THE NATURAL HISTORY OF IMMORTALITY.* Ix a far-away valley in

New Zealand, there lived two brothers, surveyors, who by means of sceptical literature had wrought themselves into a disbelief of the immortality of the human soul. One proof, and one only, they said, could bring certainty on this point to their minds,—an unmistakable!appearance of some departed human spirit from the other world (if there were one). They accordingly agreed that if either died before the other, by preconcerted signs he was to give the proof required. In less than twelve months after, one brother was murdered in mistake for a gold-buyer. After the first shock of grief was over, the survivor said : "I wonder whether I shall now get the desired proof of another life." But though that surviving brother remained in the same neighbourhood for ten years after the tragical occurrence, though he had been in the loneliest parts of the forest in the darkest of nights, and, moreover, had carefully used the prearranged tokens of recognition and identification, yet no sign was ever vouchsafed to him ; and the survivor became more convinced than ever that man's life is rounded by a sleep from which there is no awakening.

In this narrative of fact, crude and simple though it be, we see the extreme attitude of blank negation taken by some human minds towards the future life—and it is well known that George Eliot at one period of her life said that if God were inconceivable, immortality was unbelievable—the other extreme bearing the calm assurance of immortality which breathes in the words, "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;" and between these extremes lies the mass of speculative reasoning identi- fied with such typical names as Plato, Aquinas, Spinoza, Kant, Butler, and Tait, the author of The Unseen Universe. What, then, is the nature and drift of Prebendary Reynolds's book on the subject At the first blush we are prepared for a sketch of the growth of opinion on the theme ; the word " history " seems to cause our thoughts to run in this direction. By laying stress on the word "natural," we, however, soon per- ceive that the writer's object is to show that as we speak of the natural history of a rose or of a lion, so man has faculties and qualities by the study of which we get perforce a glimpse of his destiny. Men who neglect this study, says the writer, "seem less reasonable than the lower animals, whose instincts unfailingly connect them with their surroundings ; for these men neglect the universal ideas of right and wrong, of immor- tality, of powers above them, and the capacity to attain closer and more intimate relations with the Higher Intelli- gence, from whom they emanate and whose nature they share. They fail in the natural history of things, and are blind to the spiritual, loving to have it so." (p. 43.) The writer has drunk deeply of what is best in Carlyle, as, for example, when he says :—" Living things are the flesh-garment of the spirit, and

the whole universe a time-vesture of the Eternal Our faculties of soul and spirit, anticipating and preparing for the future, are not lying deceivers when they promise a crown and a palace. All worlds and all things are passing into new stages of being, and by study of things as they are we obtain a real, true, and natural history of that which is to come." (p. 7.) Prebendary Reynolds, as his former books plainly show, is one of an increasing class, of religious writers who perceive how largely religion has been indebted to science, both in its methods and in its results.

"We thank," he says, "those thoughtful and praiseworthy men whose far-reaching and verified investigations lead to the application of their own methods, to the higher subjects of Religion, of God, of Immortality. We are now able to present the grandest truths of our faith with greatly the same kind of reasoning and accuracy as that used in the higher physical research ; and to show that wherein they are correct, we are true also." (p. 4.) "It is time to show," he writes elsewhere, "that not only the Holy Bible, but the other great Scripture, Nature, bodes to reason and imagination other forml and realities, as yet to sense unknown, and framed by skill in-

* The Natural History of immortality. By Joseph William Reynolds, M.A. London : Longmans and Co. 1891. visible." (p. 61.) And we feel that he accurately discerns the tendencies of the time in saying that— "Science is giving more definite and practical precision to our theology, and theology is rescuing physical truth from its abuse by those who wish to be without God in the world. Our theo- logians are becoming more intelligent, as to nature, and those who give themselves to research, finding God everywhere, grow more sacred."

