384 IMMORTALITY. 



have been given which will reconcile them with the 

 other constituents of the mind Now the facts 

 alleged are of a very startling character and run 

 sharply counter to many old-established prejudices 

 of most men, who are simply upset by them, shocked 

 and perplexed, but quite unable to believe '' facts " 

 which do not seem to fit into any reasonable scheme 

 of things. Hence the assertion of facts does not dis- 

 pense with the necessity of giving reasons. 



And secondly, the facts are not in themselves 

 adequate : they prove a future life, indeed, but not 

 immortality.* 



§ 4. It would be impossible, therefore, to avoid 

 making the question of immortality one of reasoning, 

 even if the reasoning should be as insufficient as 

 that of the ordinary arguments on either side. And 

 certainly we shall soon discover that most of these 

 arguments are worthy of their origins in the pre- 

 judices of men, i.e.^ inconclusive and of little value. 

 We must not expect then to find that the argu- 

 ments in favour of a future life, whether based on 

 authority or on reason, are either conclusive or 

 secure. 



To take, first, the most popular of these argu- 

 ments, that which claims to base itself on the 

 Christian religion. We shall find that though the 



1 Hence it has been suggested by several authors that ghosts 

 are a sort of semi-material " shells," containing a few relics of the 

 intelligence of the living, which gradually decay and fade away. 

 And there is something in their recorded conduct v/hich justifies 

 such theories. But of course we have no business as yet to dog- 

 matize in any way upon the subject, and the futility of ghosts, 

 which is certainly sometimes very marked, is explicable in many 

 ways, e.g.^ if we suppose that their appearance in our world in- 

 volves what to them also are abnormal conditions, or that they 

 are *' dead men's dreams," />., effects on our minds produced in 

 states analogous to dreaming in our world. 



