream his\ndeceased comrade and mistakes the vision for a reality, his error is not\nconcerned with the most fundamental part of the matter. The\nall-important fact is that this dreaming savage has somehow acquired a\nmental attitude toward death which is totally different from that of all\nother animals, and is therefore peculiarly human. Throughout the\nhalf-dozen invertebrate branches or sub-kingdoms, where intelligence is\nmanifested only in its lower forms of reflex action and instinct, we\nfind no evidence that any creature has come to know of death. There is a\nsense, no doubt, in which we may say that the love of life is\nuniversal. As a rule, all animals shun danger, and natural selection\nmaintains this rule by the pitiless slaughter of all delinquents, of all\nin whom the needful inherited tendencies are too weak. But in the lower\nanimal grades and in the vegetal world the courting of life and the\nshrinking from death go on without conscious intelligence, as the blades\nof grass in a meadow or the clustering leaves upon a tree compete with\none another for the maximum of exposure to sunshine until perhaps stout\nboughs and stems are warped or twisted in the struggle. Among\ninvertebrates, even when we get so high as lobsters and cuttlefish, the\nconsciousness attendant upon the seizing of prey and the escape from\nenemies probably does not extend beyond the facts within the immediate\nsphere of vision. Even among those ants that have marshalled hosts and\ngrand tactics there is doubtless no such thing as meditation of death.\nPassing to the vertebrates, it is not until we reach the warm-blooded\nbirds and mammals that we find what we are seeking. Among sundry birds\nand mammals we see indications of a dawning recognition of the presence\nof death. An early manifestation is the sense of bereavement when the\nmaternal instinct is rudely disturbed, as in the cow mourning for her\ncalf. This feeling goes a little way, but not a great way, beyond the\nsense of physical discomfort, and is soon relieved by milking. Much more\nintense and abiding is the feeling of bereavement among birds that mate\nfor life, and among the higher apes, and it reaches its culmination in\nthe dog whose intelligence and affections have been so profoundly\nmodified through his immensely long comradeship with man. Nowhere in\nliterature do we strike upon a deeper note of pathos than in Scott's\nimmortal lines on the dog who starved while watching his young master's\nlifeless body, alone upon a Highland moor:--\n\n    \"How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber?\n    When the wind stirred his garment, how oft didst thou start!\"\n\nYet even this devoted creature could have carried his thoughts but\nlittle way toward the point reached by our dreaming savage with his\nincipient ghost-world. More power of abstraction and generalization was\nneeded. While the sight of the killing of a fellow-creature may arouse\nviolent terror in the higher mammals below man, there is nothing to\nindicate that the sight of the dead body awakens in the dumb spectator\nany general conceptions in which his own ultimate doom is included. The\nonly feeling aroused seems to vary between utter indifference and faint\ncuriosity. Professor Shaler makes a statement of cardinal importance in\nthis connection when he says: \"If we should seek some one mark which, in\nthe intellectual advance from the brutes to man, might denote the\npassage to the human side, we might well find it in the moment when it\ndawned on the nascent man that death was a mystery which he had in his\nturn to meet.\"[1]\n\n[1] Shaler, _The Individual_, p. 194.\n\nIt is therefore interesting to note that the first approaches, albeit\nremote ones, toward a realizing sense of death occur among those animals\nin which the beginnings of family life have been made, and the habitual\nexercise of altruistic emotions helps to widen the intelligence and\nfacilitate the appropriation to one's self of the experiences of one's\ncomrades and mates. Such is the case with permanently mated birds and\nwith the higher apes, while the case of the dog, exceptional as it is\nthrough his acquired dependence upon man, has similar implications. Now\nI have elsewhere proved and repeatedly illustrated that the leading\npeculiarity which distinguished man's apelike progenitors from all other\ncreatures was the progressive increase in the duration of infancy, which\nwas a direct consequence of expanding intelligence, and was moreover the\nimmediate cause of the genesis of the human family and of human society.\nIt appears now that the realizing sense of death, such as we find it in\nuntutored men of primitive habits of thought, has originated in the\nselfsame circumstances which have wrought the mighty change from\ngregariousness to sociality, from the general level of mammalian\nexistence to the unique level of humanity. I have elsewhere called\nattention to the profoundly interesting fact that the notion of an\nUnseen World beyond that in which we lead our daily lives is coeval with\nthe earliest beginnings of Humanity upon our planet. We may now observe\nthat it adds greatly to the interest and to the significance of this\nfact, when we find that the very circumstances which tended to single\nout our progenitors, and raise them from the average mammalian level\ninto Manhood, tended also to make them realize the problem of death and\nmeet it with a solution. The grouping of facts now begins to make it\nappear that this primeval solution was but the natural outcome of the\nwhole cosmic process that had gone before; that when nascent Humanity\nfirst eluded the burden of the problem by rising above it, this was but\npart and parcel of the unprecedented cosmic operation through which\nman's Humanity was developed and declared. The long and cumulative play\nof cause and effect which wrought the lengthening of the period of\nhelpless babyhood and the correlative maternal care, and which thus\ndifferentiated the non-human horde of primates into a group of human\nclans, was attended by a strong development of the sympathetic feelings\nas it vastly increased the mutual dependence among individuals. During\nthe same period the gradual acquirement of articulate speech was\naccompanied by a great increase in the powers of abstraction and\ngeneralization. These new capacities were applied to the interpretation\nof death, just as they were applied