Human Physiology. 



life of man is not dependent upon, but quite superior to, his 

 bodily organisation. Accordingly we have a vivid dream-life 

 in sleep, and in the deepest trance and most perfect insen- 

 sibility of the body, the mind sometimes exercises its highest 

 powers. There is also abundant evidence that the spirit of 

 man the intelligent life-force which uses matter, or the forces 

 which impress us as matter exists after the death and decay 

 of the body; exists with all its powers and faculties, and with 

 some striking advantages, particularly in clearness and scope 

 of vision, being all clairvoyant, and in a facility of locomotion 

 which amounts almost to the annihilation of space, or a modi- 

 fied ubiquity. Spirits in the body sometimes have power to 

 perceive the thoughts and feelings of others, and know the 

 distant, the past, and the future. All spirits out of the body 

 probably exercise these faculties habitually, and may have 

 others of which we have no conception. Our life in the future, 

 in its forms, actions, and senses, may differ as much from our 

 present life as the butterflies or dragonflies differ from the cater- 

 pillars or grubs which produce them. The outer worm a 

 greedy, sensual, ugly, creeping thing dies; and from this shell 

 emerges a lovely winged creature, gorgeous as a rainbow, with 

 thousands of eyes, and the most delicate appetites and senses. 



The immortality of the life of man, and its frequent freedom 

 from and final independence of the laws of material earthly 

 existence, has been in the interior consciousness of all man- 

 kind, in all ages of the world. The only way of accounting for 

 this, is that it is true, and a conscious truth a fact implanted 

 in the mind of man. It is also supported by abundant evidence, 

 for in all ages of the world, in rare but still sufficiently frequent 

 instances, those who had departed from the earthly existence 

 have been able to give to their friends the assurance that they 

 still lived, and that, therefore, we are not deceived by our pre- 

 science of a future existence, nor mocked with our 

 "Longing after immortality." 



