gues truly that, as mind is but a
part, or attribute of the soul, if the soul be immortal, the mind and
all that it contains must live on, also. Therefore, being in the man's
mind, he needs only to stay there, to escape annihilation. Then he
adds, that he will prick the man's conscience forever. Here is
something more than a mere dogmatism. None will deny that the wanton
killing of a dog can never be forgotten, and if the dog remains in
one's mind, is not that a sort of immortality?"

"Sophistry, my boy, sophistry; but clever. The idea is original, and
well conceived for the purpose of your narrative. But, like many
deductions assumed to be logical, it is illogical, because your
premises are wrong. It is not the dog, nor his spirit, that abides in
the mind and assails the conscience. What the man tries in vain to
forget is the thought of killing the beast, and thought, of course, is
immutable; but it does not at all follow that the thing of which we
think is imperishable."

"I see your meaning, Doctor, and of course you are right. But do you
side with the Christian, and claim that the dog is annihilated, while
man is immortal?"

"A discussion upon religious topics is seldom profitable. In reply to
your question, I think that you will be satisfied if I admit that the
dog is as surely immortal as man. No more so, and no less. The
Christian hypothesis, in this respect, is a unique curiosity to a
thinking man, at best. We are asked to believe that man is first
non-existent; then in a moment he begins to exist, or is born; then he
dies, but, nevertheless, continues to exist endlessly. Now it is an
evident fact that birth and death are analogous occurrences, and
related only to existence on this planet. The body of a man is born,
and it dies. It begins, and it ends. As to immortality, if you contend
that something abided in that body which continues to exist after
death, then it is necessary to admit that it had an existence previous
to its entrance into the body, at birth. Nothing can continue to exist
in all future time, which began at any fixed moment; it must have
being, whether we look forward or backward. Form is perishable. It had
a beginning, birth; and it will have an end, death! But the
intelligence which inhabits all form will live forever, because it has
forever lived. So I repeat, the dog is as immortal as the man."

There followed a silence after this speech, the two men gazing upon
one another intently, wi