The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-03-11
SHALL a MANI LIVE AGAlle?

world and this gift of life are evil
dences that we are only the sport Of
a. devilish God, who would leave mat.
ter indestructible. but destroy the
nobiest attribute Of mankind. There
Is better evidence in my mere will to
believe In future life than there is to
sustain the idea that the universe is
the product of chance. I do not en-
pect to make knowledge absolute, or
to convince any one else by logic.
There are some people who will not
believe that a leg is broken if it hangs
IN two pieces, and, az our eyes and
ears n special sense are so fallible,
there is some excuse for that. But
the reason for believing in immortal.
ty is far deeper than these. and every.
thing convinces me that it is infallibie.
The polar bear. the baby seal, and the
countless birds all beat their unerring
way northward. though without chart
or compass. Maybe their sense called
intuition is a better one than sight
r smell or hearing. The lilies grow
without the permission of current SCI
ence: and SO grew MY faith in immor-
tally. TAX to my comfort that that
Is an acknowledged bond Of kinship
with the great poets. to whose COM
TO accept their view not only, to my
mind. marks greatness. but without it
no man and 10 people can be great.
Some people will always call this a
special sense. Well. spell it com.
mon sense" Evidence does not bear
out the contention that it arises from
uncommon perception in uncommon
are uncommon. Some call the old, old
an "a special sense" But those
Some" are they who have it not, and
there Is a touch Of unwillingness, and
some think of self-love, which has
robbed these critics of that which we
consider divine sense" and therefore
"common"-and this time 1t is we who
are sorry. We think these are all
tributaries of the great natural stream
OF love which flows towards God.
Some men say that everything con-
sists Of. or results from. matter, what
ever that is. Others have said, and
some are beginning to say it louder
than e in these days of new
thing as matter. Many said that the
old alchemists were fools. But the
modern chemists tell us that the ele-
ments are interconvertible. that one
does turn into the other. Copper, they
say. does turn into sodium, and you
can manufacture rubies and make the
secretions Of the, ductless glands
which control life out of coal tar.
They say that acids crystalline with
indicated cells. and radio.activity
SHOWS that metals are alive as much
as IN the amoeba. So some think that
there is no such thing as ''life' ex-
cept that OF the spirit, and that the
human body Is as much a piece Of me-
chantsm: az a box: and surgery prac.
tically shows that not only does a per-
son remain the same person If you cut
his body In two. but that II you could
successfully sew on the halt Of another
body which happens not to be in use,
there would still be one body. It
would seem that only those forms Of
knowledge are e deT1onstrable Of
which you create the axioms yourself.
Moreover. It is only BY experiment
that the knowledge and the axioms
are verified.
II a man "won't"-that is, does no
want an axiom to be true-he practi-
cally says. II won't take that axiom
to the test" Adopt that plan with
any axiom, and see how far you will
get. We Just have to believe in food
to eat 1t. and know the truth of the
axiom. We Just have to 60 to bed, and
sleep on h axiom that It 10 safe to do
It.. Columbus believed that America
existed. His crew believed that It
didn't. It looks to US AZ II his acting
on intuition against long odds was
somehow Unsuitable. But Of course
there are those still who are not con-
WINGED that America does exist. I
look at Immortality the other way.
And my. faith goes further than that.
believe that I am I. I M In the