The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-11-12
3 @ @ X S
BY w. r. X,

. NUTS FOR MATERIALIsTs TO
dead-sure naterialist
would laugh at the thought OF finding
anything IN Lillian Writings latest book,
From Dream to Vision Of Life (Ltttle,
Brown & Co., Bnston}, that would offer
the slightest obstacle to the acceptance
OF his theories. He would be likely to
say that the title should be modified to
read From Dream. Thru Dream, 70
Dream. In short, he would say that the
whole OK the book. except perhaps some
OF It's quotations. is efnade UP Of such
STUFF as dreams are made of. He might
admit the theory Of "a universal ether
from which Miss Whiting takes her start
for a flight of fancy as It'd the nature Of
the life hereafter but-he would turn that
theory, against her and say that it was
evidence that his position was right
that al things in their last reduction are
after all only matter, however ethereal.
HE would then go on to say that the the.
DRY Of an ethereal or spiritual body,
which quits the material frame at death
and goes out to become a part Of new
life like unto this on It's better side and
which can be In touch while still Joined
to the material body with other ethereal
beings who have gone out before, was
only the hgment Of. unstable brain cells.
He would certainly catch none Of the
authors enthusiasm. which springs plain
" from an absolute EEconviction that she
Isl even In this life, walking the way of
Immortality s5i =
But the material1st. before laughing to
scorn Miss Writings fine theory and
comforting conviction, must: explain how
the brain creates such f1gments, in an
sWef TO the positive statement that "the
brain never thinks made by William
Hanna Thompson MD, zone of the
most distinguished of American, experts
on the BRAIN and nervous SYSTEM" in
his book Brain and Personality Dodd,
Mead & Co., NeWYork), quoted in Cur
rent Literature for November! DIR. Thomp-
son says IN effect. according to Current
Literature; Sssx ..o..s =
Not even the hest organized brain, or, for that
matter, no brain of aany Kind Gan be made {te
to his brain as bis, kerr merely talks non
sense. $50 - Anatomy and ply histology alike
indicate that the brain. is never other than tht
instrument Of what-in the present state of sci
enee-7must be called personality"
9 II this be true-and the method by
which 1t is attempted to prove it is most
ingenious and convincing, being mat
ter of observation rather than of theo-
rizing-Miss Writings enthusiasm for a
belief In an ethereal realm interpene-
tratfng the material, enunciated by Paul
centuries ago, is not to be pooh-poohed
out of court so easily. She may fairly
ask whether the ethereal being is not the
personality" ofs.which; DR.. Thompson
speaks. ,-4!t-...
All Of this touches the problem of a
future life from the material side, but
recent book touches the same problem
again from the philosophical side. This
Is The Hope Of Immortality [Thomas
Y. Crowell .&s Co., New York;, by Charles
Fletcher Dole, the latest of the Inger-
soil lectures; at Harvard to be put into
book form. DR.. Dole, asserting that ma
terialistic science has not by any means
proved its case, and weighing the OBJ
stacles against the belief ina hereafter,
says, that from the nature of the belief,
from the nature Of doubt ITSELF, from the
nature Of world values, from a consider
alton Of personality and: the idea OF God
as well as from other considerations,
man Is justified in the hope Of immortal
ity. His reasoningofs clear and his ex-
preston lucid, and4 the Impression he
makes is strong and lasting, tho he has
woven his argument, from the common
thought Of the tiine,9 he has woven it in
"a new pattern which 1gtvestits fresh force.
BY one Of those condolences, Fl which
sometimes do fall out, the two books and
the magazine review pf another, men
toned above. came to, our attention at
the same time, and their combined i'm :
preston IS that, II a man man die, he shall
live again. 81 ~ z'@+ss *''"..~.' Is