47 2 Life and Immortality. 



work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave 

 whither thou goest." Literally interpreted, no one can 

 doubt the import of these words from Ecclesiastes, for they 

 definitely state that, as regards a future life, there is no 

 distinction between man and beast, and that when they die 

 they all go to the same place. It is also distinctly stated 

 that after death man can do no work, know nothing, nor 

 receive any reward. Were we to deduce our ideas of the 

 condition of man after death from the irrepressibly sad and 

 gloomy passages from Job and Ecclesiastes, most deplorable 

 and hopeless would be the very thought of dissolution. But 

 we do not accept them in this light. They are written sym- 

 bolically, and there underlies them a spiritual sense. It is 

 not, however, the latter sense that concerns us at present, 

 but the literal meaning of the translation, and, according to 

 that literal meaning, if we take two texts to prove that beasts 

 have no future life, we are compelled by no less than four- 

 teen passages to believe that man, in common with beasts, 

 has no better prospect. We have no right to say which 

 passages are to be taken literally, and which parabolically, 

 but must apply the same test to all alike, and treat all in a 

 similar manner. 



All classical readers are familiar with that wonderful 

 eleventh book of Homer's Odyssey, called the Necyomanteia, 

 or Invocation of the Dead, in which Ulysses is depicted as 

 descending into the regions of departed spirits for the pur- 

 pose of invoking them and obtaining advice as to his future 

 adventures. Dreary, and horrible indeed, are the revelations 

 which the whole of the strange history makes of the condi- 

 tion of the future life. All is wild and dark, and hunger, 

 thirst and discontent prevail. Nothing is heard of elysian 

 fields, where piety, wisdom and virtue abound. Gloom, 

 misery and vain regrets for earth pervade the entire episode. 

 When is considered this heathen poet's ideas concerning the 

 future state of man, it is no wonder that sensual pleasures 

 should be held as the principal object of his life when he is 