to all other things; and thus, in\nthe very process of becoming human, our progenitors arose to the\nconsciousness of death as something with which humanity has always and\neverywhere to reckon. From the earliest and most rudimentary stages of\nthe process, however, the conception of death was not of an event which\nputs an end to human individuality, but of an event which human\nindividuality survives. If we look at the circumstances of the genesis\nof mankind purely from the naturalist's point of view, it cannot fail to\nbe highly significant that the mental attitude toward death should from\nthe first have assumed this form, that the human soul should from the\nstart have felt itself encompassed not only by the endless multitude of\nvisible and tangible and audible things, but also by an Unseen World. In\nview of this striking fact it is of small moment that the earliest\ngeneralizations which in course of time developed into a world of ghosts\nand demons were grotesquely erroneous. Primitive theorizing is sure to\nbe faulty and in the light of later knowledge comes to seem absurd and\nbizarre. Such has been in modern days the fate of the savage's\nghost-world, along with the Ptolemaic astronomy, the doctrine of\nsignatures, and many another sample of the \"wisdom of the ancients.\" But\nthe fact that primitive man mis-stated his relation to the Unseen World\nin no wise militates against the truth of his assumption that such a\nworld exists for us.\n\nTo this question as to the truth of the assumption I shall return in the\nsequel. We have very briefly sketched the manner of its origination, and\nhere we may leave this part of our subject with the remark that the\nbelief in a future life, in a world unseen to mortal eyes, is not only\ncoeval with the beginnings of the human race but is also coextensive\nwith it in all its subsequent stages of development. It is in short one\nof the differential attributes of humanity. Man is not only the primate\nwho possesses articulate speech and the power of abstract reasoning, who\nis characterized by a long period of plastic infancy and a corresponding\ncapacity for progress, who is grouped in societies of which the\nprimordial units were clans; he is not only all this, but he is the\ncreature who expects to survive the event of physical death. This\nexpectation was one of his acquisitions gained while attaining to the\nhuman plane of existence, and the interesting question in the natural\nhistory of man is whether it is to be regarded as a permanent\nacquisition, or is rather analogous to the organ that subserves, perhaps\nthrough long ages, an important but temporary purpose, after the\nfulfilment of which it dwindles into a rudiment neglected and forgotten.\n\nI do not overlook the existence of divers theological systems in which\nthe attitude toward a future life is very different from that with which\nour Christian education has made us familiar. We sometimes hear such\nsystems cited as exceptions to the alleged universality of the human\nbelief in immortality. The Buddhist looks forward through myriads of\nsuccessive sentient existences to a culminating state of Nirwana, which\nif not actual extinction is at least complete quiescence, the absolute\nzero of being. It hardly needs saying, however, that Buddhistic\ntheology, though it may have arrived at such a zero through long flights\nof metaphysical reasoning, is nevertheless based in all its foundations\nupon the primitive belief in man's survival of death. Sometimes it is\nsaid that the Jews of the Old Testament times had no proper conception\nof immortality. It can hardly be maintained, however, that such stories\nas that of the conversation at Endor between the living Saul and the\ndead Samuel could emanate from a people destitute of belief in a life\nafter death. In point of fact ancient Jewish thought abounds in traces\nof the primitive ghost-world. It is only by contrast with the glorious\nand inspiring Christian development of the belief in immortality that\nthe earlier dispensation seems so jejune and meagre in its faith. There\nwas little to arouse religious emotion in the dismal world of flitting\nshadows, the Sheol or Hades from which the Greek hero would so gladly\nhave escaped, even to take the most menial position in all the sunlit\nworld. Greek and Hebrew thought, in what we call the classic ages, stood\nalike in need of religious revival. The mythic lore of the Greek mind\nhad flowered luxuriantly in \u00e6sthetic fancies, while the spiritual life\nof Judaism languished amid strict obedience to forms and precepts. The\nfar-reaching thoughts of Greek philosophers and the lofty ethics of\nHebrew preachers were divorced from the primitive ghost-world, even as\nthe mental processes of the modern scholar are separated by a great gulf\nfrom those of the woman who comes to scrub the floor. The advent of\nChristianity fused together the various elements. The doctrine of a\nfuture life was endowed with all the moral significance that Jewish\nthought could give to it, and with all the mystic glory that Hellenic\nspeculation could contribute, so that the effect upon men was that of a\nfresh revelation of life and immortality through the gospel. Grotesque\nand hideous features also were brought in from the ghost-worlds of the\nclassic ages, as well as from that of the Teutonic barbarians, and the\nresult is seen in medi\u00e6val Christianity. At no other time, perhaps, has\nthe Unseen World played such a leading part in men's minds as in the\ntwelfth and thirteenth centuries of our Christian era, in the age that\nwitnessed the culmination of sublimity in church architecture, in the\nsociety whose thought found comprehensive expression in the \"Summa\" of\nSt. Thomas, as the thought of our times is expressed in Spencer's \"First\nPrinciples,\" in an intellectual atmosphere, which just as it was about\npassing away was depicted for all coming time in the poem of Dante. It\nwas a time of spiritual awakening such as mankind had never before\nwitnessed, but it was also an age of new problems, an age wherein the\nseeds of revolt were thickly germinating. The nature and constitution of\nthe Unseen World had been too rashly and too elaborately set forth in\ntheorems born of the slender knowledge of primitive times, and the\ngrowing tendency to interrogate Nature soon led to conclusions which\nbroke down the old edifice of thought. In the sixteenth century