The Washington times., 1920-05-23

Do the Dead Still Liver
And What life7
10 Proof At All.
But Faith Suffices.
By ARTHUR BRISBANE.
tcopyrisht. 1891


4 By ARTHUR BRISBANE.
Copyright. issoJ
What happens to us after we
die? ..,
Bishop Samuel Fsllows writes
IN introduction for "Do the dead
stu liver" Doctor Hsasls's book,
which asks the question once more.
A savage feastin9 on the half
dscsysd body Of q rhinocsros near
the African equator wishes to be
Immortal exactly As he is at the
moment, and IL possible to find
heaven In which decsysd rhinoc-
Sroses are plentiful.
:. George Eliot, woman of intel
lect, did not hope to 70 through
all eternity with thick short hair,
and George Henry Lewes TO keep
her company. She would be con
tent to join "the choir invisible"
that live because they have done
good work on earth. Some, not
very many, And comfort in her
hope.
"Oh, may / Join the choir invisible,
VI those immortal dead who live
=, again
In minds made better by their
presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in
scorn
For miserable aims that end with
self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce
the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence,
urge mans search
To caster issues
Ordinary human beings are not
interested in any "choir invisible"
IVhe man who runs the hardware
store in Sandusky, or a white
goods business in a big city, wants
to 10 to heaven just as he is, and
would like, if possible, to take the
hardware shop and white goods
business. with him.
When ancient Mexican kings
died their bodies were burned in
q separate, exclusive bonfire; the
wives an dslaves to keep them
company were burned separately.
In Africa now, X no English are
around to watch and protest, the
great chief has a few wives and
slaves, and occasionally some OF
his best fighters, killed and buried
with him.
The Indian believes in a heaven
where he can kill bisons and bears.
Those that criticize his "barbar-
ism" believe in another heaven,
invented by. Oriental minds-a
city with, streets of solid gold;
nothing cheaper than gold any
where to be seen; no grass, flow
ars or brooks.
A few are content with the
thought that they will live here
after in .their children,
Still fewer, among the energetic
races, are content with the thought
that after life and its worries will
come at least absolute rest. That
suits the mind-weary Buddhist,
seeking "Nirvana."
Pindaur, the Greek poet, was
one of the first to express the
philosophical idea Of immortality.
"By a happy lot" said he, "all per-
sons travel in an end free OF toll.
The body, indeed, is subject to the
powerful influence of death: but
shadow Of vitality Is still left alive
and this alone of divine origin.
Pindaur is the able man whose
house was spared, and whose de-
scendants were not sold as slaves
by Alexander the Great, when ne
conquered Thebes, long after Pin
daur died. All great philosophers.
except so-called materialists OF
< later day, Haeckel and a few
others. have believed in immortal
ity of some kind.
Plato constantly refers to 1t.
Socrates, Plato's teacher, assured
those who listened to his last
words that when he drank the
hemlock it would not be the end
of him.
Men crave Immortality, hope for
It. pray for it. make themselves
believe in it. They dread annihila-
ton as a child breads the dark.
Eadwine, ancient English king.
was converted to Christianity
through his wife; she converted
by thin, pale, interesting Paulinus.
Eadwine asked his men what they
thought of this Christianity. ]. r.
Green records the powerfully vivid
answer Of an old warrior:
80 seems the life CT man, o
king, as sparrow's flight through
the hall when you are sitting at
meat in wintertide. with the warm
fire lighted on the hearth. but the
icy rainstorm without. The spar
row flies in at one door and tarries
for a moment in the light and heat
cf the hearth fire, and then flying
forth from the other vanishes into
the wintry darkness whence 1t
came. SO tarries for moment the
life of man in our sight, but what