whether a nation ever existed so rude and barbarous as to be destitute of the idea of a power higher than man. Thus considerations, derived from totally different sources, converge towards a common conclusion: the immortality of man, and the Personality of God. "1 So far as known, the atom is an indestructible physical unity; and our soul is an imperishable mental or spiritual unity. There are reasons for thinking, that, in the immensely hot state of some of the stars, some of the atoms, if not all, are dissolved into a more elementary form; perhaps, of a single kind of matter. There are also reasons, as we have stated, for believing that our soul, a stable compound of a higher order of spiritual elements, representing rather progress than periodicity, failing to make due progress in this life, not duly responding to the influences which nourish and develop the spiritual life, will be incapable of correspondence with the higher intellectuality and spirit of the life to come. A bad man is less to be trusted than a good dog; because the impure, the unbelieving person, is an example of spiritual abortion. It is certain that, taking away the sense of responsibility arising from the fact of Divine Judgment as to right and wrong, the unbelieving person becomes impure, and alienates himself from the general progress toward a more advanced state. Sinking in the scale of existence, he does not cease to live; but is less and less in co-ordination with the spiritual environment. He dies, not as the beast, whose individuality is used up by earthly requirements, but degenerates; as a thing to be placed amongst the 1 Professor G. G. Stokes, F.R.S., "The Beneficial Effects of Light," chap. iv. pp. 95, 96. vaguer forms of being, incomplete, and with a sense of incompleteness. It is a horror of remorse as to the past and fear as to the future that make a man exclaim "I have not borne me wisely in Thy world, Thou great, all-judging God! Like storm and tempest, I traversed Thy fair garden, wasting it. Thou fashionedst me as a marvellous work, With lofty brow, erect in look, strange sense, And clothed me with the garment of Thy Beauty; And wondrously encircled me with wonders; And I have cast them forth from me. 66 Wilt Thou go into judgment with me? Spare König Ottoker. The individuality of a man, the stable compound of spiritual elements, is, as to the body, an aggregation of similar, not the same, material particles, into identical corporeal structure; and the soul's individuality, is of two chief parts the understanding, or rational power apprehending; and the will, the rational power moving. The life-power which continuously weaves the elements into our present body, or outer person; will, with a subtler power, belonging to the inner man, weave refined elements into the continuous identity of our future body. The soul-power even now fashioning the inner man into more intimate relations with the Spirit of Intelligence, at the heart of things; it now possesses more life with the lapse of life; is already preparing for the new body, and for higher state in the new world. Advanced science regards the universe as rather exhibiting progress, than periodicity, when contemplated on the great scale. This tendency to higher order is a confirmation of the Scripture as to new heavens and a new earth; and as to our possessing a perfect organism in a perfect universe; these two perfections, truly corresponding, are the conditions of everlasting life. Our future existence is not only a revealed dogma, not merely a biological conception, but a scientific fact which we admit and formulate: "Allowing a margin for perturbations, the life will continue while the correspondence continues; the completeness of the life will be proportionate to the completeness of the correspondence ; and life will be perfect only when the correspondence is perfect." At that time the Natural will be in perfect accord with the Supernatural and man's will in true obedience to God's Will. "Shine, ye stars of heaven, On the hour's slow flight; Brings Earth's dearest prize; Adelaide Anne Procter, Shining Stars. 1 Professor G. G. Stokes, F.R.S., "Light as a Means of Investiga tion," chap. iv. p. 105. 2 Herbert Spencer, "Principles of Biology." RESEARCH XXV. SCIENTIFIC IMAGINATION THROWING LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY. "There is a species of disbelief, flattering, indeed, to intellectual arrogance, but out of harmony with the spirit and the admitted rules of modern philosophy."-ISAAC TAYLOR, Physical Theory of Another Life, chap. xv. "Pause not here; for know A deeper sense of all sublimity Lives in man's bosom, than the world can show In nature or in art-above, around, below." FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS, The Last Constantine, lxxv. THOSE appearances and things in nature, which most people regard as realities, are only phenomena—masks, outward shows, which the invisible powers and substances assume. A tree, a house, the sun, are nothing more than forms of the true realities which these represent. The expression, which gives good or bad meaning to the face, is but an outward sign of some inward reality. Our body is not the actual self or life. The real man which takes knowledge of the body, and of all apparent things, and their realities, is the unseen inner man. That which raises our arm, which makes us speak, is an invisible force obeying our unseen will. This unseen exercises itself in many ways, recalls the past and anticipates the future; we see and feel apart from any use of the physical senses. We are not allowed to be more conscious of the unseen and of the future, because a greater degree of hearing would disturb us, and a nicer perception by sight would terrify us. If we heard all, if we saw all, the harmony of the body might be disturbed, and we should be afraid to move. Did we know fully, beforehand, what lies in the future of this present life; and the good things of the life to come; we should either settle down in easy quietude, or be so restless as to lose the benefit of our appointed discipline. That power by which we picture to ourselves the invisible is imagination, our conceiving faculty, a sort of genius concerning things out of sight. It is not a play of fancy about airy nothings. It is the great discovering power in science; in the scientific mind it clothes the ultimate unseen particles of matter, as with a garment; in the skilled mathematical musician it makes them the tuning-forks of sound, the radiators of light and heat. In all men, and sometimes independently of the will, it unites former images and ideas, and thus creates new and sometimes brilliant results. The value of it depends on the accuracy, number, and clearness of the perceptions and impressions; on the judgment and taste in selecting and combining them. In advanced scientific investigation, imagination is trained to figure trillions of light-waves entering the eye; thousands of soundwaves pulsating on the ear; the mystery, the speed, the vastness, the minuteness, are conceived by exalting ourselves from conception to conception, from the visible to the invisible. Imagination thus separates itself from ourself, to know itself, as itself; and, other things, as not itself. It |