came\nCopernicus and administered such a shock to the mind as even Luther's\ndefiance of the papacy scarcely equalled. In recent days, when Bishop\nWilberforce reckoned without his host in trying to twit Huxley with his\nmonkey ancestry, our minds were getting inured to all sorts of audacious\ninnovations, so that they did not greatly disturb us. For its unsettling\neffects upon time-honoured beliefs and mental habits the Darwinian\ntheory is no more to be compared to the Copernican than the invention of\nthe steamboat is to be compared to the voyages of Columbus. We are in no\ndanger of overrating the bewilderment that was wrought by the discovery\nthat our earth is not the physical centre of things, and that the sun\napparently does not exist for the sole purpose of giving light and\nwarmth to man's terrestrial habitat. We need not wonder that in\nconservative Spain scarcely a century ago the University of Salamanca\nprohibited the teaching of the Newtonian astronomy. We need not wonder\nthat Galileo should have been commanded to hold his tongue on a topic\nthat seemed to cast discredit upon the whole theology that assumes man\nto be the central object of the Divine care.\n\nThis unsettling of men's minds was of course indefinitely increased by\nthe revolt of Descartes against the scholastic philosophy, by Newton's\nimmense contributions to physics, and by such discoveries as those of\nHarvey, Black, and Lavoisier, which showed by what methods truth could\nbe obtained concerning Nature's operations, and how different such\nmethods were from those by which the accepted systems of theology had\nbeen built up. The result has been wholesale skepticism directed\nagainst everything whatever that now exists or has ever existed in the\nshape of an ancient belief. This result was first reached in France\nabout the middle of the eighteenth century, when the thoughts of Locke\nand Newton were eagerly absorbed in a community irritated beyond\nendurance by social injustice, and in which the church had done much to\nforfeit respect. Thus came about that violent outbreak of materialistic\natheism which, in spite of its generous aims and many admirable\nachievements, is surely one of the most mournful episodes in the history\nof human thought. The French philosophers set an example to three\ngenerations; the note struck by Diderot and Buffon and D'Alembert\ncontinued to resound until the scientific horizon had become radiant in\nevery quarter with the promise of a brighter day, and its echoes have\nnot yet died. It was but lately that the voice of Lamettrie was heard\nagain from the lips of Strauss and Buechner, and even to-day we may\nsometimes be entertained by a belated eighteenth century naturalist who\nis fully persuaded that his denial of human immortality is an inevitable\ncorollary from the doctrine of evolution. Indeed the progress of\nscientific discovery has been so rapid since the time of Diderot, its\nachievements have been so vast, its results so multifarious and so\ndazzling, that it has well-nigh absorbed the attention of the foremost\nminds. The dogmas of theology seem stale and empty, the speculations of\nmetaphysics vain and unprofitable, in comparison with the fascinating\nmarvels of chemistry and astronomy, of pal\u00e6ontology and spectrum\nanalysis; and it is natural that we should rejoice over the methods of\nresearch that are enabling us thus to wrest from Nature a few of her\nlong guarded secrets, and to make up our minds to have nothing to do\nwith conclusions that are not obtained or at least verified by such\nscientific methods. Daily we hear sounded the praises of observation, of\nexperiment, of comparison; we are warned against long deductions, since\nthe strength of any chain of arguments is measured by that of its\nweakest link, and experience is perpetually teaching us, to our\nvexation and chagrin, that what reason says must be so is not so, that\nfacts will not fit hypothesis. The more things we try to explain, the\nbetter we realize that we live in a world of unexplained residua. Away,\nthen, with all so-called truths that cannot be tested by weights and\nmeasures, or other direct appeals to the senses! Your modern philosopher\nwill have nothing of them. His system is composed, from start to finish,\nof scientific theorems. As for the higher speculations, the deeper\ngeneralizations, in which philosophy has been wont to indulge concerning\nthe aim and meaning of existence, he waves them away as profitless or\neven mischievous. The world is full of questions as pressing as they are\nbaffling. As I once heard Herbert Spencer say, \"You cannot take up any\nproblem in physics without being quickly led to some metaphysical\nproblem which you can neither solve nor evade.\" It was in order to\nsecure philosophic peace of mind that Auguste Comte undertook to build\nup what he called Positive Philosophy, in which the existence of all\nsuch problems was to be complacently ignored,--much as the ostrich seeks\nescape from a dilemma by burying its head in the sand. In a far more\nreverent and justifiable spirit the agnostic like Huxley or Spencer\nacknowledges the limitations of the human mind and builds as far as he\nmay, leaving the rest to God.\n\nIn the fervour of this modern reliance upon scientific methods, we are\nwarned with especial emphasis against all humours and predilections\nwhich we may be in danger of cherishing as human beings. In a new sense\nof the words we are reminded that \"the heart of man is deceitful and\ndesperately wicked,\" and if any belief is especially pleasant or\nconsoling to us, forthwith does Science lay upon us her austere command\nto mortify the flesh and treat the belief in question with exceptional\ndisfavour and suspicion. Thus there has grown up a kind of Puritanism in\nthe scientific temper which, while announcing its unalterable purpose to\nfollow Truth though she lead us to Hades, takes a kind of grim\nsatisfaction in emphasizing the place of destination.