ions; and, like apparitions,
they are seen but for a moment. This magical phoenix lies thus
concealed in its cold ashes till the presence of a certain
chemical heat produces its resurrection." Any refutation of this
now would be considered childish. Upon the whole, then, while
recurrent spring, bringing in the great Easter of the year,
typifies to us indeed abundantly the development of new life, the
growth of new bodies out of the old and decayed, but nowhere hints
at the gathering up and wearing again of the dusty sloughs and
rotted foliage of the past, let men cease to talk of there being
any natural analogies to the ecclesiastical dogma of the
resurrection of the flesh. The teaching of nature finds a truer
utterance in the words of Aschylus: "There is no resurrection for
him who is once dead." 16

The next argument is that based on considerations of reason and of
ethics. The supporters of the doctrine of the resurrection of the
body have often disingenuously evaded the burden of proof thrown
upon them by retreating beneath loud assertions of God's power.
From the earliest dawn of the hypothesis to the present time,
every perplexity arising from it, every objection brought against
it, every absurdity shown to be involved in it, has been met and
confidently rebutted with declarations of God's abundant power to
effect a physical resurrection, or to do any thing else he
pleases, however impossible it may appear to us. Now, it is true
the power of God is competent to innumerable things utterly beyond
our skill, knowledge, or conception. Nevertheless, there is a
province within which our reason can judge of probabilities, and
can, if not absolutely grasp infallible truth, at least reach
satisfactory convictions. God is able to restore the vast coal
deposits of the earth, and the ashes of all the fuel ever burned,
to their original condition when they covered the world with

16 Eumenides, 1. 648, Oxford edition.

dense forests of ferns; but we have no reason to believe he will
do it. The truth or falsity of the popular theory of the
resurrection is not a question of God's power; it is simply a
question of God's will. A Jewish Rabbin relates the following
conversation, as exultingly as if the quibbling evasion on which
it turns positively settled the question itself, which in fact it
does not approach. A Sadducee says, "The resurrection of the dead
is a fable: the dry, scattered dust cannot live again." A by
standin