man will not be in a body after death until the
day of the last judgement.'" Then the sages asked, "Are there no
intelligent persons among those of your order, who can prove and evince
the truth, that a man lives a man after death?" The priest said, "There
are indeed some who prove it, but not to the conviction of others. Those
who prove it say, that it is contrary to sound reason to believe, that a
man does not live a man till the day of the last judgement, and that in
the mean while he is a soul without a body. What is the soul, or where
is it in the interim? Is it a vapor, or some wind floating in the
atmosphere, or some thing hidden in the bowels of the earth? Have the
souls of Adam and Eve, and of all their posterity, now for six thousand
years, or sixty ages, been flying about in the universe, or been shut up
in the bowels of the earth, waiting for the last judgement? What can be
more anxious and miserable than such an expectation? May not their lot
in such a case be compared with that of prisoners bound hand and foot,
and lying in a dungeon? If such be a man's lot after death, would it not
be better to be born an ass than a man? Is it not also contrary to
reason to believe, that the soul can be re-clothed with its body? Is not
the body eaten up by worms, mice, and fish? And can a bony skeleton that
has been parched in the sun, or mouldered into dust, be introduced into
a new body? And how could the cadaverous and putrid materials be
collected, and reunited to the souls? When such questions as these are
urged, those of our order do not offer any answers grounded in reason,
but adhere to their creed, saying, 'We keep reason under obedience to
faith.' With respect to collecting all the parts of the human body from
the grave at the last day, they say, 'This is a work of omnipotence;'
and when they name omnipotence and faith, reason is banished; and I am
free to assert, that in such case sound reason is not appreciated, and
by some is regarded as a spectre; yea, they can say to sound reason,
'Thou art unsound.'" On hearing these things, the Grecian sages said,
"Surely such paradoxes vanish and disperse of themselves, as being full
of contradiction; and yet in the world at this day they cannot be
dispersed by sound reason. What can be believed more paradoxical than
what is told respecting the last judgement; that the universe will then
be destroyed, and that the stars of heaven will then fall down upon the
earth, which