The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-09-24
Is It Proved?
MARKHAM, the PVet,
on Immortality.
on TmmcrtaIitV.

the Hoe will be interested In his ideas
on Immortality briefly set down. His ar
gument is unique. He writes TO the New
York Journal:
What follows death-life or annihila-
tion? This is a question: difficult and
anxious question-which we never
weary of.
have seen much of late upon this
theme, but there has been little or no
discussion of the evidences of a future
life I have concluded TO say brief
word upon these evidences.
To begin with. it is certain that what
ever Immortality there is man rests on
a ground too deep for the customary in
vestigations Of science. Still there come
to US many hints and indications of an
undiscovered country-much drift and
noatage from an unknown shore.
In the beginning, it will be well to
brush aside two or three common, but
incompetent arguments-the one based
upon our instructive longing for immor-
tally, and the one based upon the wide
diffusion of the belief We long for
many things that we can never possess !;
and we have found that faith in a fu-
ture life is not present among all races.
The analogies Of nature, also are i'm
perfect, seeing that We have only con-
lecture and the word Of St Paul to as
sure US that the soul possesses a body
In the world beyond the grave. Never
theless these anaIogies have comforted
many q. mourning heart in the hours
when Death stood at the door with his
hand upon the latch
1t is easy for US to see significant Sc
quels in the snake that casts off its old
skin to glide forth upon a new life
round-in the beetle that struggles from
its foul tomb at the first touches of the
summer glory-in the tabled phoenix
that arises from the aromatic fire Of its
burning nest, renewed in its youth for a
thousand years-in the silk worm that
weaves its cocoon and lies down on its
narrow grave, to rise at last wondrous
moth, with iridescent wings-in the ever
recurring spectacle Of the earth-spirit,
casting off the chains Of winter, to
break forth in resurrection, robed in the
vivid beauty of the spring-in the ever
crowding fancies of the heart that can
believe no star goes down but it climbs
another sky
These analogies have a certain weight.
but there is another analogy much more
weighty than any of these. I refer to
the one based upon the fact that moth
ing in the natural world is ever de-
stroyed. All things are in perpetual
change. but their essences do not cease to
be Nothing can be annihilated. This is
world Of persistent energies-no atom is
destroyed, no force extingulshed. The
stick OF wood disappears in the fire to
reappear in other forms-in ashes and
gases. No particle of the wood is lost
or destroyed. Pass a piece of coal
through all the laboratories on the earth
or in the waters under the earth and
7till it viii remain unchanged in es-
sence to the end of ages
Now. it may well be asked whether
We have any right to suppose that the
mind IS a solitary exception to this law.
Why should we say that the essence in
man perishes in the face and eyes Of
the fact that the essence in a lump Of
coal endures? IF the coal essence per
sists, it is hard to see how the soul can
be broken down. Where IS the wild hand
that will hurl 1t out into night and
nothingness?
Furthermore, It is hard to think that
Z great soul like Socrates should not
survive the power Of the grave. He con-
tronted the world and demanded its ulti-
mate secret. Was he not greater than
the world powers which he searched. and
questioned?
Perhaps all such appeals TO our hopes
and instincts are not scientific. If so,
they still have their uses: they at least
furnish an a priori reason for examining
the belief
And now I come to the chief point in
the controversy over the problem. It is
the question as to the origin Of the mind
AS to whether consciousness rises out
Of certain changes in the substance of
the brain. If the brain is the source of
thought then thought will end when the
brain perishes; and immortality is
dream.
About the middle of the present CEN
fury 1t was discovered that to every
thought or feeling there corresponds
some change or movement in the brain
tissue. Forthwith certain scientists an
nounced that in the fine substance Of the
brain they had tracked life to her last
retreat her ultimate stronghold. We
were told that the body was absolutely
necessary TO the manifestation of life.
So the materialist contends (and this
is his chief contention) that the mind
cannot work without the body as an or
Ean-that there can he no thought with
out brain. This IS doubtless true on
this plane of existence, but Il does not
follow that life could not go forward
elsewhere under other conditions. Nor
does it preclude that mysterious spirit
ual holy spoken Of by St. Paul.
Because a chick can exist az GER
tain stage only in fits narrow environ
ment in the shell. it does not follow tina.
later on 1t VIII net be arls % 1--we in the
new environment Of barley AMI barn
vard.
Let me repeat that the chief obstacle
10 faith in another life is the doctrine
that faith is function Of the brain:
wherefore it is contended that life must
perish when its organ undergoes decay. /
To show the intimate union of mind and
body We are reminded that blow on
the head viii destroy consciousness-that
certain drugs viii color the stream of our
IDEAS.
Now If thought is The function or Of
fee of the brain-if thought springs out
of the whirl Of molecules-then. Of
course. there IS no immortality Cor man: