472 Life and Immortality. 
work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave 
whither thou goest.” Literally interpreted, no one can 
doubt the import of these words from Ecclesiastes, for they 
definitely state that, as regards a future life, there is no 
distinction between man and beast, and that when they die 
they all go to the same place. It is also distinctly stated 
that after death man can do no work, know nothing, nor 
receive any reward. Were we to deduce our ideas of the 
condition of man after death from the irrepressibly sad and 
gloomy passages from Job and Ecclesiastes, most deplorable 
and hopeless would be the very thought of dissolution. But 
we do not accept them in this light. They are written sym- 
bolically, and there underlies them a spiritual sense. It is 
not, however, the latter sense that concerns us at present, 
but the literal meaning of the translation, and, according to 
that literal meaning, if we take two texts to prove that beasts 
have no future life, we are compelled by no less than four- 
teen passages to believe that man, in common with beasts, 
has no better prospect. We have no right to say which 
passages are to be taken literally, and which parabolically, 
but must apply the same test to all alike, and treat all ina 
similar manner. 
All classical readers are familiar with that wonderful 
eleventh book of Homer’s Odyssey, called the Necyomanteia, 
or Invocation of the Dead, in which Ulysses is depicted as 
descending into the regions of departed spirits for the pur- 
pose of invoking them and obtaining advice as to his future 
adventures. Dreary, and horrible indeed, are the revelations 
which the whole of the strange history makes of the condi- 
tion of the future life. All is wild and dark, and hunger, 
thirst and discontent prevail. Nothing is heard of elysian 
fields, where piety, wisdom and virtue abound. Gloom, 
misery and vain regrets for earth pervade the entire episode. 
When is considered this heathen poet’s ideas concerning the 
future state of man, it is no wonder that sensual pleasures 
should be held as the principal object of his life when he is 
