The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-03-09
LIFE AND DEATH.
DIR. A. Keightley on the TheO.
sCphical Concepts.
There Is No Such Thing as Death-Life Is
Universal, Though Subtitle Fluid.
Science Arraignei

Red Mems Hall on Post street was
crowded to standing room only last night
by the influx of theosophists, scientists and
the general public to hear the eminent the
osophist, DIR. Archibald Keightley, on Life
and Death"
DR.. keightley is a globe-trotter, and like
his nephew, Beltfam Keightley, who was in
this city several months since, takes adyan-
tage Of the opportunity to visit the sub
ordinate lodges of the society in the coun-
tries through which his itinerary takes him.
In last nights lecture the doctor said ::
ave are all familiar with the phenomenon
life ami death, and not a few of us term the
one the antithesis Of the other. But very
little consideration will show that is not the
truth. They. lie and death, are like the
manifestations of electricity at the two
roles, different in each case from the other,
yet the same fluid.
DAY is succeeded in point of time by
night and night by day, but we know this
Is only due TO the position OF the earth rela-
lively TO the sun. We are forced 10 believe
that life aud death are but alternate phe-
nomeDa II point of time of continuous eX-
iStence and that there is really no such
thing as DEATH
DIFFERS WITH SCIENCE.
DR.. Keightley then referred to the ac-
copied hyl othesis of science that lite is the
result of the interactun of cells and organs.
ana arraigned 1t by saying: "If life is due
to such interacti0n II is difficult TO know
why nature undergOeS the change called
death, for the cells and organs are still
there In the dead body. bat the phenomenon
called life has disappeared. No, the cause
lies in that vital force which is not to be
weighed, tested in the tubes or melted in the
crucibles. though it be manifest IN cruder
matter and physical objects.
PHYSICAL FORCE.
Life force is of a more delicate order
than electricity. The latter belongs to the
physical forces and can be discovered the
former IS more subtitle aud has not yet been
discovered. Life is a collective conception.
an intelligent acting force. Science, early
in the century. discovered the cellular con-
StructlOn OF the organs and cellular biology
became the study Of scholars. They dis
covered the physical makeup OF the cells,
their walls, muscles, but more than
that they discovered the only substance
OF the cells to be protoplasm and that the
property Of protopasm is irritaDillty OF
motion. thus the matter rests with physics,
and ii remains Tor metaphysics to step be-
yond and explain the source of that irTita-
bility. Physics has never succeeded in
manufacturing pTotnplasm or endowing a
cell in dead body with the life ii once con-
tanned. The discovery Of germs has helped
the hysicists little and placed the physi-
cal ana the nOtdpIESlcal Ill ClOSeI IelaLiOu-
ship
OCEAN OF LIFE.
Eve suppose by analogy that there is a
subtitle hnid penetrating everywhere. Science
has termed that fluid ether-we call it life
force. Everything is bathed in this life
force, like sponge riding the ocean wave
penetrated through ana through with water.
1t is the ocean Of one-life-lhe universal
Jiva, as it is called in India. La short, lie
is universal and exists as truly in the rocks
as IN the plants and men. though in less
degree. Ali the alternates in nature are
really manifestations Of the same thing, and
day and night sleeping and waking. life
and death exists only in our misnnderstand-
ing of eternity. To the spiritual soul there
is no death, as that soul abdes in eternity
and not in time"
After the lecture a half-hour was con-
sumed in answering questions put him by
the congregation, to all of which DIR. Keightly
gave a ready answer