The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-07

THE DOCTRINE OF DUTY.
Somebody wrote the great scientist,
Darwin. and asked him whether hi. re-
searches and reflections had brought him
to believe in the Immortality of the soul
in the sense that it is held and taught by
the great orthodox churches Of Christen-
dom. Darwin replied that while be pe:-
sonally felt unable TO either affirm or deny
the doctrine of future life for man, in
which those who had loved and lost each
other would find each other again, never.
theless he firmly and profoundly held
that belief or unbelief on this point
relieved no man from . solemn obligation
TO do his duty morally and spiritually By
himself and his feilow-men. In other
words. Darwin believed that hereafter it
would be As God ordered it, and would be
right, whether God ordered il as Darwin
wished or not How God would order it
Darwin did not pretend TO know. but he
did not consider that this confession of ag-
Mysticism as to the hereafter released any
man from the stern personal obligation
resting upon every man to live reiigiously
and walk uprightly according to his high
est conscience and best spiritual inspira-
tion and aspiration.
This holy living that leads up to holy
dying Darwin thought 8 man owed to
himself and his fellow-men, owed to this
porld as his highest duty without refer
ence to his belief or disbelief in . con-
scious. personal future life in another
world. That Darwin, who was q devoted,
tender husband and father, and passion
ateiy fond Of his wife and children, longed
for another life where the broken circle of
his earthly loves would be reunited, there
is no doubt; nor is there any doubt that
in wider sense he would have said with
Byron:
Yet ii. as hottest men have deemed, there b
land OF souls beyond that sable shore,
To shame the doctrine o. the Sadducee
And sophfsts, madly vain of dubious lores
How sweet it were In concert 20 adore
With those who made our mortal labors light
To hear each voice We feared to hear no more!
Behold each mighty shade revealed to sight,
The Bactrian, saniau sage. and all who taught
the right
Why is not this reverent philosophy Of
Darwin nobler at least than the cheap
view that no veneration or reverence is
due the dead If they are but dust. We
may not deny the moral beneficence of
beautiful lives to the world whether We
are sure they live again or not. 1t is
cheap and contemplate thought to hold
that no reverence is due the dead if they
are but dust. If the dead have lived nobly
in the world; If they have conscientiously
made the most Of their power and oppor-
tunities to bless and beautify rather than
curse their brief day, why not veneration
and reverence for the dead whether we
think they are dust or believe they are
immortal?
Why should not a Senate honor the
memory of a man whose work was
well done in this world whether the Sem
ate was sure he would be an immortal in
another world or not A noble dog that
saved your child from drowning. or rescued
him from death in the snow drift. as does
the ST. Bernard in the Alps, is he not
worthy of veneration and reverence in lite
and grateful memory after death, even
though We believe the tender child be
rescued will not fondle him and
bear him company in the great be-
yondf The moral government, the
spiritual welfare of the world that we
grasp and know is immensely influenced
by noble examples of holy living and holy
dying whether we know or do not
true is immortal. Even if We
know that the good man and true
stood for humiliation and extinction,
why should We withhold from him venera-
ton and reverence2 Why should We not
recount his history. preserve hi. memory,
erect 10 him a monument And why, if
his last prayer is instinct with the spirit
of purity, truth and humanity, should il
not stand for a finer sane,ity than the
whisper of the winds or the murmur of
the waves, TO which the spectacle of
noble life, without absolute faith in its
immortality, ha. been hkened Men are
justly praised for what they do for this
world, without reference to what is the
speculative value of their services in the
next world.
Duty nobly and faithfully done in this
world, and for this world, makes this
world IN debt TO the doer, whether We be-
lieve thai death makes him blessed
doer in another world or not Such man
is prepared for whatever God has in store
for him. whether 1t be eternal energy and
activity or only eternal sleep, for even If
he but sleep he will sleep the sleep of the
just.
THE SHELLEY CENTENARY.