The sun., 1901-10-26
NEW BOOKS.
Jenn plske On Immortality.


life Everlasting. delivered by the late John
Fisks In sAnder Theatre. Cambridge. on
Dec. 10, 1900. This little book may 10
considered as q continuance Of the series Of
philosophic studies which appeared under
the titles, The Destiny of Man. Vowed in
the light Of His Origin The Idea Of GOD.
- Affected by Modern Knowledse.- and
Through Nature TO God In The Dcs-
tiny Of Man. the author insisted on the
dramatic tendency or divine purpose indi-
Gated in the long co@mic process. which
has manifsetiy from the outset aimed at
the production and perfection Of tie higher
spiritual attributes Of mankind. In
Through Nature 20 God' the author called
attention TO the fact that belief In an un-
scen world. especially associated with the
moral significance Of life. wa- cosVal with
the genesis Of man. and had played pre-
dominating part In his development ever
since. Mr.. Fiske went on 90 argue that. Il.
under such circumstances. the belief must
be based upon an eternal reality, since a
contrary supposition Is nega,ived by all
that we know Of tho habits and thods Of
the onsfnic process of evolution.
/, was thess two books and the Idea
Of God which led DR. Caldecott In his
Philosophy Of Religion TO group Fi-ko
with Hooker. Berkeley and Butler Ia the
clsss Of .combinsd speculative and ethi-
cal thcists- II is well known that Mr.
Fiske long occupied himself In tracing
evolution through nature on Mr.. spcnoer's
lines and that hi. first issue was similar
to-vit a quasi-agnosticism as to a supreme
being A. he worked ON through external
nature into man. however. discovering
mans spiritual character and his conse-
qusnt pace at the headship 81 nature. as
Ne know II. Mr.. Fiske found In man tho
Key 20 all nature and the true clue To the
istic belief In explaining nature. he
found himself led 10y evolution 90 belief
In immaneut causali,y ard ~ far "a panthe-
ism a. again,t atheism. To Mir Fi-ke's
mind. however. spirituality or personality
vindicaied personal thoism God is SPIRIT
eecmed 90 him much more accurate
thought than God Is forc'. for the former
phra.e alone includes the highest element
OF what Is known. In the end he did not
hesitate TO speak Of God as quasi-human
and TO declare that. az such, his eIisteno,
T. religions first pos,ulatc.- Thus Mr..
Flake came 10 differ uncompronisingly
from MIR Spencer "a "a the de-snthropo-
morphization- MIR Fiske = own term-which
led Mr. Spencer 20 eliminate from relig
ious belief everything but a final abstrao-
ton To DR. Caldecott the position event
uaily taken by MIR Fiske r,-calls the Greek
conception at it's best: especially In the
Church OF Alexandria does Fiske hnd con-
eeners. By the philosophy Of nature he
was conducted 10 Clement and AthanAsius
rather than TO Augustine to Spinoza and
70 Sohleierrnacher instead Of TO voltaire
and Paley.
In the Lecture reprinted in the little book
before us Mr. Fske undertook TO answer
the question. What has science To say about
the time-honorcd belief that the human
soul survives the death Of the human bodyi
He admits that. 10 far a. our terrestrial
experience goes. there osn be but one an
swer 70 suoh a question. We have no
more warrant IA experience for supposing
consciousness 90 exist without a nervous
syrtsm than We have for supposins the
properties Of water To exist In a world dss-
titute Of hydrogen and oxygen. Moreover.
our power Of framing conceptions ts mar
rowiy limited by experience. and when We
try a. figure TO ourselves the conditions Of
q future life, We are either hopelessly baf-
ned at the start. o. else we fall back upon
Groesly erialistic imagery. We are all
agreed that life beyond tho grave would
be a dehision and a cruel mockery without
the continuance OF the tender household
anections which alone make the presen;
life worth living. but to imagine the rcoos
milton OF soul by soul. apart from the ma
tsrial structure In which We have known
soul 10 be manifested, apart from the look
Of tho loved face. the tones OF the loved
voios or the renewed touch Of tho long
A.A L. Ei.,sr l,wAnA
our power Even n we strive TO imagine
our own physical activity as continuing
without the aid OF the physical machinery
Of sensation. we soon get into unmanage-
sbls difficulties The furniture OF our
mind consists in great part Of sensuous
images, chiefly visual. and we cannot In
thought follow ourselves into world that
does not announce itself through sense
impressions From all this IL plainly ap-
pears that our notion OF the survival %
conscious activity apart from material
conditions IL not only unsupported by any
evidence that can be gathered from the
world 81 which we hsye experience. but
II utterly and hopelessly inconccivable.
How much does this argument amount
To. NJ against the belief that the soul sur
vives the body' Mr. Fiske answers Moth
Ing AbSOlutelv no'nink- ~ ilo' otiN idii-
10 di.prove tho validity of the belief, but
II doc. no, raise even tho slightest prima
facie presumption against IL. This will at
oncs become apparent, II we remember that
human experience Is very far indeed from
being infinite and that there are. in all
probability. immen-e regions of existence.
in every way as real as IN" region which
We know. vet concerning which We cannot
form the fainteSt rudiment Of a conception.
For example. tho himinifcrous ether COM
bines properties which 20 vs. are inoon-
c~ivahle In combination. How curious
Co think that We live and move la an oo,an Of
other. In which the particles of all material
thing arr floating like islands, How smsz-
Ing To learn that this ocsan of ether II also
an sdaElantine armament L. not ths sheer
nousense' An oc.an-frrnament Of ether
adamant Ye, ruch seems To be the fact
and o,r philo-pphy must make the best
of n Now. continuc- Mr. Fiske, suppose
that all this Uncomfortable world. this ocean
armament ~ ether -adamant were crowded
with di--ml-odied souls. an infinite throng