r
the promotion of health and cure of diseases.

The whole subject is thoroughly explained in the College of
Therapeutics, making thereby a perfect guidance to health, and to
progress in philosophy, and supplying the great lack in all systems of
education--self-knowledge and the sublime art of health, longevity,
and progress in Divine wisdom.

THE SO-CALLED SCIENTIFIC IMMORTALITY.

The Smithsonian Institution at Washington was founded for the increase
and diffusion of knowledge. Guided by the contracted notions prevalent
among scientists, it has not accomplished much for either object. The
theory of Lester F. Ward of this institution was paraphrased as
follows in the last JOURNAL:

As for immortal life I must confess,
Science has never, never answered "yes."
Indeed all psycho-physiological sciences show,
If we'd be loyal, we must answer "no!"
Man cannot recollect before being born,
And hence his future life must be "in a horn."
There must be a _parte ante_ if there's a _parte post_,
And logic thus demolishes every future ghost.
Upon this subject the voice of science
Has ne'er been aught but stern defiance.
Mythology and magic belong to "_limbus fatuorum_;"
If fools believe them, we scientists deplore 'em.
But, nevertheless, the immortal can't be lost,
For every atom has its bright, eternal ghost!

Mr. Ward appears to enjoy greatly this theory of his own final
extinction, and he exclaims with infinite self-satisfaction, "this
pure and ennobling sense of truth he would scorn to barter for the
selfish and illusory hope of an eternity of personal existence." This
is quite a jolly funeral indeed!

It is true Mr. Ward's very profound theories contradict an immense
number of facts observed by wiser men than himself, but so much the
worse for the facts,--they must not embarrass a Smithsonian
philosopher when he solves to his own satisfaction the vast problem of
the universe. This Mr. Ward thinks he has done. It is quite an
ingenious and laboriously constructed hypothesis, but like all other
attempts to construct a grand philosophy without a basis of fact, it
is hard to manufacture the theory and hard to comprehend it. Mr. Ward
says himself in the _Open Court_ that even to comprehend his doctrine
would require the "careful reading of nearly 200 pages," while "to see
the matter in precisely the same light as I see it would require the
reading of the entire work of some 1400 pages!"