452 A Century of Science 



immortality, and there were symptoms of a tend- 

 ency to give it a Pickwickian construction. Since 

 that day, their little community has vanished, and 

 its glorious landscape knows it no more. 



It is a pity that before the end it should not 

 have had a visit from Mr. Hyland C. Kirk, whose 

 book on " The Possibility of Not Dying " was pub- 

 lished in New York in 1883. In this book the 

 philosophic plausibleness of the opinion that a time 

 will come when we shall no longer need to shuffle 

 off this mortal coil is argued at some length, but 

 the question as to how this is to happen is ignored. 

 Mr. Isaac Jennings, in his " Tree of Life " (1867), 

 thinks it can be accomplished by total abstinence 

 from "alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, animal food, 

 spices, and caraway." This is sufficiently specific ; 

 but Mr. Kirk's treatment of the question is so hazy 

 as to suggest the suspicion that he has nothing to 

 offer us. 



I once knew such a case of a delusion without 

 any theory, or, if you please, the grin without the 

 Cheshire cat. In the course of a lecturing jour- 

 ney, some thirty years ago, I was approached by a 

 refined and cultivated gentleman, who imparted to 

 me in strict confidence and with much modesty of 

 manner the fact that he had arrived at a complete 

 refutation of the undulatory theory of light ! To 



