150 OF VITAL MOTION. 



Nain, and others ; for if in these cases there had been 

 a separate state of existence of the intelligent prin- 

 ciple, and this a higher one, we may argue that some 

 of the secrets of this state would have transpired, or 

 human nature must have been less curious in those 

 days than in our own. And as tradition preserves a 

 total silence on these matters, there is some reason to 

 believe that death in these persons was a state of 

 sleep not confined to the body. On the other hand 

 we arrive by another mode at the same conclusion, 

 from the history of the two mortals who have evidenced 

 their active existence by appearing at the Transfigura- 

 tion ; for we find that, in the one, death was replaced 

 by translation, and, in the other, that death, though 

 it took place, was not ordinary death ; indeed, in the 

 manner of his end, Moses must be said to be almost 

 as much exempted from the common lot of mortals as 

 Elijah. 



And if the mind participates in the sleep of the 

 body, this must be an argument that the two are not 

 disjoined from their present companionship by death. 

 We would not contend, indeed, that this is a sleep 

 which is always or ever devoid of consciousness ; for 

 there is the most incontrovertible evidence that this is 

 not the case, as, for example, in the parable of the 

 rich man and Lazarus. We do contend, however, 

 that as yet we have not met with sufficient reason to 

 suppose that this consciousness is exercised in a region 