\n\nNow there can be no sort of doubt that this rigid and vigorous\nscientific temper is in the main eminently wholesome and commendable. In\nthe interests of intellectual honesty there is nothing which we need\nmore than to be put on our guard against allowing our reasoning\nprocesses to be warped by our feelings. Nevertheless in steering clear\nof Scylla it would be a pity to tumble straight into the maw of\nCharybdis, and it behooves us to ask just how far the canons of\nscientific method are competent to guide us in dealing with ultimate\nquestions. Science has given us so many surprises that our capacity for\nbeing shocked or astounded is well-nigh exhausted, and our old\nunregenerate human nature has been bullied and badgered into something\nlike humility; so that now, at the end of the greatest and most\nbewildering of centuries, we may fitly pause for a moment and ask how\nfares it, in these exacting days, with that Unseen World which man\nbrought with him when he was first making his appearance on our planet?\nAnd what has science to say about that time-honoured belief that the\nhuman soul survives the death of the human body?\n\nThe position that science irrevocably condemns such a belief seems at\nfirst sight a very strong one and has unquestionably had a good deal of\nweight with many minds of the present generation. Throughout the animal\nkingdom we never see sensation, perception, instinct, volition,\nreasoning, or any of the phenomena which we distinguish as mental,\nmanifested except in connection with nerve-matter arranged in systems of\nvarious degrees of complexity. We can trace sundry relations of general\ncorrespondence between the increasing manifestations of intelligence and\nthe increasing complications of the nervous system. Injuries to the\nnervous structure entail failures of function, either in the mental\noperations themselves or in the control which they exercise over the\nactions of the body; there is either psychical aberration, or loss of\nconsciousness, or muscular paralysis. At the moment of death, as soon as\nthe current of arterial blood ceases to flow through the cerebral\nvessels, all signs of consciousness cease for the looker-on; and after\nthe nervous system has been resolved into its elements, what reason have\nwe to suppose that consciousness survives, any more than that the\nwetness of water should survive its separation into oxygen and hydrogen?\n\nSo far as our terrestrial experience goes there can be but one answer to\nsuch a question. We have no more warrant in experience for supposing\nconsciousness to exist without a nervous system than we have for\nsupposing the properties of water to exist in a world destitute of\nhydrogen and oxygen. Our power of framing conceptions is narrowly\nlimited by experience, and when we try to figure to ourselves the\nconditions of a future life we are either hopelessly baffled at the\nstart or else we fall back upon grossly materialistic imagery. The\nsavage's ghost-world is a mere repetition of the fights and hunts with\nwhich he is familiar. The early Christians looked forward to a speedy\nresurrection from Sheol, followed by an endless bodily existence upon a\nrenovated earth. Dante's pictures of the Unseen World are often so\nintensely materialistic as to seem grotesque in our more truly spiritual\nage. Popular conceptions of heaven to-day abound in symbolism that is\nconfessedly a mere reflection from the world of matter; insomuch that\npersons of sufficient culture to realize the inadequacy of these popular\nimages are wont to avoid the difficulty by refraining from putting their\nhopes and beliefs into any definite or describable form. Among such\nminds there is a tacit agreement that the unseen world must be purely\nspiritual in constitution, yet no mental image of such a world can be\nformed. We are all agreed that life beyond the grave would be a delusion\nand a cruel mockery without the continuance of the tender household\naffections which alone make the present life worth living; but to\nimagine the recognition of soul by soul apart from the material\nstructure in which we have known soul to be manifested, apart from the\nlook of the loved face, the tones of the loved voice, or the renewed\ntouch of the long vanished hand, is something quite beyond our power.\nEven if you try to imagine your own psychical activity as continuing\nwithout the aid of the physical machinery of sensation, you soon get\ninto unmanageable difficulties. The furniture of your mind consists in\ngreat part of sensuous images, chiefly visual, and you cannot in thought\nfollow yourself into a world that does not announce itself to you\nthrough sense impressions. From all this it plainly appears that our\nnotion of the survival of conscious activity apart from material\nconditions is not only unsupported by any evidence that can be gathered\nfrom the world of which we have experience but is utterly and hopelessly\ninconceivable.\n\nThe argument here summarized is in no way profound or abstruse; it is\nextremely obvious, and as its propositions cannot well be controverted,\nit has had great weight with many people. I dare say it may be held\nresponsible for the larger part of contemporary skepticism as to the\nfuture life. People have grown accustomed to demanding scientific\nsupport for doctrines, whereas this doctrine is not only destitute of\nscientific support but lands us in inconceivabilities; is it not, then,\nuntenable and absurd? Such is the common argument. There are those who\nseek to meet it with inductive evidence of the presence of disembodied\nspirits or ghosts which hold direct communication only with certain\nspecially endowed persons known as mediums. Concerning such inductive\nevidence it may be said that very little has as yet been brought\nforward which is likely to make much impression upon minds trained in\ninvestigation. If its value as evidence were to be conceded, it would\nseem to point to the conclusion that the grade of intelligence which\nsurvives the grave is about on a par with that which in the present life\nwe are accustomed to shut up in asylums for idiots. On the whole the\nmediumistic ideas and methods are frankly materialistic, their alleged\ncommunications with the other world are through sights and sounds, and\nif their pretensions could be sustained the result would be simply the\nrehabilitation of the primitive ghost-world. Their theory of things\nmoves on so low a plane as hardly to merit notice in a serious\nphilosophic discussion.\n\nTo return to the argument that the doctrine of the survival of conscious\nactivity apart from material conditions is unsupported by experience and\nis inconceivable, we may observe that it is inconceivable just because\nit is entirely without foundation in experience. Our powers of\nconception are narrowly determined by the limits of our experience, and\nwhen that experience has never furnished us with the materials for\nframing a conception we simply cannot frame it. Hence we cannot conceive\nof the conscious soul as entirely dissociated from any material vehicle.