91 
PART I. 
CHAPTER I. 
The First Chapter at once announces the Religious object of 
the writers. They are going to compare certain facts of his- 
torical, religious, and moral experience, with the most recent 
or accepted ascertainments of physical Science ; and especially 
to trace certain consequences of its all pervading “ Principle of 
Continuity,” too little observed (p. xvi.). 
The thesis of their first chapter is that “ the The Keneral 
great mass of mankind have always believed, in belief in im- 
some fashion, in the Immortality of the Soul.” 
This general but undefined belief (pp. 1, 2)is disturbed by an 
active, intelligent, and virtuous minority, said to be now on the 
increase. It is worth while inquiring, say our authors, why 
some scientific men, who swell this minority, seem prone at 
times (p. 2) to deny that immortality, which is so naturally 
received by mankind at large that we can hardly conceive of 
society going on at all without some such belief. Is there any- 
thing in Science, or in its admitted conclusions, which leads 
to a denial of human Immortality ? — Our authors think not 
(p. 2). 
5. The facts both religious and scientific, and the broad 
religious fact in the first place, must here be looked at. The 
expectation of a Future Life, whether popularly or philosophically 
expressed — (and this seems insufficiently distinguished), — is an 
unquestionable phenomenon of human experience. A brief his- 
torical resume will suffice to show this. Our authors, therefore, 
in very simple outline, put rapidly before us the old T he history 
Religions from the earliest times, all, of course, im- ° f re }) gi T tu i 
1* r tp i i 7 the birth of 
plying a iuture lire or unseen world of some kind. Christ. 
Those of the Egyptians, the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the 
Romans ; those also of the Hindoos in their many varieties, are 
glanced at ; those of the Persians, too, and others allied with 
them. 
According to some, it would seem that Future Existence 
is regarded as shadowy ; and, according to others, it is sub- 
stantial. A third class of opinion — (pp. 4, &c., to pp. 22, &c.) 
— stands in doubt as to man’s personal share in the assumed 
future. If, i.e., a future world there be, yet still some other un- 
seen beings may inhabit it, such as “ angels,” which are believed 
by almost all, though invisible to us, to exist as agents both of 
