d
in a variety of ways all through the Bible. This therefore shows that he
is quite aware that knowledge of a principle does not enable us then and
there to attain the completeness of the application, and if this be the
case with St. Paul, we cannot be surprised to find it the same with
ourselves. But on the other hand knowledge of the principle is the first
step towards getting it to work.

Well, St. Paul is dead and buried, and so I suppose will most of us be
in a few years; so the question confronts us, what becomes of us then?

As Milton puts it in "Il Penseroso" we want:

"to unsphere
The spirit of Plato and unfold
What worlds or what vast regions hold
The immortal mind that hath forsook
Her mansion in the fleshly nook."

Yes, this is a question of deep personal interest to us; but as I cannot
speak from experience, I will restrict myself to seeing whether we can
form any sort of general hypothesis on the basis of the principles we
have recognized. What then is likely to survive? The physical body is of
course disintegrated by the chemistry of Nature. The etheric body
probably continues to retain its form longer, because it is a
condensation of etheric particles wrought together by the etheric waves
sent out by the Vital Soul, and is therefore not subject to the laws of
chemical affinity. The Vital Soul, being the race-principle of life in
the individual,--that principle which automatically seeks to preserve
the individual from disintegration,--probably survives longer still,
until, ceasing to receive any reflex vibrations from the body, it grows
gradually weaker in its sense of individual guardianship, and so is
eventually absorbed into the group-soul or generic essence of the class
to which it belongs. This is probably what happens in the case of
animals for want of any higher vivifying principle, and would be the
same with us were it not for the fact of having such a higher principle.
In our case I should imagine that the influx of etheric waves, received
from the thought action of the mind, would have the effect of continuing
to impress the Vital Soul with a sense of individuality, in terms of its
own plane, which would prevent it from being absorbed into the
group-soul so long as the vital current from the mind continued to reach
it. But eventually that current would cease to reach it, and in some
cases, because the individual mind that governed it would gradually