Blue-grass blade. [volume] (Lexington, Ky.) 188?-19??, 1886-02-06

is contemplate Il remotely; that doe,
not seem to be rraIizpd by the mos
ot men when the even; is evidently
ut hand. All men are cnlitle | &c
their convictions upon this subject
and it isl b,d Dolic> to discourage
tree exchange oi sentiment about it
The most that any mn c,n say
about it now, with the light now
before Us is, that he honestly be-
lieves certnin things about it, and
noboly hut dogmatis, will claim
10 know about il II it bc true
that the human mind is indesiructi,
Lle. aud can survive the dissolution
of the body, and that in some kind
of an existence more similar than
anything else that we know of, to
that which we experience in our
dream-. we mav meet "bcyopd the
river" and "know each other there, "
it certainly is a thought as we'll
worthy of the animadversions OF
secular journalism as the dreams OF
poets and artists, about which all
delight to express their appreciation.
Evidently there is something
hidden and suppressed about this,
and from some cause the press has
been intimidated and "muzzled. "
Such state of aff,irs is not whole
some, and adherents to the theory
OF Immortality damage their argu-
ments whenever they discourage
free7discussion of the subject.
IF the idea be not true, no wise
man will say we are justified in
dcluding ourselves about it, and if
it be true, quasi argument against it
will Just as much establish its truth
as that directly for it. This was
the reasoning of Gamaliel, and an
astute teacher of mathematics would
congratulate himself upon the op-
portunity to instruct his class. if
some bright boy should really be-
lieve. and undertake to prove, that
the three angles of a triangle were
NOT equivalent to two right angles.
If this be not true, and the in
vestigation can be conceived as
demonstrating the philosophy of
the French revolutiOnists that
ode th is an internal Sleep" l must
confess that / see nothing horrible
in the idea. If man does not now
iegret that he did not live a thou
sand years ago. l can not see why
he should fear lhatihe might not lie
living a thousand years in the
future from now; since there Is no
reason to suppose that the annihila.
tirn of he future would be any more
uncomfortable to him than that
which he has already experienced
in the past.
If to this it he answered that a
future aDnihiIation involves a sepa:
ration from friends and a snndering
ot cherished ties that were not in:
volved in the past annihilation, it is
rejoined that juat such a sundering
of all these relations occurs every
time man falls into profound
sleep, for then certainly there is no
appreciation of difference between
friend and foe; and yet sleep is
condition of existence which men
court, and prize jlst in promotion
as in its deepness and intensity it
approaches death.
IL seems philosophical that in
neither of those views of death is
there anything to warrant its dread.
But there is a third alleged condi-
ton of existence after death, and
that is the one of everlasting mise:
nv. known as hell. Oh those who
accept the theory of the immortal:
ty, the large maiorit! profess to
believe, and are re isonably suppos-
ed actually to believe, that the
future existence IN state of hap
piness or in one of misery, is con
tingent upon certain things in lite
over which some aliege that all men
have control, while others allege
that they have no coutrol; ur bat
partial control. Now either these
things are true, or they are not true,
ahd are propositions of more mo:
momentous import, by a Thousand
fold, than the discussions of politics
aud finance that fill the columns af
our papers, and it is not the part Of
wise men to wait the advent OF some
Sam Jones sensationilis to tell us
about them. j do not know about
them, snd desire ell possible light
concerning them, and think that
l but utter sentiment that is
common among man, and yet
rarely express sad because of some
unfortunate embargo that has been
laid upon frse speech i'll that line.
To suppose that any man wants to
deceive himself, or bs deceived by
others upon these points, is to sup
pp,a him the yar,estioDl in the world