The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1893-03-24
THOUGHT OF THE TINE.

Is There o Monkey Language?-A
/ learned professor with a hobby writes sston
ishing things from Africa 10 his brother In
Australia. His hobby IL belief that mon,
keys have language of their own which Is
capable of translation with tolerable accuracy
into human speech, and be Is In Africa bent
upon verifying his theory by extended
study OF monkeys In their native wllds. Pro-
fessor Garner asserts that he has chlmpan.
zee which can say In the Maori dialect,
''Go0d day, stranger;" gorilla which has
mastered about 20 r jian words; and an ou.
rang outang which has learned from Ger
man attendant to CIRCULATE "Tonner and bllt-
zen" The professor declares that ne has
written down about 200 words Of the monkey
language. The phonetic representation OF q
few Of them are given. Thus. "achru"
means sun, fire, warmth. "Kukcha" Is water
rain, cold or anything disagreeable. "Ghosku'
signifies food or the act of eating. "You will
see from this" the professor continues, "that
1t IL very primitive language. There are
perhaps not more than 90 or so words In It
that have not already got 80 that nv task Is
now practically completed" Due allowance
must be made In receiving this Information
for the eXhuberance which usually character
izes an enthusiasts treatment of bis hobby.
Neverthe ess Il would seem that there must
be enough of truth In his statements to inter-
EST humanity.
Conceptions of Future Life.-There
are materialists who will not allow that VIC
have bodies and are souls. They tell us that
our bodies are not the machines we use, the
tents In which we live but are our tota-our-
selves. We begin with them and with them
we shall end. In dust. More than two tbous-
and years ago Pherecrates had demonstrated
to his own satisfaction that the soul Is noth-
ing whatever; that 1t Is a mere empty name;
that there Is neither mind nor soul either IN
M hoa af hat ~ forn hy uyhf a pf
or feel Is equally dfflsed through the whole
body, Is tnsepsrable from the body, and IS, in
fact nothing whatever but the body pure and
simple" We may safely set aside assertions
respecting the very nature of our existence
which have been all but unar imousy repudi-
ated by all races Of men. The separate eXls
tence of the roul has been as much the abso-
lutte convction of the supremest intellects as
Of the humblest and most ilterate peasants.
70 attribute the illmItabIe range and dIversi-
Ties of thought to nothing more than the In
inltesImsI molecular changes In the gray sub
stance of the brain Is the most miserable. at
,urd, unyerifabe, and impossible OF all
,uesses. As to the Iocallz ,tion of the soul.
A ristote places It In the heart; Empedoces.
n the perlcardum, others, like our modern
N ateriali-ts, identified 1t with the brain; to
others, again. IT was but the breath. Zeno
thought that It was a breathing fire. Aris- |
oxenus vague declared that 1t was harmony |
3emOcritis, that 1t resulted from fortuirons |
'oncourse Of atoms; Xeuocrstes. following |
oythagoras, defined It, not verv lumtnou-ly, !
u ga self-moving member" Plato analysed |
t into the reason, the passion and the desires
ristOtle thought 1t WAS q sort OF nth es- |
ence, to which he gave the name Eusetecby, |
a name which so puzzled HprmOlaus Bar |
,aras that be ia said to have evoked the De |
non to tell its true Significance! But Arls.
otle went to the root Of the matter when be
Iecsr d the soul to be fifth element. with |
10 Unity with any of the four material ele-
nents-a reason beyond and above any th'ns
Which exists In the animal, and which though
uhject to temporary Influences, Is divine, pre-
xistent, active, determining and immortal.
let. even when we are thoroughly convinced
hat the soul Is something apart from the
'ody. tho possibility of its immaterial eX's-
ence may appear to be tnconceivabie. This
ifficuIty applies for Christians to the period
etween death and the resurrection OF the
ody. But rs, when we say that we did so
nd so In childhood, we mean that beings
Id 1t with whom we are Identical. though
OF one atom of our bodies remains unchsnG-
d, so 1t may be at the resurrection. But,
,hile all Christians may concede this, they
till fail to conceive how the soul could live
Immediately after death. Now no one cat
retend to solve this problem but perhaps
ne following considerations may make it
eem ess d Hicut.
l. Since the days of Tertulllan no one has
elleved in the corporal Derry. If. then,
+od Is spirit why does the spirit OF man
aqure IN sterial embodiment?
g Why has this filculty been practically
sgarded as non existent, il It were thing
sturaIly iucOnceivable by us? The human
ice has instinctlvely assumed the immortali-
of the soul.
3 The difficulty has, however, led to the
,eory known as conditional immortality
nd to the doctrine OF metempsychoss. Blu,
the possibility of immaterial existence for
10 soul be deemed so inconceivable, the doc
inc of psychopannychi e.. the sleep Of
10 soul bet ween death snd the resurrection
not, suppose, a heresy. To me no by.
thesis conmends itself less.
4. II the church has looked askance on
is theory, there Is at leaet no difficulty
,out the theory of Rudolph Wagner, who
ges that the trsnsplanting of the soul into
lother portion Of the universe may be ef-
cteG as quickly and esslly as the transmits
On of light from the sun to the earth; and
like IN snner, the same soul may return at