\n\nNow we are prepared to ask, How much does this famous argument amount\nto, as against the belief that the soul survives the body? The answer\nis, Nothing! absolutely nothing. It not only fails to disprove the\nvalidity of the belief, but it does not raise even the slightest _prima\nfacie_ presumption against it. This will at once become apparent if we\nremember that human experience is very far indeed from being infinite,\nand that there are in all probability immense regions of existence in\nevery way as real as the region which we know, yet concerning which we\ncannot form the faintest rudiment of a conception. Within the past\ncentury the study of light and other radiant forces has furnished us\nwith a suggestive object-lesson. The luminiferous ether combines\nproperties which are inconceivable in connection. How curious to think\nthat we live and move in an ocean of ether in which the particles of\nall material things are floating like islands! But how amazing to learn\nthat this ocean of ether is also an adamantine firmament! Is not this\nsheer nonsense? an ocean firmament of ether-adamant! Yet such seems to\nbe the fact, and our philosophy must make the best of it. Now suppose\nthat all this world were crowded with disembodied souls, an infinite\nthrong most aptly called \"the majority,\" a thousand or more on every\nspot in space as broad as the point of a cambric needle, in what way\ncould we become aware of their existence? Clearly in no way, since we\nhave no organ or faculty for the perception of soul apart from the\nmaterial structure and activities in which it has been manifested\nthroughout the whole course of our experience. There we will suppose are\nthe countless millions, the existence of any one of whom, could we\ndetect it, would suffice to demonstrate the doctrine of a future life,\nand yet, for lack of the requisite means of communication, all this\nevidence is inaccessible. Such an illustration shows that \"the entire\nabsence of testimony does not even raise a negative presumption except\nin cases where testimony is accessible.\" The reason is obvious. Until we\ncan go wherever the testimony may be, we are not entitled to affirm that\nthere is an absence of testimony. So long as our knowledge is restricted\nby the conditions of this terrestrial life, we are not in a position to\nmake negative assertions as to regions of existence outside of these\nconditions. We may feel quite free, therefore, to give due weight to any\nconsiderations which make it probable that consciousness survives the\nwreck of the material body.\n\nWe are now in a position to see the fallacy of Moleschott's often-quoted\naphorism, \"No thought without phosphorus!\" When this saying was a new\none, there were worthy people who felt that somehow it was all over with\nman's immortal soul. With phosphorus you light your candle, and with\nphosphorus you discover Neptune and write the Fifth Symphony; how\ncharmingly simple and convincing! And yet was anything save a bit of\nrhetoric really gained by singling out phosphorus among the chemical\nconstituents of brain tissue rather than nitrogen or carbon? Suppose the\ndictum had been, \"No thought without a brain.\" The obvious answer would\nhave been, \"If you refer to the present life, most erudite professor,\nyour remark is true, but hardly novel or startling; if you refer to any\ncondition of things subsequent to death, pray where did you obtain your\nknowledge?\"\n\nNevertheless this point cannot be disposed of simply by exhibiting the\nflaw in Moleschott's rhetoric. His remark rests upon the assumption that\nconscious mental phenomena are products of the organic tissues with\nwhich they are associated. This is of course the central stronghold of\nmaterialism. A century ago the case was very boldly put when we were\nasked to believe that the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes\nbile. Nobody to-day would think of making such a comparison, but it is\nmore cautiously stated that consciousness is a \"function\" of the brain,\nor at all events of the nervous system, even as bile-making is a\nfunction of the liver. Before we yield any modicum of assent to this\nstatement we may observe that \"function\" is a word with a wide range of\nmeaning, and we must insist upon some closer definition. Here\nmaterialism calls to its aid the discovery of the correlation and\nequivalence of forces, one of the most stupendous achievements of our\ncentury. We now know that heat and light and electricity and actinism\nare not forces generically distinct and isolated each from the others.\nAll are specific modes of molecular motion, transformable one into\nanother at any moment as naturally as a cloud condenses into raindrops.\nAny such molecular motion, moreover, may come from the arrested visible\nmotion of a mass, and may in turn be liberated so as to resume the form\nof visible motion, as when an electric current is transformed into the\nonward movement of the trolley car. The change in our conception of\nNature that has been wrought by this wonderful discovery is more\nprofound than all changes that went before. The balance in the hands of\nthe chemist had already proved that no matter is ever lost but only\ntransformed, and that every material form at any moment visible owes its\nexistence to the metamorphosis of some previous form. So now it was\nfurther shown that the myriad properties or qualities of matter are\nsimply the expression of myriads of activities which are all in a final\nanalysis motions; that no motion is ever lost but only transformed, and\nthat every kind of motion at any moment perceptible--whether in the form\nof movement through space, or of light, or heat, or electricity, or the\nactinism that builds up the green stuff in the leaves of plants--owes\nits existence to the metamorphosis of some previous kind of motion.