160 THE CEEED OF . SCIENCE, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL. 



A strange and extravagant fancy that arose one day 

 in the breast of one more aspiring than the rest, became 

 soon afterwards a wish ; the wish became a fixed idea, 

 that drew round itself vain and spurious arguments in 

 its favour ; and at length the fancy, the wish, the idea, 

 was erected into an established doctrine of belief Such, 

 in sum, is the natural history of the famous dogma of a 

 future life. Not by any means, however, was it a primi- 

 tive and universal belief of all nations. Arising probably 

 at first with the Egyptians, it was only after a long time 

 taken up by the Jews, then, or possibly earlier, by the 

 Greeks, with whom, however, the life held out, thin and 

 unsubstantial even at best, was far from being desirable. 

 It was only in the Christian and Mohammedan religions 

 that the notion of a future and eternal life was fully 

 developed, and that the doctrine was erected into a 

 central and essential article of belief. 



But now, if man be derived by insensible stages of 

 development from the lower animals, then, unless they 

 also are immortal, the question is irresistibly forced upon 

 us, when and how man became immortal. When did he 

 first become separated so decisively from all lower forms 

 of life ? and when did he become differentiated from his 

 nearest of kin by so prodigious an attribute as im- 

 mortality ? Shall it be said that he was immortal from 

 the beginning of his career ? then so must also have 

 been the brutes, for at the beginning he was indistinguish- 

 able from them. On the other hand, if he only became 

 immortal later on, he must have either slowly acquired 

 the gift or else it was suddenly conferred upon him. In 

 either case, there must have been a particular moment or 

 day when he became immortal. And is it possible to 

 conceive that the species was mortal one day or moment, 

 and immortal the next ? And then the question how he 



