PROOFS FROM THE LIGHT OF NATURE. 



17 



%eHng the effects of light, as Democritus, the 

 undent philosopher, was said to have done, it 

 would form no argument to prove that all the rest 

 of the world was blind. And, if a few sceptics 

 and profligates endeavour to blind the eyes of 

 their understanding by sophistry and licentious 

 ness, it cannot prevent the light of reason, which 

 unveils the realities of a future world, from shin 

 ing on the rest of mankind, nor constitute the 

 slightest argument to prove the fallacy of the 

 doctrine they deny. 



SECTION II. 



ON THE DESIRE OF FUTURE EXISTENCE IM 

 PLANTED IN THE HUMAN MIND. 



Those strong and restless desires after future 

 existence and enjoyment, which are implanted 

 in the soul of man, are a strong presumptive 

 proof that he is possessed of an immortal na 

 ture. 



There is no human being who feels full satis 

 faction in his present enjoyments. The mind 

 is for ever on the wing in the pursuit of new ac 

 quirements, of new objects, and, if possible, of 

 higher degrees of felicity, than the present mo 

 ment can afford. However exquisite any par 

 ticular enjoyment may sometimes be found, it 

 soon begins to lose its relish, and to pall tho in 

 tellectual appetite. Hence the voracious desire, 

 apparent among all ranks, for variety of amuse 

 ments, both of a sensitive, and of an intellectual 

 nature. Hence the keen desire for novelty, for 

 tales of wonder, for beautiful and splendid exhi 

 bitions, and for intelligence respecting the pas 

 sing occurrences of the day. Hence the eager 

 ness with which the daily newspapers are read 

 by all ranks who have it in their power to procure 

 them. However novel or interesting the events 

 which are detailed to-day, an appetite for fresh 

 intelligence is excited before to-morrow. Amidst 

 the numerous objects which are daily soliciting 

 attention, amidst the variety of intelligence which 

 newsmongers have carefully selected for the grati 

 fication of every taste, and amidst the fictitious 

 scenes depicted by the novelist and the poet 

 &quot; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear 

 with hearing.&quot; Hence, too, the insatiable de 

 sires of the miser in accumulating riches, and 

 the unremitting career of ambition, in its pur 

 suit of honours and of fame. And hence the 

 unlour with which the philosopher prosecutes 

 one discovery after another, without ever ar 

 riving at a resting-point, or sitting down con 

 tented with his present attainments. When 

 Archimedes had discovered the mode of deter 

 mining the relative quantities of gold and silver 

 m Hiero s crown, did he rest satisfied with this 

 aw acquirement ? No. The ecstacy he felt 



at the discovery, when he leaped from the bath, 

 and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse, 

 crying, &quot; I have found it, I have found it&quot;sooB 

 subsided into indifference, and his mind pushed 

 forward in quest of new discoveries. When 

 Newton ascertained the law of universal gravi 

 tation, and Franklin discovered the identity of 

 lightning and the electric fluid, and felt the trans 

 ports which such discoveries must have excited, 

 did they slacken their pace in the road of scien 

 tific discovery, or sit down contented with their 

 past researches ? No. One discovery gave a 

 stimulus to the pursuit of another, and their ca 

 reer of improvement only terminated with their 

 lives. After Alexander had led his victorious 

 armies over Persia, Babylonia, Syria, Egypt, 

 and India, and had conquered the greater part of 

 the known world, did he sit down in peace, and 

 enjoy the fruit of his conquests ? No. His de 

 sires after new projects, and new expeditions, 

 remained insatiable ; his ambition rose even to 

 madness ; and when the philosopher Anaxarchus 

 told him, there was an infinite number of worlds, 

 he wept at the thought that his conquests were 

 confined to one. 



These restless and unbounded desires are to be 

 found agitating the breasts of men of all nations, 

 of all ranks and conditions in life, if we ascend 

 the thrones of princes, if we enter the palaces of 

 the great, if we walk through the mansions of 

 courtiers and statesmen, if we pry into the abodes 

 of poverty and indigence, if we mingle with poets 

 or philosophers, with manufacturers, merchants, 

 mechanics, peasants, or beggars ; if we survey 

 the busy, bustling scene of a large city, the se 

 questered village, or the cot which stands in the 

 lonely desert we shall find, in every situation, 

 and among every class, beings animated with 

 desires of happiness, which no present enjoy 

 ment can gratify, and which no object within tho 

 limits of time can fully satiate. Whether we 

 choose to indulge in ignorance, or to prosecute 

 the path of knowledge ; to loiter in indolence, or 

 to exert our active powers with unremitting ener 

 gy ; to mingle with social beings, or to flee to the 

 haunts of solitude, we feel a vacuum in the 

 mind, which nothing around us can fill up; a 

 longing after new objects and enjoyments, which 

 nothing earthly can fully satisfy. Regardless 

 of the past, and unsatisfied with the present, the 

 soul of man feasts itself on the hope of enjoy 

 ments which it has never yet possessed 



&quot; Hope springs eternal in the human breast; 

 Man never is, but always to be blest. 

 The soul uneasy, and confined from home, 

 Rests and expatiates in a life to come. 



That the desire of immortality is common, 

 and natural to all men, appears from a variety of 

 act ions, which can scarcely be accounted for on 

 any other principle, and which prove that tha 

 mind feels conscious of its immortal destiny 

 Why, otherwise, should men be anxious about 



