340 THE HUMAN FORM. 



spirit and matter by virtue of such Incarnation. For if the end be 

 changed, and a divine humanity substituted in nature for our per- 

 verted manhood, then the means leading to the end are altered also, 

 and the kingdoms of nature and science advance thenceforth to no 

 man but Christ, who takes all power, or is the First and the Last, 

 who was, and is, and is to come. It were easy to say more on this 

 theme, but the hint must now be sufficient, that a science resembling 

 Christianity is possible, based upon the divinity, humanity, and omni- 

 prevalence of the human form. 



The doctrine also of immortality is not untouched by these con- 

 siderations. The belief in a personal immortality, is a belief in the 

 never-dying perfections of the human form. The hope of a social 

 immortality, or a state in which the spirit is no lone existence, rests 

 upon the foundation of a permanence of true brotherhood in a 

 grander human form. Ultimately it presupposes, that all races 

 under the natural skies, and that majority who have passed away, 

 are one stupendous humanity whose life is God. But we may not 

 dwell upon the overpowering vision. Let us be content with declar- 

 ing, that the more of God there dwells in society, and the more of 

 society in the individual, and the more of the individual in the 

 body, and the more of the body in its members, the more living is 

 our life, and the truer the science that represents it. For of one 

 thing we may be very sure, that our proudest knowledge is either 

 nothing, or a rill from the cataracts of heaven. 



We have now, kind reader, endeavored to travel together over 

 some portions of that garden of the Divine Wisdom and Love, the 

 human body, where the tender paternity of God is so very manifest 

 to all his children, and I trust we have found as we proceeded, that 

 what He does is actual as well as perfect; that His works like 

 Himself are positive substance, and meant for our positive know- 

 ledge. In the course of our journey we have conversed repeatedly 

 on our common sense, regarding it as the foundation of our dis- 

 courses. And once more, what is this common sense? It is the 

 active light which follows whatever is largely experienced and rightly 

 done; the mundane version of that scripture, "If ye will do the 

 works, ye shall know of the doctrine." It is not common opinion 

 or thought, both of which may be wrong, or vague ; nay, it is not 



