The Message of Science. 53 



life, perfect enough not to die, but live on continuously, 

 is a question and merely a question of excellent food, 

 protection from injury and germinal renewal, and not that 

 death is a final " law of nature," as a false eschatology 

 has hitherto taught mankind. 



If the science of biology teaches anything, it teaches 

 this truth of the possible deathlessness of cell life on the 

 earth ; and this truth is to the last degree important and 

 revolutionary. The doctrine that death is a final " law 

 of nature " has been made the cornerstone of that other 

 cardinal doctrine, namely, the " disembodied spirit " mj'th. 

 With the refutation of the doctrine that death is a " law of 

 nature " will fall this latter doctrine of disembodied souls. 

 For it will no longer have a raison cCitre. In its place will 

 come that grander gospel that life is the " law of nature," 

 not death, and the demonstration, long overshadowed by 

 errors of theology, that the " kingdom of God " is a 

 natural development of life on the earth. 



Two millions of centuries have struggled forward in 

 pain and travail to make the human brain capable of the 

 human intellect. It is a priceless heritage, the great an- 

 cestral estate of humanity. It is not destined forever, 

 nor much longer, to be lost in death; we shall carry it 

 through to a greater destiny. The true scope and intent 

 of life is now just dawning in the minds of men. We are 

 waking, — after idle dreams, — waking to what we can do 

 and be, waking to the great possibilities of science, wak- 



