ON THE CONTINUITY OF BEING. 397 



Everything, force and matter, testifies to an entire unity of 

 plan or thought, and the mind which is powerful enough to 

 rise above all the attractions and influences of the body, the 

 mind which, by its continuous labour, alone renders life and 

 man of any importance, the mind once detached from the ani- 

 mal nature which it drags behind it like a prisoner to the 

 chariot of his conqueror, shall it be inferior to inert matter ? 

 shall it be less than a ship without its compass ? Continuous 

 here, shall that continuity be elsewhere broken up ? Surely 

 this is impossible. 



But how are we to recognise this continuity of essence in a 

 spirit which, like man's, appears unavoidably fixed, like a para- 

 site, to the surface of a planet ? 



Here lies the whole difficulty of the question ; a question all 

 the more perplexing because, in the search after scientific 

 truth, the mind walks surely and steadily, except when resting 

 upon the senses, which are the backbone, so to speak, of the 

 experimental method. 



Answers, indeed, are not wanting, for each religion has its 

 own. Every creed attempts to solve the problem. But then, 

 faith is required to accept the answer or solution, and alas ! 

 faith is not implanted in every soul. It is useless, therefore, 

 to wish that it might be the gift of those who, to the authority 

 of tradition and long-established dogmas, prefer the liberty of 

 discussion and the axioms of science. Are our bigots actually 

 aware of what they do when they seek to compel into their 

 circle of belief those minds which tend to escape from it at a 



