24 EEV. A. E. WHATELY, D.D., ON IMMORTALITY. 



advises us to reflect upon the way in which a soul and a body 

 together form a distinct person acting in unison. Now it has often 

 struck me that, however young and inexperienced a person may be, 

 or however dim may be his eyesight, he can always bring his thumb 

 and forefinger straight to his mouth, or touch with his forefinger 

 any particular part of his body that he chooses to think of. This 

 he always has done without measurement or calculation, and with 

 equal precision, doing it instantaneously. Definite thinking of the 

 part to be touched certainly causes, by nervous telegraphy, a sensa- 

 tion in that part, and the sensation is instantly transmitted to the 

 brain, whence again, as rapidly, the directive power goes forth to 

 the hand and the finger-tip, making this touch the part. Yet this 

 is not mechanism, unique as such mechanism would in any case be, 

 for the movement to touch may be restrained by the will. There- 

 fore the complete and unerring co-operation just described can arise 

 only from an absolute unity of a non-material co-operating system — 

 the soul. 



A strong argument for the immortality of the soul is that which 

 I first learnt from the late Joseph Cook of Boston, a famous Christian 

 Evidence lecturer in the States. The Creator, said he, has implanted 

 no instinct for which he has not provided a satisfaction. Now the 

 Creator has given to every man an instinctive longing for im- 

 mortality — for a happy and endless after-life ; so we conclude that 

 He has graciously provided for men this supreme satisfaction, or 

 has planned and told them of a way by which they may obtain it. 

 It was this consideration, said the same lecturer, that led Professor 

 Komanes of Oxford to abandon scepticism and become a Christian, 

 as he himself stated in the preface to his latest book. 



Mr. Arthur W. Sutton said : The subject chosen by the reader 

 of the paper, "Immortality," is one that appeals to us all and 

 concerns us all very deeply, and I should like to join with others in 

 thanking Dr. AVhately for the able manner in which he has dealt 

 with it. 



I must confess, however, to some degree of difficulty in following 

 the closely reasoned arguments of the paper, and should like to ask 

 Dr. Whately to explain to whom he refers when using the word 

 " we " on page 10, lines 4 and 5. In the preceding sentence 

 Dr. Whately speaks of " us " as those whose belief in Immortality is 

 " central and assured," and " must, like our belief in God, rest upon 



