Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-10-04

led; he cannot come out on's grave"
Macbeth.
'That the dead are seen no more"
writes Samuel Johnson, 81 will not
undertake to maintain, against the
concurrent and varied testimony OF
all ages and of all nations. There is
no people, rude or learned, among
whom apparitions of the dead are not
related and believed. This opinion,
which perhaps prevails as far as hui
man nature is diffused, could become
universal only by its truth; those that
never heard of one another would not
have agreed in a tale which nothing
but experience can make credible.
That it is doubted by single cavilers
can very little weaken the general
evidence; and some who deny it with
their tongues confess it by their fears
The great majority of ghosts are, of
course, frauds; but = research organi-
cation has ever been able to prove that
all ghosts are frauds. No one has yet
proved that Lady Macbeth was right
when she asserted that Banquo could
not come out of his grave.
The subject Of ghosts is of interest
because of its bearing on the subject
Of the Immortality Of the soul. II
ghosts exist, then obviously the soul
does not die at the same time that the
body dies. Although Socrates, by mas
terly reasoning convinced himself OF
the Immortality Of the soul, and al
though all the great religious teachers
have taught the Immortality Of the
soul, there are many who have not been
convinced; because, as Plato quotes
Cebes as saying, Tin what relates to
the soul, men are apt to be 1ncredu-
lous; they fear that when she leaves
the body her place may be nowhere,
and that on the very day of death she
may be destroyed and perish-imme-
diately on her release from the body,
issuing forth like smoke or air and
vanishing away into nothingness."
Socrates was of the opinion that the
soul that was pure at death would not
return as a ghost. Such a soul was
totally severed from the body, at death,
and gathered herself into herself, in
state that seems analogous to the
Buddhist's Nirvana, Of which Arnold
wrote:
The aching craze to live ends, and life
Lifeless-to nameless quiet, nameless
JOY,
Blessed NIRvANA--sinless, stlrless
rest
That change which never changes!
Socrates believed, however, that few
souls are pure at death. For most Of
us, "each pleasure and pain is sort
of nail which nails and rivets the soul
to the body" Most souls love the body
and dread the invisible existence to
which pure souls go. These are the
souls that may be seen ''prowling about
tombs and sepulchers,' = made visible to
our eyes by the alloy and impurity
that cling to the soul as result Of the
love Of life and Of the body.
NBut life, being weary Of these worldly
bars,
Never lacks power to dIsrnlss itself"
Julius Caesar.
'sWhy is suicide held not to be
right?" was one Of the questions put
to Socrates during that last long talk
he had with his friends while he
waited for his jailer to bring him the
cup of poison.
According to Plato's account, Soc
rates answered: II suppose you won
der why when man is better
dead he is not permitted to be his own
benefactor, but must wait for the hand
Of another. admit the appear
ance Of inconsistency, but there may
not be any real inconsistency, after all,
In this There is a doctrine uttered in
secret that man is prisoner who has
no right to open the door Of his prison
and run away; this is great mystery
which / do not quite understand"
Our western laws and churches hold
suicide to be wrong, and there is
general feeling that when a man COM
mits suicide, he breaks the rules by
which the game of life is played. We
know that in a race, for example,
man is expected to finish the course,
even though all the other runners have
crossed the line an hour before him.
To the bystanders there seems no sense
in this. To them it seems that after
enough men have crossed the line to
score all the points that can be scored,
the other runners should be allowed to
step over the side lines and quit the
race. They cannot see any reason for
making a man run after all chances Of
scoring seem over; but the trainer sees
reason in the proceedings. Life is fire.
quently likened to race,
Some people hold that the two cases
are not analogous because the player
enters a race voluntarily and we hui
man beings are born into life without
our consent. Others hold that we do
enter life voluntarily. The latter be-
lieye with Socrates and the Buddhists,
In the transmigration of the soul. They
insist that the soul that does not wish
for life is not reincarnated.
This is, of course, a subject about
which nobody knows, though many may
speculate, trying to twist texts this
way and that to suit their own be-
liefs.
nanieh c,Inore+i*ion