1875.] The Possibility of a Future Life. 485 
been found to contain no element hitherto unknown to us. 
We admit that the spectroscope points out to us in the sun 
and the fixed stars simple bodies, which, with the exception 
of helium, form part and parcel of our planet. We know 
that the most distant heavenly bodies are influenced by 
gravitation, light, heat, and probably by electricity and mag- 
netism. But all this takes us a very little way towards 
ascertaining the nature of the living beings which may 
inhabit those orbs. To take an illustration from our own 
planet. We might find, say in Borneo, minerals very simi- 
lar to those obtained in Australia. But would that warrant 
us in concluding that in Borneo the highest existing form 
of animal life was of the marsupial type ? 
Nor do we think that the Scriptures, Jewish or Christian, 
convey any decisive information on thesubje¢t. Concerning 
the population of other worlds in the present order of things, 
they are, we believe, totally silent. The sovereignty of the 
globe which they attribute to man, and the supremacy over 
all other visible and tangible beings thereon, are of a very 
doubtful nature. In how few parts has he succeeded in 
extirpating even the larger carnivora! How powerless is 
he in dealing with mosquitoes, locusts, and still more with 
those minute organisms believed to be the materies morbi of 
yellow fever, plague, and cholera! It may also be ques- 
tioned whether the Scriptures do not grant the presence on 
the earth of beings heterologous to man, and possessing 
superior attributes. The idea of witchcraft is based upon 
the existence of such beings. Yet that the Bible recognises 
“witchcraft not as an imposture but as a reality is admitted 
by theologians of repute. John Wesley declared that to 
give up witchcraft was tantamount to giving up the Bible. 
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland denounced 
the repeal of the penal — against witchcraft as a 
national sin. 
If, however, the authors Cascio man as belonging to 
the highest type of beings in the present order of things, 
they are of a different opinion as regards the unseen universe. 
This has its own population independent of the phantoms of 
men and animals who may have been transferred to it from 
worlds ike our own. If we oniy suppose the unseen uni- 
verse not separated from our world by distance, but inter- 
penetrating its molecules, and thus being at once near us, and 
yet till death at least infinitely remote from us, we may here 
be reminded of some of the weird speculations put forward 
by the late Lord Lytton in his “‘ Zanoni” and ‘“‘A Strange 
Story.” The ‘‘ Dweller on the Threshold,” and other beings, 
