ed in the sky, but that region was
not spoken of as the destined home of man. Jacob saw angels going
up and down the ladder, but not the spirits of those he had known.
There are two cases where it seems that men were good enough to be
adopted into the family of heaven. Enoch was translated, and Elijah
was taken up in a chariot of fire. As it is exceedingly cold at
the height of a few miles, it is easy to see why the chariot was
of fire, and the same fact explains another circumstance--the
dropping of the mantle. The Jews probably believed in the existence
of other beings--that is to say, in angels and gods and evil spirits
--and that they lived in other worlds--but there is no passage
showing that they believed in what we call the immortality of the
soul.

_Question_. Do you believe, or disbelieve, in the immortality of
the soul?

_Answer_. I neither assert nor deny; I simply admit that I do not
know. Upon that subject I am absolutely without evidence. This
is the only world that I was ever in. There may be spirits, but
I have never met them, and do not know that I would recognize a
spirit. I can form no conception of what is called spiritual life.
It may be that I am deficient in imagination, and that ministers
have no difficulty in conceiving of angels and disembodied souls.
I have not the slightest idea how a soul looks, what shape it is,
how it goes from one place to another, whether it walks or flies.
I cannot conceive of the immaterial having form; neither can I
conceive of anything existing without form, and yet the fact that
I cannot conceive of a thing does not prove that the thing does
not exist, but it does prove that I know nothing about it, and that
being so, I ought to admit my ignorance. I am satisfied of a good
many things that I do not know. I am satisfied that there is no
place of eternal torment. I am satisfied that that doctrine has
done more harm than all the religious ideas, other than that, have
done good. I do not want to take any hope from any human heart.
I have no objection to people believing in any good thing--no
objection to their expecting a crown of infinite joy for every
human being. Many people imagine that immortality must be an
infinite good; but, after all, there is something terrible in the
idea of endless life. Think of a river that never reaches the sea;
of a bird that never folds its wings; of a journey that never ends.
Most people find great pleasure in think