true. Man thus divested _would be_ God--would be
unindividualized. But he can never be thus divested--at least never
_will be_--else we must imagine an action of God returning upon
itself--a purposeless and futile action. Man is a creature. Creatures
are thoughts of God. It is the nature of thought to be irrevocable.

_P._ I do not comprehend. You say that man will never put off the body?

_V._ I say that he will never be bodiless.

_P._ Explain.

_V._ There are two bodies--the rudimental and the complete;
corresponding with the two conditions of the worm and the butterfly.
What we call "death," is but the painful metamorphosis. Our present
incarnation is progressive, preparatory, temporary. Our future is
perfected, ultimate, immortal. The ultimate life is the full design.

_P._ But of the worm's metamorphosis we are palpably cognizant.

_V._ _We_, certainly--but not the worm. The matter of which our
rudimental body is composed, is within the ken of the organs of that
body; or, more distinctly, our rudimental organs are adapted to the
matter of which is formed the rudimental body; but not to that of which
the ultimate is composed. The ultimate body thus escapes our rudimental
senses, and we perceive only the shell which falls, in decaying, from
the inner form; not that inner form itself; but this inner form, as
well as the shell, is appreciable by those who have already acquired the
ultimate life.

_P._ You have often said that the mesmeric state very nearly resembles
death. How is this?

_V._ When I say that it resembles death, I mean that it resembles the
ultimate life; for when I am entranced the senses of my rudimental
life are in abeyance, and I perceive external things directly,
without organs, through a medium which I shall employ in the ultimate,
unorganized life.

_P._ Unorganized?

_V._ Yes; organs are contrivances by which the individual is brought
into sensible relation with particular classes and forms of matter, to
the exclusion of other classes and forms. The organs of man are adapted
to his rudimental condition, and to that only; his ultimate condition,
being unorganized, is of unlimited comprehension in all points but
one--the nature of the volition of God--that is to say, the motion of
the unparticled matter. You will have a distinct idea of the ultimate
body by conceiving it to be entire brain. This it is _not_; but a
conception of this nature will bring you near a comprehension of what it