\nEvery living organism is a marvellous aggregate of divers forms of\nmatter performing divers characteristic motions, and the sum total of\nthese motions is the whole of life, as regarded purely on its physical\nside. When we take food we bring into the system sundry nitrogenous and\nhydrocarbon compounds, each of which is alive with little energies or\nlatent capacities for certain kinds of motion. The oxygen of the air,\nespecially in its unstable form of ozone, is a powerful inciter of\nchemical motions, and when we breathe it in, the little latent\ncapacities presently become actual motions. Some of them are realized in\nthe rhythmical movements of heart and lungs, some in the undulations\nthat sustain the animal temperature, some in the formation of the tiny\ndrops that collect in a secreting gland, some in the repair of tissue by\nthe substitution of new complex molecules for old ones that are broken\ndown, some in the contraction of a group of muscles, some in the changes\nwithin the substance of nerve that accompany conscious thought,\nsensation, and volition. Ah, yes, here we come to it at last! We do not\ndoubt that all these myriad motions are members in a series of\ntransformations, wherein the appearance of each results from the\ndisappearance of its predecessors. We have neither the instruments nor\nthe calculus to prove this in the infinite multitude of details, but the\ngeneral theory has been so completely established wherever it is\naccessible to instruments and calculus that we can have no hesitation in\ngranting its universality wherever matter and motion are concerned in\nany shape or amount. No scientific man will for a moment doubt that the\nlittle vibratory discharge between cerebral ganglia which accompanies a\nthought is one member in a series of molecular motions that might be\nmeasured and expressed in terms of quantity if we only possessed an\napparatus sufficiently delicate and subtle.\n\nNow if such is the case with the little physical motion within the\nbrain, how is it with the accompanying thought? Does the correlation\nobtain between physical motions and conscious feelings? Are states of\nconsciousness links in the Protean series of motions, in such wise that\nthe vibration within the brain produces the thought or feeling? In other\nwords is the thought or feeling merely a transformed vibration? Does a\ncertain amount of vibration perish to be replaced by an exact equivalent\nin the shape of thought? and then does the thought perish in the act of\ngiving place to other vibrations which end in a visible motion of\nmuscles? as when, for example, you hear the sound of a bell and start\ntoward the door.\n\nOn this point there has been much confusion of ideas. When I put the\nquestion to Tyndall in conversation, nearly thirty years ago, he seemed\nto think that there must be some such completeness of correlation\nbetween the physical and the psychical; but his mind was not at ease on\nthe subject. Herbert Spencer, in his \"First Principles,\" rather\ncautiously took the same direction and tried to show how a certain\namount of motion might be transformable into a certain amount of\nfeeling. He observed that the consciousness of effort or muscular strain\nin lifting a heavy weight is more intense than in lifting a light\nweight, and that when a loud sound sets up atmospheric vibrations of\ngreat amplitude the shock to our auditory consciousness is\ncorrespondingly greater than in the case of a gentle sound which sets up\nvibrations of small amplitude. But when he comes to the inner regions of\nthought and emotion which are not reached by percussion and strain, he\nis less successful in finding illustrations. It is especially worthy of\nnote that in the final edition of \"First Principles,\" published in this\nyear 1900 and in Spencer's eighty-first, he goes very far toward\nwithdrawing from his original position, while in his Preface he calls\nattention to this change as one of the most important in the book. In my\n\"Cosmic Philosophy,\" published in 1874, I maintained that to prove the\ntransformation of motion into feeling or of feeling into motion is in\nthe very nature of things impossible. In order to be convinced of this,\nlet us go back a few years and ask how the great doctrine of the\ncorrelation of forces became established. Its first absolute\nverification occurred about 1846, when Dr. Joule showed \"that the fall\nof 772 lbs. through one foot will raise the temperature of a pound of\nwater one degree of Fahrenheit.\"[2] When this was proved it gave us the\nmechanical equivalent of heat, and the theory acquired a truly\nscientific character. Similar quantitative correlations were established\nin the case of heat and chemical action by Dulong and Petit, and in the\ncase of chemical action and electricity by Faraday. The truth of the\ntheory is wholly a question of quantitative measurement. Now you can\nmeasure heat, you can measure electricity, and since the action of\nnerves in all probability consists of undulatory motions it is to some\nextent measurable, and doubtless would be completely measurable had we\nthe means. But when you come to thoughts and emotions, I beg to know\nhow you are going to work to give an account of them in foot-pounds! It\nis not simply that we have no means at hand, no calculus equal to the\noccasion; the thing is absurd on its face. It is as true to-day as it\nwas in the time of Descartes that thought is devoid of extension and\ncannot be submitted to mechanical measurement.\n\n[2] Herbert Spencer, _First Principles_ (final ed.), p. 185.\n\nIt appears to me, therefore, that what we should really find, if we\ncould trace in detail the metamorphosis of motions within the body, from\nthe sense-organs to the brain, and thence outward to the muscular\nsystem, would be somewhat as follows: the inward motion, carrying the\nmessage into the brain, would perish in giving place to the vibration\nwhich accompanies the conscious state; and this vibration in turn would\nperish in giving place to the outward motion, carrying the mandate out\nto the muscles. If we had the means of measurement we could prove the\nequivalence from step to step. But where would the conscious state, the\nthought or feeling, come into this circuit? Why, nowhere. The physical\ncircuit of motions is complete in itself; the state of consciousness is\naccessible only to its possessor. To him it is the subjective equivalent\nof the vibration within the brain, whereof it is neither the cause nor\nthe effect, neither the producer nor the offspring, but simply the\nconcomitant. In other words the natural history of the mass of\nactivities that are perpetually being concentrated within our bodies,\nto be presently once more disintegrated and diffused, shows us a closed\ncircle which is entirely physical, and in which one segment belongs to\nthe nervous system. As for our conscious life, that forms no part of the\nclosed circle but stands entirely outside of it, concentric with the\nsegment which belongs to the nervous system.