ix THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 203 



admits of condensation, so that I must let Hume 

 speak for himself: 



" By the mere light of reason it seems difficult to prove 

 the immortality of the soul : the arguments for it are com- 

 monly derived either from metaphysical topics, or moral, 

 or physical. But. in reality it is the gospel, and the gospel 

 alone, that has brought life and immortality to light.* 



" 1. Metaphysical topics suppose that the soul is im- 

 material, and that 'tis impossible for thought to belong to a 

 material substance.f But just metaphysics teach us that 

 the notion of substance is wholly confused and imperfect ; 

 and that we have no other idea of any substance, than as an 

 aggregate of particular qualities inhering in an unknown 

 something. Matter, therefore, and spirit, are at bottom 

 equally unknown, and we cannot determine what qualities 

 inhere in the one or in the other. \ They likewise teach 

 us that nothing can be decided d priori concerning any 

 cause or effect ; and that experience, being the only source 

 of our judgments of this nature, we cannot know from any 

 other principle, whether matter, by its structure or arrange- 



* " Now that ' Jesus Christ brought life and immortality 

 to light through the Gospel,' and that in the most literal 

 sense, which implies that the revelation of the doctrine is 

 peculiar to His Gospel, seems to be at least the most ob- 

 vious meaning of the Scriptures of the New Testament." 

 Whately, I c., p. 27. 



t Compare Of the Immateriality of the Soul, Section V. 

 of Part IV., Book L, of the Treatise, in which Hume con- 

 cludes (I. p. 319) that, whether it be material or imma- 

 terial, " in both cases the metaphysical arguments for the 

 immortality of the soul are equally inconclusive : and in 

 both cases the moral arguments and those derived from the 

 analogy of nature are equally strong and convincing." 



\ " The question again respecting the materiality of the 

 soul is one which I am at a loss to understand clearly, till 

 it shall have been clearly determined what matter is. We 

 know nothing of it, any more than of mind, except its attri- 

 butes." Whately, I. c. p. 66. 



