2O Natural Theology. 



of civilization advances, those desires are not weak 

 ened, but strengthened ; and therefore it follows that 

 when superstition has lost its dominion over the 

 mind, an attempt will always be made to satisfy by 

 reason that want which the soul demands to have 

 met. And thus it has come to pass that the history 

 of the human mind includes a history of struggles 

 with these questions. Am I a creature of chance ? 

 Am I like the brutes, except in degree ? Am I the 

 highest intelligence in the universe, or is this whole 

 world the work of an intelligent personal Being, and 

 does its Creator rule and govern it, so that I am now 

 accountable to Him, and ever to remain so ? In 

 other words, am I a mortal being with power to close 

 my existence at any moment, accountable while I 

 live only to my fellow-men ; or am I immortal, and 

 is my destiny in the hands of a Higher Power? It 

 is necessary for the peace and true dignity of man 

 that these questions should be settled. What peace 

 can there be for him while he is in doubt whether 

 death brings to him eternal oblivion, or opens the 

 portal of another life related to the present ? How 

 can man rise to the dignity of an immortal in thought 

 and action, while uncertain that there remains to 

 him another hour of conscious existence ? We do 

 not wonder then that these questions have engrossed 

 the great minds of all ages. They speak in a lan- 

 guage so loud that they must be heard even above 

 the roar of passion and the thousand tongues of this 

 physical universe. All questions of mere physical 

 science sink into insignificance compared with these, 