In this spirit and with this method, the author leads the reader through outward nature into human nature, and on to

the highest Christian nature. In dealing with the physical universe, the standpoint of the writer is pretty much the same

as that of the author of The Unseen Universe. The law of continuity is shown to be consistent with the dissipation of

energy, and if there is no actual loss in the physical sphere, can we think there will be in the spiritual ?—

" If no material atom can be destroyed, being an indestructible unit, why should that super-substantial atom, our mental and spiritual personglity, which outlasts many arrrangements and material collocations in the body, pass away ? If the less lives on,. why not the greater continue ?' (p. 6.) And when mind turns itself on mind, is not the "forward

look" everywhere' evident? Call it instinct, intuition, intima- tion, or what you will, is not-the spirit of man its own prophet?' Passing by the subtle arguments drawn by Plato, the School- men, and Kant, from the structure of the soul itself, or from the personality of God, are not the ordinary qualities mani- fested everywhere sufficient to stamp it with persistence after death ? "It is not in man," says Southey, "to rest in abso- lute contentment. He is born, and tends to aspiration as the- sparks fly upwards, unless he has brutalised his nature, and quenched the spirit of his immortality which is his portion." Taking man as we find him, watching him when he has no sophistical purpose to serve, taking note of his aims and aspirations, it is seen to be true, as our author says, that "man expects a mansion in the skies. Our soul, said the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, is a god in exile.' Truly there is. in our mind not a memory, but all idea of Him who made us ; and as He does nothing in vain, our persuasion of future life in a higher sphere is stamped with truth." (p. 60.) The author, we think, is undoubtedly right in saying that the purer the heart and the keener the intelligence, the stronger is the assurance of future continuance and expansion. Beyond a certain point of experience, immortality carries its own proof :

"At every ascent of thought we behold supremer heights, with every growth of power WP feel further into the infinite, and are- yet within the populous dominions of the Almighty. When we go- most beyond ourselves, when at our utmost stretch, we are least lost and possess ourselves most effectively. These supreme moments are high life to the poet, times of exquisite skill to the. artist, eras of discovery to the investigator, and indicate that transcendentalness of beauty and power is within our attainment." (P. 84.) It is only a side-glance we are taking, but how deeply in- teresting is it to find the poets almost everywhere possessing

this unshakeable conviction of a future life. Witness Byron t

"My mind may lose its force, my blood its fire,

And my frame perish even in conquering pain, But there is that within me which shall tire Torture and Time, and breathe when I expire."

(Childe Harold-)

Witness Lowell, on the death of Channing

:- "Thou art not idle : in thy higher sphere

Thy loving spirit bends itself to loving tasks, And strength, to perfect what it dreamed of here, Is all the crown and glory that it asks."

And Tennyson's epitaph on Sir John Franklin, in West- minster Abbey :—

"Not here ! the White North has thy bones ; and thou, Heroic Sailor-Soul,

Art passing on thine happier voyage now Towards no earthly Pole.'

We have dwelt on the presumptions from physical nature and the intimations from human nature, as being silent yet

potent foreshadowings of man's imperishable nature, because we regard these features as the strong points in the book. They fall in exactly with the aim of the writer to rescue those who say, "We can't believe," as they certainly rebuke those who say, "We won't believe." The only adverse criticism we feel bound to make is this. Seeing that the main object of the writer is to argue for man's immortality on natural grounds, references to Revelation should have been reaerve& for the close of the book. The mingling of suggestion with Christian doctrine is confusing, and to a non-believer dis- tasteful. The preliminary steps having been carefully, gradually taken, a strong probability having been thus attained, revealed truth fittingly comes in to confirm and complete what has been thoughtfully and logically drawn from the material universe, and from the nature and capacities of the human soul. We take our leave of a valuable and stimulating book by transcribing the following paragraph, in which natural and Christian teaching are blended :—

" Man knows, he feels, every faculty is possessed of the truth, that the light of nature is God's light to show him the way to brighter, greater, more glorious realms of immortality. He is not like that struggling sculptor who, having finished what seemed a perfect work, the model of a beautiful human figure, was ready to perish. The cold pierced him, hunger pinched him ; but there in his Parisian garret, taking off his coat, he wrapped it round the model to preserve it from the frost so destructive of the plaster. He fell asleep, and when morning broke he was found dead beside his work. Not so will it be with us. Death will be the messenger with more life and fuller. The grave will be the vesti- bule of Heaven. Our white shroud, the garment that tells of glorious immortality." (p. 71.)