ral inference
is reversed. Does not the simple truth of love conquer and trample
the world's aggregated lie? The man who, with assiduous toil and
earnest faith, develops his forces, and disciplines his faculties,
and cherishes his aspirations, and accumulates virtue and wisdom,
is thus preparing the auspicious stores and conditions of another
existence. As he slowly journeys over the mountains of life, aware
that there can be

49 Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe.

50 Greenough, An Artist's Creed.

51 Memorial of Daniel Webster from the City of Boston, p. 16.

no returning, he gathers and carries with him materials to build a
ship when he reaches the strand of death. Upon the mist veiled
ocean launching then, he will sail where? Whither God orders. Must
not that be to the right port?

We remember an old Brahmanic poem brought from the East by Ruckert
and sweetly resung in the speech of the West full of encouragement
to those who shall die.52 A man wrapped in slumber calmly reclines
on the deck of a ship stranded and parting in the breakers. The
plank on which he sleeps is borne by a huge wave upon a bank of
roses, and he awakes amidst a jubilee of music and a chorus of
friendly voices bidding him welcome. So, perhaps, when the body is
shattered on the death ledge, the soul will be tossed into the
fragrant lap of eternal life on the self identified and dynamic
plank of personality.

52 Brahmanische Erzahlungen, s. 5.

CHAPTER IX.

MORALITY OF THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE. IN discussing the
ethics of the doctrine of a future life a subject here amazingly
neglected, there more amazingly maltreated, and nowhere, within
our knowledge, truly analyzed and exhibited1 it is important that
the theme be precisely defined and the debate kept strictly to the
lines. Let it be distinctly understood, therefore, that the
question to be handled is not, "Whether there ought to be a future
life or not," nor, "Whether there is a future life or not." The
question is, "What difference should it make to us whether we
admit or deny the fact of a future life?" If we believe that we
are to pass through death into an immortal existence, what
inferences pertaining to the present are right, fully to be drawn
from the supposition? If, on the other hand, we think there is
nothing for us after the present, what are the logical
consequences of that faith in regard to our aims and rules of
conduct in this world?

Suppose a man who