The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-15
THOMAS FtTCH'S REVISED
ESSAY ON R. c.
INGERSOLL-
continued from page Sd

man, memory does not survive dissolu-
ton of the physical form, it does not
follow that such viii be the case with
man. Because we can not recollect
when we were oysters or apes it is not
certain that subiifner essences will
not recollect when they were men. I'm
less conditions are similar and immu-
table it cannot be certainly said how
far any existence may remember ITS
previous existence, and the law of evo-
luton is the law of change. No mes
sage has ever been brought from the
realms of ether saying that our diviner
selves leave their memories at the por-
tails of the tomb and it may we'll be
claimed that man is that link in the
chain of existences where the eXpe-
riences of the previous life pass the
ordeal of physical dissolution, and ac-
company the new life into it's new con-
ditions; that man is that link in the
chain of existences where the mental
life, the spiritual life, the consciousness
of existence leaves its development, it's
body. its late habitatio.l to dissolve into
gases the while it sails wandering but
not forgetting into the dawn.
Surely there is no conflict between
science and religion with respect to the
after life, but rightly considered, each
fits the other closely and tremendously
and it really requires less credulity to
believe that we shall live consciously
hereafter than to believe we have lived
consciously heretofore.
AAA
It is the vexed and disappointed spirit
that accepts the doctrine of annihila-
ton 1t is the man who fears his
f,4 o1,ss hot
his deserts are small who lays hold
on humiliation. It is the sensualist
who seeks for its gospel in the puerili-
ties of science and finds nothing that
can satisfy at last.
A A a
When a man dies we are able to
reproduce his life and actions through
the process of mental reckoning, which
we call memory. Can it be logically
claimed that the originating power
goes into nothingness? Is it in the
economy of the Universe that any pow
er is irretrievably lost? Does not
every force find form and energy in
some of the processes of Nature and its
laws? IF it be true that God geom-
etrizes, is it not also true that he dips
his pen in Infinitude to write the an
swer?
Take the human faculties and attri-
butes, and find me in all the lexicons
of bioplasm formula to account for
their origin or define their essence.
What is Hope? Tt is the rustic of the
wings of futurity against the walls of
our prison house. What is Fear? 1t
is only a retroactive condition without
which Hope should beat it's wings
against futile air. What is Memory?
1t is a picture gallery of the brain, the
in which are iodized by
1.-The light that never shone on sea or
Shore" and sensitized by the essential
bromides of thought and feeling aris-
ing from the soul of man. What is
Consciousness? 1t is the pulse Of God |
the telephone answering back the |
story o. the eternities. What is Con- |
science? Tt is the toll house on the
way to justification. reminder that we
are anSWerable to a law. What is |
WHIP? It is helmsman self-consti- |
tuted who yet steers with his eye for |
ever fixed on the polar star of destiny. |
What are Intuitions? They are pickets |
on the outpost of reason. What is |
Aspiration? It is a finger board point |
ing upward to a state of perfectness |
to which there is no earthly road.
And are not aspirations, and intui- |
lions, and will. and conscience, and |
nd memory. and hope,
md fear, each as real and as answer
lble as a mathematical problem? And |
yet which of these conditions-the most |
common to humanity-fnds it's type or
is predicate in matter? Can you put |
/ paddock upon hope, or resolve fear
oy the use of acids? Can you tie up |
n a pocket handkerchief the promises,
md the prophecies and the PRESENT.
nents, which at one time or another
all into every life?
Is there no longer any IngersolI? Has
hat mighty intellect, which fed upon
10Th the visible and the occult. which
gathered wisdom alike from the leaves
If books and the lips of humanity,
which drew inspiration from the wash
If seas, and the blaze of suns, ard the
glitter Of stars, which voiced it's knowl-
dge with sorcery that swayed the |
minds and souls of men. and carried |
hem from earth to heaven with the |
'asslon of it's enhancing music-fs that |
mighty intellect no more? Has it gone
tut like the flame of a candle? Had |
t no existence separate from the once
'uising but now vanished mass of |
lbers and nerves and veins which
ontained it?
Often and again in the olden, golden
avs Ingersoll and L have discussed the
Hereafter, and though we differed ut
erly we We're always friends In the
midst of ologies and isms I am still
yelling in the darkness, still cropping
nd hoping for the light, while he has
earned it all. Maybe he has now as
eftained that his earthly vision was
distorted by his surroundings, and
hat Moses was not the only one who
made mistakes.