mind is no longer manifested through it.
That is all we immediately know by perception. The inference that
the mind has therefore ceased to be at all, is a mere supposition.
It may still live and act, independently of the body. An outside
phenomenon can prove nothing here. We must by some psychological
probe pierce to the core of the being and discern, as there
concealed, the central interpretation of truth, or else, in want
of this, turn from these surface shadows and seek the solution in
some other province. Millions of appearances being opposed to the
truth or inadequate to hint it, we must never implicitly trust
their suggestions. What microscope can reveal the organic life in
a kernel of corn, and show that through the decay of that kernel a
stalk will spring up and bear a thousand kernels more? But if a
new mental life emerges from the dying form of man, it lies in a
spiritual realm whereinto we have no instruments to gaze. Every
existent thing has its metes and limits. In fact, the only final
weapon and fort of a thing is its environing limitation. It goes
into nothing if that be taken down, the atheist says; into
infinity, the mystic says. The mistake and difficulty lie in
discerning what the last wall around the essence is. "The universe
is the body of our body." The boundary of our life is boundless
life. Schlegel has somewhere asked the question, "Is life in us,
or are we in life?" Because man appears to be wholly extinguished
in death, we have no right whatever in reason to conclude that he
really is so. The star which seemed to set in the western grave of
aged and benighted time, we, soon coming round east to the true
spirit sky, may discern bright in the morning forehead of
eternity. There can be no safe reasoning from the outmost husk and
phenomenon of a thing to its inmost essence and result. And, in
spite of any possible amount of appearance, man himself may pass
distinct and whole into another sphere of being when his flesh
falls to dust. That science should search in vain with her finest
glasses to discern a royal occupant reigning in the purple
chambered palace of the heart, or to trace any such mysterious
tenant departing in sudden horror from the crushed and bleeding
house of life, belongs to the necessary conditions of the subject;
for spirit can only be spiritually discerned. As well might you
seek to smell a color, or taste a sound, tie a knot of water, or
braid a cord of wind.

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