The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-01
v.
Perchance to dream

Perchance to dream
We have seen that the primitive idea
Of god is the confession OF the igno-
rance Of the man who invents god to
cover all the contingencies with which
he Is incapable OF dealing. We have
seen that god Ii the survival of the man
after man has ceased upon this earth
and the mystery OF the departed prin-
ciple Of life has returned in its orbit to
the equal mystery of the arriving prin-
ciple Of life. We have found that god
Is but the man set free OF conditions
success where In life all has been failure.
Once having been invented the god
follows a course of evolution, recedes
from the Intimacy Of human life, be-
comes high and puissant, and the con-
nection between man and his god be-
comes more remote. In this course of
evolution a new plan becomes necessary
for the disposition Of the principle Of
life. that which was originally a piece
OF the divine and which may no longer
freely return. Hence arises the prob
lem Of the life after death and the ma
ture Of the principle Of life. Here be-
gins the concept Of the soul OF man. At
death something vanlshes. commonly II
Is Identified as the breath. either In IT.
self the principle of life or In some OBJ
scure fashion the vehicle OF such prln-
ciple. In fact certain races assign to
man no less than four souls, each des-
tined to a different end. But assuming.
as does the majority OF mankind, a sim
gle soul. the hereafter OF that soul en-
tails new theories.
In the most primitive view the man
and his god are intimately associated. at
the death Of the man the god receives
all the divine with which the man had
been temporarily equipped the loan is
returned to the source of life and be-
comes Immediately ready for new incar-
nation. But god recedes as man be-
comes capable of higher thought and the
way Of the soul back to god becomes
difficult In the end impossible. Now
man invents the hereafter, at first hades
as the place Of departed spirits. then,
as the idea Of morals takes advantage
Of the preexisting machinery Of relig-
ion. hades divides into heaven as the re-
ward of virtue and hell es the place of
and itself tho punishment of wrong
doing.
Morality comes into religion only az
ter long ages OF religious development.
The foundations OF our great religious
systems are wholly devoid Of morality,
that Is a late addition. Many peoples
now on earth have their customary mo-
rality quite apart from their religions,
the worship Of god does not Immediately
involve ones duty to his neighbor or
the cleanness Of his own life. morality
Is social and earthly rather than heav-
emily and godward At the beginning of
the simple speculatlons upon the future
Of the soul and Its destination after II
leaves the body the question Of reward
or punishment did not arise. The most
that man believed about the future of
his soul was that II went to q fixed
place and there lived on In conditions
which more or less faithfully reproduced
the conditions OF life. Because no man
had rendered true account Of the
place of the soul It was clear that It was
in some way beyond the reach Of the
living. therefore on the summit Of un-
scalable mountains. In hollow lands be-
meath the earth to which access was
Rad by abysses too steep for living mon,
In remote depths Of the sea. II the race