EVOLi'TIOX AXn THE AFTER-LIFE. 6l 



begiuiiiiigs of organization and life, and admires its grand and orderly 

 procession ; but, i-eaching out forward, he seems to tind notliing within 

 the scope of his pliysical senses. He sees, however, that the series is 

 not ended, for reason assures him that even for the material universe 

 there is, somewhere beyond, an architect whose skill and Avisdom he 

 is only commencing to appreciate, but still more, when he beholds the 

 gradual unfolding of the world of soul, with its instinct, conscious- 

 ness, intelligence, memory, reason, feeling, and aspiration, and coii- 

 siders the possibilities Avhich still may lie enfolded there, is he lost in 

 admiration and wonder at the great centre-soul, the author of all these^ 

 attributes. And what is to span over the abyss, or even roach out 

 toward this ineflable soul ? Is he himself to cease when the mate- 

 rial organization wears out ? and consciousness, memory, reason, and, 

 higher, nobler and purer tliau all, heaven-born aspiration, the crown- 

 ing development of countless ages, do they all go out in darkness just 

 at the dawning ? or, rather, do not the organization of elements and 

 their development into life and movement, the gradual dawning of in- 

 stinct and ]-eason, and, lastly, of an aspiring soul, give promise of fur- 

 ther development under more favoring circumstances for approach- 

 ing, knowing, and appreciating the great central, causal, all-pervading 

 soul ? 



For scientific proof of this after-life and future development, the 

 whole world is looking, nor is there any thing unreasonable in the ex- 

 pectation. The orderly steps in the series of development suddenly 

 end with the birth of a soul capable of inquiring after its Author, and 

 aspiring to a continuous life. Is it, then, the end of the series, or must 

 there not be further steps approximating tow^ard the central soul, and 

 observers have not searched aright, or means of observation been im- 

 ])erfect or misused ? As, in our solar system, the " law of distances," 

 found to exist among the planets, caused astronomers to look for 

 another body in the huge space between Jupiter and Mars, who were 

 rewarded by the discovery of the Asteroids ; or as perturbations in the 

 motions of Uranus caused them to look for a planet beyond its orbit,, 

 and Xeptune was found ; so, with equal reason, may psychologists 

 infer the existence of a whole series of superior beings reaching on- 

 ward toward the Infinite ; and who shall deny the possibility of their 

 discovery ? The development of man is constantly leading on to the 

 appreciation of more and more subtile elements and effects ; the laws 

 which govern the atmosphere light, sound, and magnetism which 

 could not have been understood in the infancy of the race, are being- 

 unfolded ; colors which our remote ancestors could not perceive, are 

 being difterentiated ; and sounds, which to them were unmeaning 

 noises, or were not discerned at all, to our more refined and better- 

 developed senses convey impressions of pitch and harmony. Sucli 

 advance in the development of the ordinary senses, not to discuss the 

 possibilities of an internal and still higher sense, o-ives in-oniise of 



