44 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF A FUTURE STATE. 



risible and everlasting distinction will be made, 

 and the whole intelligent creation clearly dis 

 cern between him that served God and him that 

 served him not. 



SECTION X. 



Olf THE ABSURDITY OF SUPPOSING THAT 

 THE THINKING PRINCIPLE IN MAN WILL 

 EVER BE ANNIHILATED. 



It is highly unreasonable, if not absurd, to 

 suppose that the thinking principle in man will 

 ever be annihilated. 



In so far as our knowledge of the universe 

 extends, there does riot appear a single instance 

 of annihilation throughout the material system. 

 There is no reason to believe, that, throughout 

 all the worlds which are dispersed through the 

 immensity of space, a single atom has ever yet 

 been, or ever will be annihilated. From a va 

 riety of observations, it appears highly probable, 

 that the work of creation is still going forward 

 in the distant regions of the universe, and that 

 the Creator is replenishing the voids of space 

 with new worlds and new orders of intelligent 

 beings; and it is reasonable to believe, from 

 the incessant agency of Divine Omnipotence, 

 that new systems will be continually emerging 

 into existence while eternal ages are rolling on. 

 But no instance has yet occurred of any sys 

 tem or portion of matter either in heaven or 

 earth having been reduced to annihilation. 

 Changes are indeed incessantly taking place, 

 in countless variety, throughout every depart 

 ment of nature. The spots of the sun, the 

 belts of Jupiter, the surface of the moon, the 

 rings of Saturn, and several portions of the 

 starry heavens, are frequently changing or vary 

 ing their aspects. On the earth, mountains are 

 crumbling down, the caverns of the ocean filling 

 up, islands are emerging from the bottom of the 

 sea, and again sinking into the abyss ; the 

 ocean is frequently shifting its boundaries, and 

 trees, plants, and wavinf grain now adorn 

 many tracts which were once overwhelmed with 

 the foaming billows. Earthquakes have pro 

 duced frequent devastations, volcanoes have 

 overwhelmed fruitful fields with torrents of burn 

 ing lava, and even the solid strata within the 

 bowels of the earth have been bent and dis 

 rupted by the operation of some tremendous 

 power. The invisible atmosphere is likewise 

 the scene of perpetual changes and revolutions, 

 by the mixture and decomposition of gases, the 

 respiration of animals, the process of evapora 

 tion, the action of winds, and the agencies of 

 ght, heat, and the electric and magnetic fluids. 

 The vegetable kingdom is either progressively 

 advancing to maturity or falling into decay. 



Between the plants and the seeds of vegeta 6. 

 there is not the most distant similarity. A 

 small seed, only one-tenth of an inch in diame 

 ter, after rotting for a while in the earth, shoots 

 forth a stem ten thousand times greater in size 

 than the germ from which it sprung, the branches 

 of which afford an ample shelter for the fowls of 

 heaven. The tribes of animated nature are 

 likewise in a state of progressive change, either 

 from infancy to maturity and old age, or from 

 one state of existence to another. The cater 

 pillar is first an egg, next, a crawling worm, 

 then a nymph or chrysalis, and afterwards a 

 butterfly adorned with the most gaudy colours. 

 The may-bug beetle burrows in the earth where 

 it drops its egg, from which its young creeps 

 out in the shape of a maggot, which cast its 

 skin every year, and, in the fourth year, it 

 bursts from the earth, unfolds its wings, and 

 sails in rapture &quot; through the soft air.&quot; The 

 animal and vegetable tribes are blended, by a 

 variety of wonderful and incessant changes. 

 Animal productions afford food and nourish 

 ment to the vegetable tribes, and the various 

 parts of animals are compounded of matter de 

 rived from the vegetable kingdom. The wool 

 of the sheep, the horns of the cow, the teeth of 

 the lion, the feathers of the peacock, and the 

 skin of the deer nay, even our hands and feet, 

 our eyes and ears, with which we handle and 

 walk, see and hear, and the crimson fluid that 

 circulates in our veins are derived from plants 

 and herbs which once grew in the fields, which 

 demonstrate the literal truth of the ancient say 

 ing, &quot; All flesh is grass.&quot; 



Still, however, amidst these various and un 

 ceasing changes and transformations, no exam 

 ple of annihilation has yet occurred to the eye 

 of the most penetrating observer. When a 

 piece of coal undergoes the process of combus 

 tion, its previous form disappears, and its com 

 ponent parts are dissolved, but the elementary 

 particles of which it was composed still remain 

 in existence. Part of it is changed into caloric, 

 part into gas, and part into tar, smoke, and 

 ashes, which are soon formed into other combi 

 nations. When vegetables die, or are decom 

 posed by heat or cold, they are resolved into 

 their primitive elements, caloric, light, hydrogen, 

 oxygen, and carbon, which immediately enter 

 into new combinations, and assist in carrying 

 forward the designs of Providence in other de 

 partments of nature. But such incessant, 

 changes, so far from militating against the idea 

 of the future existence of man, are, in reality, 

 presumptive proofs of his immortal destination. 

 For, if amidst the perpetual transformations; 

 changes, and revolutions that are going forward 

 throughout universal nature in all its depart 

 ments, no particle of matter is ever lost, or re 

 duced to nothing, it is in the highest degree 

 improbable, that the thinking principle in man 



