THERE is a popular tradition that somewhere in the 

 Scriptures we are taught that of all living denizens of 

 the earth, man alone possesses a spirit, and that he alone 

 survives in spirit after the death of the material body. Were 

 this the truth, no room would exist for argument to those 

 who profess belief in a literal rendering of the Scriptures, 

 and who base their faith upon that literal belief. How- 

 ever much such a statement might seem to controvert all 

 ideas of benevolence, justice and common-sense, such believ- 

 ers would feel bound to accept it on trust, and to wait a future 

 time for its full comprehension. 



Even the possession of reason is denied by many persons 

 to animals, their several actions being ascribed to the power 

 of instinct, and it is therefore not the least bit strange that 

 all but a comparatively few should believe that when an 

 animal dies, its life-principle dies too. The animating 

 power, they claim, is annihilated, while the body is resolved 

 into- its constituent elements so as to take form in other 

 bodies. 



Two passages of Scripture, one in the Psalms and the 

 other in Ecclesiastes, are almost entirely, if not wholly, 

 responsible for this belief. The former, which runs in the 

 authorized version, " Nevertheless, man being in honor, 

 abideth not ; he is like the beasts that perish," is that which 

 is generally quoted as decisive of the whole question. 

 " Man, being in honor, hath no understanding, but is com- 

 pared to the beasts that perish " is another translation, but 

 differs not materially from the other. The second passage 



