flesh, by the same means one can disprove one's own being,
and so by this unsafe method have I frequently heard the God idea very
learnedly overthrown. On such occasions I have simply taken the words
of the logicians for what all their idle wind is worth--ZERO.

The Immortality of the Soul has ever been a subject of primary
importance to all philosophers--the last dying efforts of Socrates,
noblest of Greece's sons, as Plato has shown us in the Phaedo, were
expended in a discussion on the _pros_ and _cons_ of an argument in
favor of a future life. Many of the highest intelligences since his
day have been endeavoring to prove this satisfactorily without the aid
of theological revelation. All mankind, from sage to peasant, from the
most learned Brahmin on the banks of the Ganges to the untutored red
Indian beside the Mississippi, has the question, "is there an
existence after death," been approached with the most earnest hopes to
solve as one of the greatest mysteries. Shelley devoted a vast amount
of energy to the elucidation of this occult, yet overt, truth; and in
one place remarks:

"The desire to be forever as we are; the reluctance to a
violent and unexperienced change, which is common to all;
the animate and inanimate combinations of the universe, is,
indeed, the secret persuasion which has (among other
reasons) given birth to a belief in a future state."

Full well he knew, that independent of matter, there was a power,
which has been denominated by some, Spirit; by others, simply mind,
force, or intelligence; and by metaphysical philosophers, soul. If he
approached the subject logically, as in his essay, "On a Future
State," the _ignis fatuus_ seems to escape him and be lost; if
poetically, with the innate voice which speaks within us all, ever
present.

After close reasoning in the essay I have referred to, he arrived at
the conclusion that even

"if it be proved that the world is ruled by a divine power,
no inference can necessarily be drawn from that circumstance
in favor of a future state."

and that

"if a future state be clearly proved, does it follow that it
will be a state of punishment or reward?"

Then in extension of the same argument he urges:

"Sleep suspends many of the faculties of the vital and
intellectual principle--drunkenness and disease will either
temporarily or permanently derange them. Madness, or
idiotcy,