840 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" Oh, not here, not here," he said quickly. " Beyond the tomb. 

 I may fail here, but I shall take it up again when I am dead. I 

 am persuaded that it will be easy to carry out there this idea 

 which has occupied me so seriously here. Do you suppose we are 

 going to be idle there ? Not at all. We are going to do what 

 we loved to do here, and do it perfectly, as we have longed and 

 dreamed to do it." 



" Do you really believe that ? " 



" Believe it ? Of course I believe it ! Does one put into a book 

 what he does not believe ? I have put all that into Les Bonheurs 

 d' Outre- Tombe. Does a man at my age talk of what he does not 

 believe ? At seventy- five one tells the truth. 



" Why should I not believe it ? Nature indicates a future life 

 by all her transformations, common sense preaches it, common 

 justice demands it, and if we live again we shall work. Do you 

 suppose the good God is going to leave us with our aspirations 

 unsatisfied ? No. Victor Hugo is writing better romances than 

 he ever wrote here, and De Musset better poetry." Then, glanc- 

 ing at the water colors on the walls, " My wife is going on with 

 her pictures, and there I shall succeed with my theater. Why," 

 he cried, with a passionate conviction which was almost awe- 

 inspiring, " that belief is the consolation of my life!" 



He based his theories of the future life on no religion. It 

 is modern philosophy based on science and reason, which in his 

 judgment promises a future life. But this promise is only to the 

 upright, who in this world practice righteousness and cultivate 

 their minds. They after death take on the attributes of superior 

 beings that is, become what M. Figuier calls " etres surhumains," 

 or, in ecclesiastical parlance, angels. 



On escaping from the body the new being becomes an inhabit- 

 ant of the interplanetary spaces. Here all his faculties are quick- 

 ened to an extraordinary degree, the secrets of Nature are clear 

 to him, social problems are solved, all those whom he has loved 

 on earth and who have died join him. The natural gifts which 

 he has had no opportunity to cultivate on earth have full play 

 there. Unfinished work is completed. He is in relation with the 

 great and wise of all the ages. If he continues in this new sphere 

 to do good and to cultivate his intellect that is, if he works to 

 raise his soul to perfection he will be advanced to a superior 

 realm of the sky, where the beings are of a still higher intellec- 

 tual capacity and possess more numerous faculties. 



As he loses more and more of the material element, he ascends 

 higher in the scale of the elect. After passing two series of these 

 celestial progressions and promotions, of which it is impossible to 

 know either the number or the length, the soul arrives at a state 

 of pure essence, and penetrates into the center of our solar sys- 



