Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-09-24
Dome Department.
HISTORY OF RASSELAS,
PRINCE OF ABYsSINlA.
CHAPTER XLNIII.


be given why the Egyptians should thus
preserve those carcasses
which some nations consume with fire, |
Others lay to mingle with the earth, and |
all agree to remove from their sight as
soon as decent rites can be performed"
"lhe original ancient CUSTOM" said |
Imac, sis commonly unknown; for the
practice often continues when the cause
has ceased; and concerning supersttious
ceremonies it is vain to conjecture; for
what reason did not dictate, reason can
not explain. | have long believed that
the practice of embalming arose only
from tenderness to the remains of rela-
tons or friends, and to this opinion am
more inclined because it seems impossible
that this care should have been general
had all the dead been embalmed, their re-
positories must in time have been more
spacious than the dwellings of the living.
suppose only the rich or honorable
were secured from corruption, and the
rest left to the course of nature.
''But it is commonly supposed that the
Egyptians believed the soul to live As
long as the body continued undissolved,
and therefore tried this method of elud-
ing DEATH
could the wise Egyptians" said Mex
ayah, "think so grossly of the soul: If
the soul could once survive its separation.
what could it afterwards receive or suffer
from the body?"
''Ihe Egyptians would doubtless think
enormously" said the astronomer, lin
the darkness of heathcnism and the first
dawn of philosophy. The nature of the
soul is still disputed amidst all our OPP
portunities of clearer knowledge; some
yet say that it may be material who new
ertheless believe it to be immortal"
"Some," answered Imlac. "have indeed
said that the soul is material, but | can
scarcely believe that any man has
thought it, who knew how to think: for
all the conclusions of reason enforce the
immateriality of mind. and all the notices
of sense and investigations of science con-
cur to prove the uncOnsciousness of
matter.
at was never supposed that cogita-
ton is inherent in matter. or that every
particle is a thinking being. Yet, if any
part of matter be devoid of thought,
what part can we suppose to think: Mat
ter can differ from matter only in form,
density. bulk. motion and direction of
motion: to which of these. however va
ried or combined. can consciousness be
annexed: TO be round or square, to be
solid or fluid, to be great or little. to be
moved slowly or swiftly one way or an
other, are modes of material existence.
all equally alien from the nature of cogi-
tation. If matter be once without
thought. it can only be made to think by
some new modification, but all the modi-
ticatonS which it can admit are equally
unconnected with cogitative powers"
But the materialists," said the astron-
omer, urge that matter may have quail
ties with which we are unacquainted.
"IIe who will determine, returned I'm,
lac, against that which he knows, be.
cause there may be something which he
knows not; he that can set Hypothetical
possibility against acknowledged certain
ty, is not to be admitted among reason
able beings. All that we know of mat
ter is, that matter is inert, senseless, ant
lifeless; and if this conviction cannot b,
opposed but by referring us to something
that we know not, we have all the evi
dence that human intellect can admit. |
that which is known may be overruleC
by that which is unknown, no being, no
omniscient, can ARRIVE at certainty"
yet let us not" said the astronomer
''too arrogantly limit the Creator
power"
sit is no limitation of omnipOtence,
replied the poet, "to suppose that ont
thing is not consistent with another, tina
the same proposition cannot be at Onc
true and false, that the same humble
cannot be even and odd, that cogitatiol
cannot be conferred on that which i
created incapable of cogitation."
81 know not" said Nekayah, ian,
great use of this question. Does tina
immateriality, which, in my opinion, yol
have sufficiently proved, necessarily in
clude eternal duration?'
"Of immaterialty," said Imlac, sou
ideas are negative, and therefore obscure
lmmaterialty seems to imply IA natura
power of perpetual duration as Il conse
quence of exemption from all causes o
decay; whatever perishes is destroye,
by the solution of its conjecture, an,
separation of its parts; nor can we con
ceive how that which has no parts, an,
therefore admits no solution, can be nat
urally corrupted or impaired"
~ know not" said Rasselas, show t
conceive anything without extension
what is extended must have parts, an