needed.

Chapter Three.

THE DEAD UNCONSCIOUS.

From the fact now established that the soul is not immortal, it would
follow as an inevitable conclusion, that the dead are not conscious in the
intermediate state, and consequently cannot act the part attributed to
them in modern Spiritualism. But there are some positive statements to
which the reader's attention should be called, and some instances supposed
to prove the conscious state which should be noticed.

1. _The Dead Know not Anything._--As a sample of the way the Bible speaks
upon this question, let the reader turn to the words of Solomon, in Eccl.
9:5, 6, 10: "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know
not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them
is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now
perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in anything that
is done under the sun.... Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with
thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
the grave, whither thou goest."

This language is addressed to the real, living, intelligent, responsible
man; and how could it be plainer? On the hypothesis of the commonly
believed distinction between the soul and the body, this must be addressed
to the soul; for the body considered as the mere material instrument
through which the soul acts, is not supposed of itself to know anything.
The body, as a body, independent of the soul, does not know that it shall
die; but it is that which knows, while one is alive, that it shall die--it
is that same intelligent being that, when dead, knows not anything. But
the spirits in Spiritualism do know many things in their condition;
therefore they are not those who have once lived on this earth, and passed
off through death; for such, once dead, this scripture affirms, know not
anything--they are in a condition in which there is "no work, nor device,
nor knowledge, nor wisdom." This is a plain, straightforward, literal
statement; there is no mistaking its meaning; and if it is true, then it
is not true that the unseen agents working through Spiritualism, are the
spirits of the dead.

2. _The Spirit Returns to God._--Another passage from the same writer and
the same book, may recur to the mind of the reader, as expressing a
different and contradictory thought. Eccl. 12:7. "Then shall the dust
return to t