phrase, and you will become Atheists or Agnostics. We take you at
your word; we become Agnostics."--_Leslie Stephen._

"To be carnally minded is Death."--_Paul._

"I do not wonder at what men suffer, but I wonder often at what they
lose."--_Ruskin._

"Death," wrote Faber, "is an unsurveyed land, an unarranged Science."
Poetry draws near Death only to hover over it for a moment and withdraw
in terror. History knows it simply as a universal fact. Philosophy finds
it among the mysteries of being, the one great mystery of being not. All
contributions to this dead theme are marked by an essential vagueness,
and every avenue of approach seems darkened by impenetrable shadow.

But modern Biology has found it part of its work to push its way into
this silent land, and at last the world is confronted with a scientific
treatment of Death. Not that much is added to the old conception, or
much taken from it. What it is, this certain Death with its uncertain
issues, we know as little as before. But we can define more clearly and
attach a narrower meaning to the momentous symbol.

The interest of the investigation here lies in the fact that Death is
one of the outstanding things in Nature which has an acknowledged
spiritual equivalent. The prominence of the word in the vocabulary of
Revelation cannot be exaggerated. Next to Life the most pregnant symbol
in religion is its antithesis, Death. And from the time that "If thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" was heard in Paradise, this solemn
word has been linked with human interests of eternal moment.

Notwithstanding the unparalleled emphasis upon this term in the
Christian system, there is none more feebly expressive to the ordinary
mind. That mystery which surrounds the word in the natural world shrouds
only too completely its spiritual import. The reluctance which prevents
men from investigating the secrets of the King of Terrors is for a
certain length entitled to respect. But it has left theology with only
the vaguest materials to construct a doctrine which, intelligently
enforced, ought to appeal to all men with convincing power and lend the
most effective argument to Christianity. Whatever may have been its
influence in the past, its threat is gone for the modern world. The word
has grown weak. Ignorance has robbed the Grave of all its terror, and
platitude despoiled Death of its sting. Death itself is ethically dead.
Which of us, for example, enter