And spite of Pride, in erring Reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is is Right.
—Alex. Pope.
Essay on Man, Epistle I.
CHAPTER I.
Old Conceptions of a Future Life.
A consciousness of immortality, sometimes dim and vague, sometimes vivid and clear, seems to be characteristic of the human race. However low man may stand he cannot consider death to be the end of his existence. The conviction that he is immortal is innate to him. Annihilation is contrary to the nature and demands of his spirit. It is true that uncertainty and doubt might arise, but man will never be able wholly to uproot either hope or fear as to the possibility of a future life.
Experiencing such feelings and presentiments, man finds himself amidst a world where death and dissolution everywhere surround him. He sees the objects of his love or fear pass away, and he knows that sooner or later the same fate will befall himself. When he beholds the lifeless body of some near relative, his presentiment of immortality tells him that the selfsame soul that once animated that body is still alive. In such moments even the man of low cultivation is forced into more or less profound contemplation. The following reflection impresses itself with might and wonder upon him: “I feel convinced that the dead is living, but how can he live without his body and what form does his new life take?”
In all ages and stages, men have asked the same or similar questions, and they will go on asking them as long as belief in a future life obtains.