at, although
when he read the arguments in favour of the immortality of the soul in
the _Phaedo_ of Plato he was compelled to assent to them, as soon as he
put the book aside and began to revolve the problem in his own mind, all
his previous assent melted away, _assentio omnis illa illabitur_ (cap.
xi., 25). And what happened to Cicero happens to us all, and it happened
likewise to Swedenborg, the most daring visionary of the other world.
Swedenborg admitted that he who discourses of life after death, putting
aside all erudite notions concerning the soul and its mode of union with
the body, believes that after death he shall live in a glorious joy and
vision, as a man among angels; but when he begins to reflect upon the
doctrine of the union of the soul with the body, or upon the
hypothetical opinion concerning the soul, doubts arise in him as to
whether the soul is thus or otherwise, and when these doubts arise, his
former idea is dissipated (_De caelo et inferno_, Sec. 183). Nevertheless,
as Cournot says, "it is the destiny that awaits me, _me_ or my _person_,
that moves, perturbs and consoles me, that makes me capable of
abnegation and sacrifice, whatever be the origin, the nature or the
essence of this inexplicable bond of union, in the absence of which the
philosophers are pleased to determine that my person must disappear"
(_Traite_, etc., Sec. 297).

Must we then embrace the pure and naked faith in an eternal life without
trying to represent it to ourselves? This is impossible; it is beyond
our power to bring ourselves or accustom ourselves to do so. And
nevertheless there are some who call themselves Christians and yet leave
almost altogether on one side this question of representation. Take any
work of theology informed by the most enlightened--that is, the most
rationalistic and liberal--Protestantism; take, for instance, the
_Dogmatik_ of Dr. Julius Kaftan, and of the 668 pages of which the sixth
edition, that of 1909, consists, you will find only one, the last, that
is devoted to this problem. And in this page, after affirming that
Christ is not only the beginning and middle but also the end and
consummation of History, and that those who are in Christ will attain to
fullness of life, the eternal life of those who are in Christ, not a
single word as to what that life may be. Half a dozen words at most
about eternal death, that is, hell, "for its existence is demanded by
the moral character of faith and of Ch