A FOREWORD

F all the arguments which have been offered in favor of the belief in a future life it is doubtful whether any carries greater conviction than the fact that an instinctive intuition of immortality

seems to be the common heritage of mankind. In a word, the belief itself is its own best evidence. Emerson voices this feeling in the sentence, "I am a better believer and all serious souls are better believers in the immortality than we can give grounds for. The real evidence is too subtle or is higher than we can write down, and therefore Wordsworth's Ode is the best modern essay on immortality"; and in another passage he proclaims that "our dissatisfaction with any other solution is the blazing evidence of immortality."

It is in this spirit that this simple anthology has been gathered and arranged, and it has seemed fitting to borrow Wordsworth's noble title which so correctly indicates the scope of the book. It does not undertake to prove the belief which it expresses, but it does aim, by garnering the significant utterances of a multitude of witnesses, to give reassurance and encouragement to this irrepressible hope that is common to us.

To a scientist who asked of Walt Whitman if he believed that immortality would ever be proved, the old poet replied, " Proved - in reality proved: yes. Proved as you understand proved: no. There are certain sorts of truths that may yield their own sort of evidences. Immortality is not speculative — it does not come in response to investigation — it does not give its secret up to the chemist. Immortality is revelation: it flashes itself upon your consciousness out of God knows what."

The purpose of this volume, therefore, is not to try to present an orderly, rhetorical argument for any theory of immortality, but to bring before the reader a composite picture, as it were of the spiritual intuitions of mankind through the ages. And in the comparison of the multiplicity of opinions thus brought together, not the least interesting feature will be to observe how the same basic thought finds its expression varied in transmission through different minds and how it has been affected by limitations of environment, mental training, or the general spirit of the epoch in which it has found utterance; as, indeed, the white light of the sun passing through a cathedral window floods the aisles with the most richly varied hues, which all unite to dispel darkness.

It has not been the compiler's intention to select only the unqualified assents to any particular idea of immortality. More or less inherent in all human faith is the element of doubt; perhaps never better exemplified than by these lines, written not by a

sceptic, but by Whitman, the poet who of all others has uttered the most confident affirmations of eternal life:

"Yet, yet, ye downcast hours, I know ye also,

Weights of lead, how ye clog and cling at my ankles,

Earth to a chamber of mourning turns- I hear the o'erweening, mocking voice,

'Matter is conqueror

onward.""

matter, triumphant only, continues

If these doubtful voices are few in relation to the affirmative testimonies, it is not because there has been any conscious attempt toward their suppression, but rather in order that the ensemble may approximate the general tone of the mind of humanity, which is overwhelmingly affirmative in its outlook toward "the life beyond."

About the arrangement of the material in this volume little need be said. The starting-point is very naturally found in the primitive elemental scriptures of mankind, which voice their beliefs with sublime dogmatic assurance; and the fitting conclusion is in the inspirational illumination of the poet's vision. Marshalled between these poles appear the speculations of philosophers, ancient and modern; the more or less evasive obiter dicta of scientists; and the teachings of the Church through its various eras and creeds. The extracts in each section are grouped in approximately chronological order; partially, perhaps, following the line of least resistance in an attempt toward some consistent scheme of arrangement, but also with the hope that

in this way some idea may be gained of the evolution of the expression of the belief in immortality. It must, however, be frankly admitted that it is only in the most general way that this evolution can be traced, since to no one age or school belongs the clearest perception of the doctrine, but rather to the most spiritually illumined, who appear here and there towering above the rank and file without regard to arbitrary divisions either of time or of geography.

LAURENS MAYNARD.