\n\nThese conclusions are not at all in harmony with the materialistic view\nof the case. If consciousness is a product of molecular motion, it is a\nnatural inference that it must lapse when the motion ceases. But if\nconsciousness is a kind of existence which within our experience\naccompanies a certain phase of molecular motion, then the case is\nentirely altered, and the possibility or probability of the continuance\nof the one without the other becomes a subject for further inquiry.\nMaterialists sometimes declare that the relation of conscious\nintelligence to the brain is like that of music to the harp, and when\nthe harp is broken there can be no more music. An opposite view, long\nfamiliar to us, is that the conscious soul is an emanation from the\nDivine Intelligence that shapes and sustains the world, and during its\ntemporary imprisonment in material forms the brain is its instrument of\nexpression. Thus the soul is not the music, but the harper; and\nobviously this view is in harmony with the conclusions which I have\ndeduced from the correlation of forces.\n\nUpon these conclusions we cannot directly base an argument sustaining\nman's immortality, but we certainly remove the only serious objection\nthat has ever been alleged against it. We leave the field clear for\nthose general considerations of philosophic analogy and moral\nprobability which are all the guides upon which we can call for help in\nthis arduous inquiry. But it may be suggested at this point that perhaps\nour argument has acquired a wider scope than was at first contemplated.\nConsciousness is not peculiar to man, but is possessed in some degree by\nthe greater portion of the animal kingdom. Among the higher birds and\nmammals the amount of conscious life is very considerable, and here too\nit must be argued that consciousness is not a product of molecular\nmotion in the nervous system but its concomitant. The same argument\nwhich removes the objection to immortality for man removes it also for\nan indefinite number of animal species. What, then, is to be said of the\nreasonableness of supposing a future life for sundry lower animals? and\nif we were to reach a negative conclusion in their case, while reaching\na positive conclusion in the case of man, on what principle are we to\ndraw the line? Sometimes we hear this question propounded as a\ndifficulty in the Darwinian theory of man's origin. How could immortal\nman have been produced through heredity from an ephemeral brute?\n\nThe difficulty is one of the sort which we are apt to encounter when we\ntry to designate absolute beginnings and to mark off hard and fast\nlines, for in Nature there are no such things. Voltaire asked the same\nkind of question more than a hundred years before Darwinism had been\nheard of. When does the immortal soul of the human individual come into\nexistence? Is it at the moment of conception, or when the new-born babe\nbegins to breathe, or at some moment between, or even perhaps at some\nera of early childhood when moral responsibility can be said to have\nbegun? Some of the answers to these questions would transform an\nephemeral creature into an immortal one in the same person. The most\nproper answer is a frank confession of ignorance. Whether it be in the\nindividual or in the race, we cannot tell just where the soul comes in.\nA due heed to Nature's analogies, however, is helpful in this\nconnection. The maxim that Nature makes no leaps is far from true.\nNature's habit is to make prodigious leaps, but only after long\npreparation. Slowly rises the water in the tank, inch by inch through\nmany a weary hour, until at length it over-flows and straightway vast\nsystems of machinery are awakened into rumbling life. Slowly grows the\neccentricity of the ellipse as you shift its position in the cone, and\nstill the nature of the curve is not essentially varied, when suddenly,\npresto! one more little shift, and the finite ellipse becomes an\ninfinite hyperbola mocking our feeble powers of conception as it speeds\naway on its everlasting career. Perhaps in our ignorance such analogies\nmay help us to realize the possibility that steadily developing\nephemeral conscious life may reach a critical point where it suddenly\nputs on immortality.\n\nIf this suggestion is a sound one, we must probably regard the conscious\nlife of animals as only the ephemeral adumbration of that which comes to\nmaturity in man. The considerations adduced this evening must convince\nus that we are at perfect liberty to treat the question of man's\nimmortality in the disinterested spirit of the naturalist. In the course\nof evolution there is no more philosophical difficulty in man's\nacquiring immortal life than in his acquiring the erect posture and\narticulate speech. In my little book \"The Destiny of Man\" I insisted\nupon the dramatic tendency or divine purpose indicated in the long\ncosmic process which has manifestly from the outset aimed at the\nproduction and perfection of the higher spiritual attributes of\nhumanity. In another little book, \"Through Nature to God,\" I called\nattention to the fact that belief in an Unseen World, especially\nassociated with the moral significance of life, was coeval with the\ngenesis of Man, and had played a predominating part in his development\never since, and I argued that under such circumstances the belief must\nbe based upon an eternal reality, since a contrary supposition is\nnegatived by all that we know of the habits and methods of the cosmic\nprocess of Evolution. No time is left here to repeat these arguments,\nbut I hope enough has been said to indicate the probability that the\npatient study of evolution is likely soon to supply the basis for a\nNatural Theology more comprehensive, more profound, and more hopeful\nthan could formerly have been imagined. The Nineteenth Century has borne\nthe brunt, the Twentieth will reap the fruition.\n\n\n\n\nWRITINGS OF JOHN FISKE\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nHistorical\n\n\nTHE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA\n\n    _With some Account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest. With\n    a Steel Portrait of Mr. Fiske, many maps, facsimiles, etc. 2 vols.