Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-08-29


He presents a new phrase of stating
the scientific truism that neither mat
ter nor energy can be destroyed--that
only its form can be changed. The
new statement relates to the degtruc-
ton of picture on a statue--"the
nearest approach to genuine destruc-
tioh that is possible TO man" For
while nothing material has been de-
stroyed even In such "A case. the partI.
Giles weighing just as much as before.
YET The expression Is gone, the beauty
IS defaced, an idea perhaps is lost. 3"
Might we not believe that the soul. the
mind, or the spirit of man. as it may
be varously termed, can be destroyed
III the same way that picture or a
statue may BE- demolished and lost
Forever even while admitting that
all we can do to anything that really
exists is to change its form?
J'he answer TO this final doubt of tho
| skeptc is as simple as most other great
truths are, The idea embodied In pic
| ture or statue was never really there.
! though displayed or embodied In mar
BILE, and pigment. 1T was In the mind
Of the artist who constructed the work
and it entered the mind OF the specta-
tors who heheld it-at least OF those
/ who had the requisite perspective fac
ulty; but it was never In the stone
at an Though the idea is lost TO the
world by the destruction of the statue
II Is thus not lost to the universe: so
that even mere destruction of the real
ity itself does not seem possible II,
then the soul or life principle, is a
real thing, it does not appear from an
alogy that it can go out of existence,
although its incarnate FORM the body,
may be demolished. Things that van
ish are only hidden. They go from
ono form, or appearance, to another;
but we really have no way of convlnc-
ing that they disappear into nonon-
tity.
We constantly see bodily forms APP
rear out of latent reality, as when u
composer plays new piece of music, or
when the atmosphere deposits dew. But
the music on the dew did not come
from nothing There must always be
something's seed, an ideato produce
something, for nothing can arise out Of
nothing That which disappears or Is
trunsitcry is Il particular grouping; as
when crowd breaks up it disappears,
though its elements the persons who
comprised it, stu exist.
Life, which builds the body, is really
something So intellect and conscious
moss and viii, memory and love and
alteration, are not nothing nor shall |
they ever vanish into nothingness or |
cease TO be. They did not arise with |
us. they never did spring into being; |
they are as eternal as the Godhead it.
self, and in the eternal Being they shall |
endure forever
This Is the sist Of the demonstration
that the soul. being something real, Will
ever continue to be something real
That it shall continue to be person,
an individual, is the substance of the
next chapter on the permanence of per-
sonality.' In this chapter the author
adopts the principle of the conserva-
ton of value" Evolution proves that
value must increase, or pass from latent l
TO more patent forms; since mo exist
ing universe can tend on the whole to-
wards contraction and decay; because
that would foster annihilation, and SO
any incpient attempt would not have
survived; consequently an actually eX-
listing and flowing universe must on the
whole cherish development, expansion, |
growth. Good and evil can be
defined in terms of development and
decay respectively" This argument,
quoted from Hoffding, is used to show
the permanence and timeless existence
of the essential element in man, the
value of which is next indicated in
such way as to suggest that while
it is quite apparent that the present
body cannot long exist without the
soul, "it Is quite possible and indeed
the body
The argument from telepathy genius
and other phenomena which seem to in
dictate that the soul is at least at times
able to manifest itself apart from the
body, is next developed at some length;
and this is the new part of the scientific
argument. since heretofore these facts
or theories have received little or no
credence from scientific men.
Among the arguments that We do
not find i'm Sir divers exposition, that
from the unitary character of the mind,
was to have been expected For such
a fact If true, so strongly suggests that
being a unit or single thing, the mind,
or soul can not be thought of as being
taken to pieces or disorganized. This
argument would have fitted In neatly
with the Professors demonstration that
destruction consists really, of disorgan-
ization, Its absence is therefore calcu-
lated to cause surprise,
Altogether, 1t is a dcop but readable
and concise argument that the author
has given us, and we are not disposed
to criticize it because it does not In.
clude other arguments that might well
have been mentioned