The knowledge that life leaves unused certain faculties which might fill us with gratification or sorrow, or at any rate with increased experience and wisdom, haunts us. On the other hand are those who are discontented with their lot and the injustice surrounding them. The answer is, there is in Reincarnation, and in this only. Now, there are three hypotheses by which men have sought to surmount these difficulties. The first is that all of them are removed by mere death, by the simple fact of dying, or passing away from the world.
Mere death is to be accepted as the end of all only upon the materialistic basis.
If man is immortal, simple death is no solution. From this basis, we have to imagine a wonderful change after death. There is nothing in our whole experience to warrant such a conclusion, from the Christian or Spiritualistic standpoint. Furthermore, if it were true that mere dying and being translated to some other place or state will answer all these questions, then all souls would have to be alike. It really has sometimes seemed to me that the idea of going to heaven where I should sing songs that I did not like, and see a number of people who did not like me when I was alive, and who could not sing a note properly under any circumstances, would not be at all desirable.