\n    crown 8vo, gilt top, $3.60._\n\nThe book brings together a great deal of information hitherto accessible\nonly in special treatises, and elucidates with care and judgment some of\nthe most perplexing problems in the history of discovery.--_The Speaker_\n(London).\n\n\nOLD VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS\n\n    _2 vols. crown 8vo, gilt top, $3.60. Illustrated Edition, 2 vols.\n    8vo, $8.00._\n\nHistory has rarely been invested with such interest and charm as in\nthese volumes.--_The Outlook_ (New York).\n\n\nTHE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND\n\n    _Or, the Puritan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil and Religious\n    Liberty. Crown 8vo, $1.80. Illustrated Edition. Containing\n    Portraits, Maps, Facsimiles, Contemporary Views, Prints, and other\n    Historic Materials. 8vo, gilt top, $4.00._\n\nHaving in the first chapters strikingly and convincingly shown that New\nEngland's history was the birth of centuries of travail, and having\nprepared his readers to estimate at their true importance the events of\nour early colonial life, Mr. Fiske is ready to take up his task as the\nhistorian of the New England of the Puritans.--_Advertiser_ (Boston).\n\n\nTHE DUTCH AND QUAKER COLONIES IN AMERICA\n\n    _With 8 Maps. 2 vols. crown 8vo, gilt top, $3.60. Illustrated\n    Edition, 2 vols. 8vo, $8.00._\n\nThe work is a lucid summary of the events of a changeful and important\ntime, carefully examined by a conscientious scholar, who is master of\nhis subject.--_Daily News_ (London).\n\n\n_All prices are net._\n\n\nNEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND\n\n    _With Maps. Crown 8vo, $1.80._\n\nIllustrated Edition. _Containing about 200 Illustrations. 8vo, gilt top,\n$4.00._\n\nThis volume presents in broad and philosophic manner the causes and\nevents which marked the victory on this continent of the English\ncivilization over the French.\n\n\nTHE AMERICAN REVOLUTION\n\n    _With Plans of Battles, and a Steel Portrait of Washington. 2 vols.\n    crown 8vo, gilt top, $3.60. Illustrated Edition. Containing about\n    300 Illustrations. 2 vols. 8vo, gilt top, $8.00._\n\nBeneath his sympathetic and illuminating touch the familiar story comes\nout in fresh and vivid colors.--_New Orleans Times-Democrat._\n\n\nTHE CRITICAL PERIOD OF AMERICAN HISTORY, 1783-1789\n\n    _With Map, Notes, etc. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.80. Illustrated\n    Edition. Containing about 170 Illustrations. 8vo, gilt top, $4.00._\n\n_The foregoing historical works also in the Riverside Pocket Edition, in\n12 vols. Each with a frontispiece. Narrow 16mo, limp leather, $2.00\neach. The set, $24.00._\n\n\nTHE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE\n\n    _In Riverside Library for Young People. With Maps. 16mo, 75 cents._\n\n\nTHE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY IN THE CIVIL WAR\n\n    _With 23 Maps and Plans. 1 vol. crown 8vo, $1.80._\n\n\nA HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR SCHOOLS\n\n    _With Topical Analysis, Suggestive Questions, and Directions for\n    Teachers, by F. A. Hill, and Illustrations and Maps. Crown 8vo,\n    $1.00, net._\n\n\nAMERICAN POLITICAL IDEAS\n\n    _Crown 8vo, $1.50._\n\n\nReligious and Philosophical\n\n\nTHE DESTINY OF MAN\n\n    _Viewed in the Light of His Origin. 16mo, gilt top, $1.00._\n\nOf one thing we may be sure: that none are leading us more surely or\nrapidly to the full truth than men like the author of this little book,\nwho reverently study the works of God for the lessons which He would\nteach his children.--_Christian Union_ (New York).\n\n\nTHE IDEA OF GOD\n\n    _As Affected by Modern Knowledge. 16mo, gilt top, $1.00._\n\nThe vigor, the earnestness, the honesty, and the freedom from cant and\nsubtlety in his writings are exceedingly refreshing. He is a scholar, a\ncritic, and a thinker of the first order.--_Christian Register_\n(Boston).\n\n\nTHROUGH NATURE TO GOD\n\n    _16mo, gilt top, $1.00._\n\n    CONTENTS.--_The Mystery of Evil; The Cosmic Roots of Love and\n    Self-Sacrifice; The Everlasting Reality of Religion._\n\nThe little volume has a reasonableness and a persuasiveness that cannot\nfail to commend its arguments to all.--_Public Ledger_ (Philadelphia).\n\n\nLIFE EVERLASTING\n\n    _16mo, gilt top, $1.00 net._\n\nThis brief work is a contribution to the evolution of the theory of\nevolution on lines which are full of the deepest suggestiveness to\nChristian thinkers.--_The Congregationalist._\n\n\nOUTLINES OF COSMIC PHILOSOPHY\n\n    _Based on the Doctrine of Evolution, with Criticisms on the Positive\n    Philosophy. In 4 volumes, 8vo, $7.20._\n\nYou must allow me to thank you for the very great interest with which I\nhave at last slowly read the whole of your work.... I never in my life\nread so lucid an expositor (and therefore thinker) as you are.--CHARLES\nDARWIN.\n\n\nDARWINISM, AND OTHER ESSAYS\n\n    _Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.80._\n\n\nMYTHS AND MYTH-MAKERS\n\n    _Old Tales and Superstitions interpreted by Comparative Mythology.\n    Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.80._\n\n\nTHE UNSEEN WORLD\n\n    _And Other Essays. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.80._\n\n\nEXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST\n\n    _Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.80._\n\n\nMiscellaneous\n\n\nA CENTURY OF SCIENCE\n\n    _And Other Essays. Crown 8vo, $1.80._\n\nAmong our thoughtful essayists there are none more brilliant than Mr.\nJohn Fiske. His pure style suits his clear thought.--_The Nation_ (New\nYork).\n\n\nCIVIL GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES\n\n    _Considered with some Reference to its Origins. With Questions on\n    the Text by Frank A. Hill, and Bibliographical Notes by Mr. Fiske.\n    Crown 8vo, $1.00, net._\n\nIt is most admirable, alike in plan and execution, and will do a vast\namount of good in teaching our people the principles and forms of our\ncivil institutions.--MOSES COIT TYLER, _Professor of American\nConstitutional History and Law, Cornell University_.\n\n\nHOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY\n\nBOSTON: 4 PARK ST.; NEW YORK: 16 EAST 40TH ST.\n\n\n\n\n\n<pre id=\"pg-footer\">","title":"Life Everlasting","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":10562}