The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-22
The Other View.

| ~ Y chance which, in view of what
u is here recited, might be deemed
strange, one of the last MESA es
given to the public by Colonel Ineer-
SOIL was a carefuly-written summary
OF the Nineteenth century, in which this
paragraph appears: Darwin, Huxley
ana their fellow workers filed the night
Oh ignorance with the gittering stars
OF truth. This is Darwin's century.
lie gained the greatest victory, the
srandest triumph. The laurel of the
| Nineteenth century is on his brow.
NOW, 1t also happens that that splen-
dld American scholar, DR.. John Fiske,
Is known as the man who has done
more than any other person to bring
the views of Darwin, Spencer and
others within the knowledge and
approval of the English speaking
world. A disciple of Darwin. DIR,
Fiske is as we'll, an original
| investigator of highest rank: Mr..
Darwin said of him, II never in
my life have read so lucid an EXPOSE
tor Again, it happens that in one
| OF his most admired essays, DR.. Fiske
| writes about immortality, in reflection
| of the Darwinian view. Ingersoll
| crowns Darwin. but the Darwinian
scholar does not compliment Ingersoll
The paragraphs in the Fiske essay are
so excellent and so timely that, quoting
| them herewith, the Standard invites
| attention to them:
Upon the question whether humanity is
after all, to cast in it's lot with the grass
that withers and the beasts that perish
the whole foregoing argument has a bear
! ing that is by no means remote or far
fetched. 1t is not likely that we shall
ever succeed in making the immortality
of the soul a matter of scientific demon
| stration, for we lack the requisite data
1t must ever remain an affair of religion.
| rather than of science. In other words,
| it must remain one of that class of oues-
| tons upon which l may not expect to con-
| vince my neighbor, while at the same time
may entertain a reasonable conviction
of my own upon the subject
The materialstic assumption that the
! life of the soul ends with the life of the
body, is perhaps the most colossal in
stance of baseless assumption that is
known to the history of philosophy. 30
evidence for it can be alleged beyond the
familiar fact that during the present life
we know soul only in its association with
BODY, and therefore cannot discover dis
embodied soul without dying ourselves.
This fact must always prevent us from
obtaining direct evidence for the belief in
the souls survival. But a negative pre-
sumption is not created by the absence of
proof where, in the nature OF things, proof
is inaccessible.
But when We desist from the futile at
tempt to introduce scientific demonstra-
ton into region which confessedly
transcends human experience, and when
we consider the questions upon broad
grounds of moral probability, | ave no
doubt that men will continue in the fll-
ture, as in the past, to cherish the faith
in life beyond the grave. In past times
the disbelief in the souls immortality has
always accompanied that kind of philoso-
ply which. under whatever name has
regarded humanity merely a local in
cident in an endless and aimless series of
cosmical changes. As a general rule peo-
pie who have come to take such a view e
the position of man in the universe have
ceased to believe in future life On the
other hand, he who regards man as the
consummate fruition of creative energy,
and the chief object of divine care, is al
most irresistibly driven to the belief lat
the souls career is not completed with
the present life upon earth.
From the first dawnng of life we see all
things working together toward one
mighty goal, the evolution of the most ex-
allied spiritual qualities which character
ize humanity. The body is cast aside and
returns TO the dust from which it was
made. The earth, so marvelously wrought
to mans uses, will also be cast aside The
day is TO come, no doubt, when the heav-
ems shall vanish a scroll and the ele-
ments be melted with fervent heat. So
small is the value which nature sets upon
the perishable forms of matter. The
question then. is reduced TO this: Are
mans highest spiritual qualities. into .Ae
production of which all this creative en-
ergy has gone, to disappear with the rest?
Has all this work been done for nothing?
Is 1t all ephemeral all a bubble that
bursts, vision that fades? Are we to re- !
gard the Creators work as like that of a |
child. who builds houses out of blocks, just |
for the pleasure of knocking them down? |
For aught that science can tell us it may |
be So but | can see no good reason Tor |
believing any such thing. On such a view !
the riddle of the universe becomes a riddle |
without meaning.
For my own part. therefore, ] believe in |
the immortality of the soul not in the |
sense in which l accept the demonstra BILE |
truths of science. but as a supreme act |
of faith in the reasOnaDIeness of Gods |
work. Such a belief, relating to regions
quite inaccessible to experience cannot, of |
course be clothed in terms of definite and |
tangible meaning. For the experience |
which alone can give us such terms we
must await that solemn day which is to |
oVertake us all.
The future is lighted for us with the
radiant colors of hope. Strife and sorrow
shall disappear. Peace and love shall |