in
this world and the next moved men. Fear and hope worked together; fear
of the terrors awaiting the soul after death, hope of a happy existence
in some paradise. {142} That early Christianity owed much of its
success to its doctrines of final things cannot be denied. It was a
period of astrology, theosophy, mysticism, cults of saviors,
eschatologies. Few were able to keep their heads above this tide of
oracular mythology and superstition. What moorings did they have?
None of that tested knowledge of the physical world which we possess,
and which keeps numbers of people fairly sane to-day in spite of
themselves. When we recall the terror at Salem a few centuries ago, we
must admit that these Greeks, and Romans, and Jews, and Syrians did not
conduct themselves so badly in the demon-ridden world in which they
lived. Yet, while it would be unfair to blame those who embraced the
various cults, it would be equally unfair not to give praise to those
few enlightened souls who would approve none of these things.

Up to the present, the doctrine of immortality has been an essential
part of Christianity. The creeds which have come down to us proclaim
the faith that Christ Jesus will appear again to judge the quick and
the dead. To the average man, religion is absolutely committed to such
a belief. It has gone hand in hand with the idea of retribution and
reward until the two have grown together. It is not strange, then,
that the suspicion that immortality is not justified by physiological
and psychological facts is felt to have a grave bearing upon religion.
To the vast majority, religion without immortality is like _Hamlet_
with Hamlet left out. Remove the faith in a special providence,
likewise, and the edifice around which many religious emotions and
values have entwined themselves is no more than a ruin.

But the idea of a soul always accompanies the belief {143} in
immortality. The experiences which led to the one notion naturally
encouraged the other. If the soul can leave the body, it is obviously
independent, in large measure, of the latter's fate. Let us glance at
some of the experiences whose false interpretation is at the foundation
of a belief in an immortal soul inhabiting the body for a little space.

It is surprising what an influence was exercised by dreams. We have so
completely outgrown this uncritical attitude toward them that it takes
some effort to realize how natural it was. For the educ