The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-20
FIske,n Last Word.
life Everlasting" by John Fiske. Bos
ton: Houghton. Mifflin & Co. 81.


Life Everlasting" by John Fiske. Bos-
ton: Houghton, Miffiin & Co., 81.
1t was John Fiske's beautiful mission
to face and solve the problem of Doubt
Ficariously, for thousands of people He
Is the serenest figure in our so-called
controversial literature He stood as a
harmonizing element between those who
mistrust philosophy and science ana
those who misunderstood the spirit of re-
hglon, and. without disccrediting either,
conciliated their positions Other men
nave been as optimistic as John Fiske,
and other men have as candidly and
frankly accepted all scientific fact. and,
at the same time. seen through all the
mazes Of doubt the entire harmony and
compatibility of these facts with the
highest aspirations of mans spiritual ma
ture, and to look naturally to him to an
swer the. doubt that assailed them And
therefore it is true that of all the work
to which he gave the energies of his busy
life. the most important is that embodied
in his little series of philosophic studies
on the origin and destiny of man. The
Destiny of Man, as Viewed in the Light
of His Origin, The Idea of God as AZ
fected by Modern knowledge" and
Through Nature TO God" in which he
discoursed lucidly and hopefully on the
"the everlasting reality of religion, any
one of which can be easily read in halt
an hours time, have been read by more
people than have perused the works OF
any other writers on the same subjects.
Happily We have now another and con-
Gliding volume to this series, a manu-
script lecture, published after his death.
1.-THE Life Everlasting is his final word
or IGhe destiny of mantle logical rea-
-4.,lfE
Of evolution. The first half of this beau
tiful little book Is a consideration of the
supreme poetic achievement of man-his
belief in his own Immortality" He traces
the development of this supreme idea
from the ghost visions of the savage and
emphasizes the marked difference be-
TWEEN man and animals in this one re-
specific attitude toward death The
keynote of the first part of the book lies
in the statement of Prof. Shaler: IF we
seek some one mark which in the intel
lectual advance from brutes to man,
might denote the passage TO the human
side, we might well find it in the moment
when it dawned on the nascent man that
death was a mystery which he had In
his turn to meet"
Then he emphasizes the idea that
''From the earliest and most. rudimentary
stages of the process, however, the con-
option of death was not of an event
which puts an end to human individual
ity. but of an event which human indi-
vfdualtv survives" He points out that
the belief in Il future life is one of the
d,fferen5ial attributes of humanity as
much as speech and the reasoning powers
are.
He briefly sketches the present attitude
of science and religion. frankly states
the arguments of the materialists, among
them the familiar argument that the doc
Urine of the survival of conscious activity
apart from material conditions is unsup--
ported by experience and boldly asks:
a.IIow much does this famous argument
amount to as against the belief that the
soul survives the body?" Then comes
the ringing declaration, Nothing, aoso-
luz nothing, 1t not only fails to dis
prove the validity of the belief. but it
does not raise the slightest prima facie
presumption against it." From there ne
goes on triumphantly to answer the ques-
ton: How could immortal man have
been produced through heredity from an
ephemeral brute?" in this wise:
'''The maxim that nature makes no
leaps is far from true. Natures habit
is to make prodigious leaps, but only
after long preparation. Slowly rises the
water in the tank, inch bv' men through
many a weary hour. until at length 1t
overflows. and straightway the vast sys-
TENS of machinery are awakened into
rumbling life. Slowly grows the eccen-
tricity of the ellipSe as YOU SHIFT It's
position in the cone, and still the nature
of the curve is not essentially varied,
when suddenly, prestoi one more little
shift and the finite ellipse becomes an
9rfinite hvperbola. knocking our feeble
powers of conception as it speeds away
on it's everlasting career. Perhaps IN
our ignorance such analog1es may heIp
us TO realize the possibility that steadily
developing ephemeral conscious life may
reach a critical point where it suddenly
puts on Immortality.
an the course of evolution there is no
more philosophical difficulty in mans ac-
curing immortal life than in his acquir-
ire the erect posture.
This high and heroic voicing of mans
hope and aspiration is worthy and fit
tfng close to a life which wrought so per-
sistently and so triumphantly with all the
powers of darkness wrestling the Serenest
faith from threatening problems of doubt.
and pointing man to a higher and more
beautiful conception of his own divinity
and close relationship to God.
s.At the Sign of the Ginger Jar" some
verse grave and gay. BY Ray Clarke
Rose. Chicago: A. c. McClurg & Co.,
For several years Mr.. Rose conducted
\ daily column in the Chicago Record
Hn.ler the head From the Ginger Jar,
which was widely read and enjoyed. He
has collected the best of his verses for
publication in this volume. Mr.. Rose
ls not a great poet, but he has a deft
iouch and a sprightiy imagination, and
Eany of his triolets and rondeaus are
pleasing. The following fairly illustrate
his best work:
SACRIFICE
There are no heights we may not reach;
There are no depths we may not touch;