480 The Possibility of a Future Life. [October, 
look with far more loathing upon the future life of ordinary 
Christian eschatology—to wit, eternal torment for the many 
and a never-ending Sunday-school celebration for the 
favoured few. To such minds this prospect appears not 
merely inconceivable, but a libel on the Creator ; and upon 
them, therefore, the argument of our authors, ingenious as 
it undoubtedly is, will be utterly thrown away. We must 
further callto mind that immortality, though an essential, is 
not a peculiar doctrine of the Christian religion, of which 
even its absolute demonstration furnishes no conclusive evi- 
dence. But.no such demonstration is here attempted. We 
are reminded that the universal longing for immortality 
affords a presumption at least of a future life in which this 
yearning may be gratified. An eccentric friend of ours 
whose life has proved a failure, argued that this very craving 
is an evidence against immortality. But if it isan evidence 
of a future life at all, it must be taken in proof of a future 
of universal happiness. To implant such a craving, and 
then to fulfil it with an immortality of misery, would be 
more merciless than not to fulfil it at all. 
The work before us, like certain recent legislative mea- 
sures, is of a decidedly ‘‘ permissive” character. It deals 
in the ‘may be”’ rather than in the ‘‘must be.” It takes 
the conceivable as tantamount to the actually existing, and 
asks, ‘‘Is it not hazardous to deny?” where, to say the least, it 
is equally hazardous to assert. There is, we learn, around 
us, or among us, an ‘‘ unseen universe.” In density it bears 
about the same proportion to the interstellar, luminiferous 
ether which this does to ordinary molecular matter. From 
this unseen universe, or second ether, the visible universe 
and all that therein is originally proceeded, and into it they 
are being gradually re-absorbed. Beyond this second ether 
there is a third finer still, forming a second unseen universe, 
and beyond this another and another, each less dense than 
the preceding. These unseen universes, or at least the first 
of the series, receive the force which the ether loses. That 
such a loss takes place, the authors conclude from Struve’s 
statement that there appear to be fewer stars of the tenth 
magnitude than should be visible if all their light reached 
us unabsorbed. The portion which thus disappears on the 
way is, they assume, taken up by the ether and handed 
over to the first “‘ unseen universe.” Of the properties and 
powers of this unseen universe we know, of course, 
nothing. When, therefore, the authors ask us in substance, 
*“ Why may it not” be the scene of the life to come, we are 
certainly unable to give any direct reply. For all we can 
