92 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



passages which are generally supposed to bear upon the 

 subject are mistranslated, while others are misunder- 

 stood. And also he pointed out that in other passages 

 not a few, animal immortality is either distinctly 

 taught by implication, or else that human immortality 

 is denied. Then, passing from the theological to the 

 practical side of the question, he proceeded to show 

 that animals possess although, of course, in low de- 

 gree most of the faculties generally considered, not 

 only as peculiar to the human species, but also as 

 purely spiritual in character; that they are often dis- 

 tinguished by reasoning power of a really high order ; 

 and that even the attributes which we usually deem as 

 strictly appertaining to the immortal soul are by no 

 means lacking in the animal world. This he did princi- 

 pally by means of anecdotes, collected only from the 

 most thoroughly trustworthy quarters, and showing all 

 these different attributes as manifested in practice. And 

 then he argued that, although the difference between 

 man and beast in the spirit world might possibly, and 

 not improbably, continue as vast as now, no proof what- 

 ever could be found to show that animals ceased to exist 

 at the moment of dissolution, but that, on the contrary, 

 an overwhelming weight of evidence, both scriptural 

 and other, seemed to testify to their absolute immor- 

 tality. And he also showed that the doctrine is by no 

 means a hard one to those who will put prejudice upon 

 one side, and examine the whole question carefully and 

 upon its merits. 



Long before writing " Man and Beast," however, 



