hought adapted to create in the
contemplator just such a cerebral affection as that from which it
sprang, and to deposit in his mind just such a spiritual product
as that which it now denotes. Thus are we stimulated and
instructed by the transmitted symbols of our ancestors'
experiences, but not literally nourished by assimilation of their
very psychical substance, as this remorseless prophet of death's
ghastly idealism would have us believe. Still, in whatever aspect
we regard it, one cannot but shudder before that terrible
cineritious substance whose dynamic inhabitants are generated in
the meeting of matter's messages with mind's forces, and sent
forth in emblems to shake the souls of millions, revolutionize
empires, and refashion the world.

Strauss employs an ingenious argument against the belief in a
future life, an argument as harmless in reality as it is novel and
formidable in appearance. "Whether the nerve spirit be considered
as a dependent product, or as the producing principle of the
organism, it ends at death: for, in the former case, it can no
longer be produced when the organism perishes; in the latter case,
that it ceases to sustain the organism is a proof that it has
itself decayed."22 In this specious bit of special pleading,
unwarranted postulates are assumed and much confusion of thought
is displayed. It is covertly taken for granted that every thing
seen in a given phenomenon is either product or producer; but
something may be an accompanying part, involved in the conditions
of the phenomenon, yet not in any way essentially dependent on it,
and in fact surviving it. What does Strauss mean by "the nerve
spirit"? Is there no mind behind it and above it, making use of it
as a servant? Our present life is the result of an actual and
regulated harmony of forces. Surely that harmony may end without
implying the decay of any of its initial components, without
implying the destruction of the central constituent of its
intelligence. It is illegitimate logic, passing from pure
ignorance to positive affirmation; a saltation of sophistry from a
negative premise of blindness to all behind the organic life, to a
dogmatic conclusion of denial that there is any thing behind the
organic life.

A subtle and vigorous disbeliever has said, "The belief in
immortality is not a correct expression of human nature, but rests
solely on a misunderstanding of it. The real opinion of human
nature is expressed in the unive