Mts ARatej MQ, jtney f~ han th: Fi. Com tok, ; . | Kin. Cle eine QeeeeaeneEseAeaeeAR REAL LLITIIR Ze Oy SMR (LAL. MAN’S ORIGIN AND DESTINY - GILL. (GALL. AL, In the Gigbt of Wlodern Rnowledge. FY, CLL PIN ES ES ae —: On —— Holton Continued Talo Its her Li ——: BY: — LALLLALDLALALLLAL DA — SPILLS LD SAAS =~ GEO, W. RAINS, U.S. M. A, M. D., LL. D., EX-DEAN OF THE*MeEpIcAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF Grorgeta. LAALZLIAALLLLAA READ AT THE OPENING OF THE SESSION OF THE MEDICAL COLLEGE At AUGUSTA, NOVEMBER 41n, 1889. PLP IS SSL RIP SIS LAS IA DSA N LE IS LOL APE INLINE VILE) Soe IAA SA! SA SSSSS ILS ADD 7, 5 ae LIA AA AUGUSTA, GA,: PRINTED AT THR CHRONICLE BOOK AND JOR OFFICE. 18ese9 LILLY LL IL LA LL ALL ALS LLL LL LL LA LIL SLA LL LL IL LA LSTY R ean, , MY MAN'S ORIGIN AND DESTINY [In the Gisht of JYlodern Rnowledge. SLI I a SS fae SB —:0ONn :—— vation Cl IT Is he Li — BY: — GEO. W. RAINS, U.S. M. A, M. D., ae Ex-DEAN OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA READ AT THE OPENING OF THE SESSION OF THE MEDICAL COLLEGE AT AUGUSTA, NOVEMBER 4ru, 1889 é ESSAY ON MAN'S ORIGIN AND DESTINY GENTLEMEN— MEDICAL STUDENTS: In the rotation of the Faculty’s roster it becomes my duty at this time to make the opening address of the session to the Class assembled, welcoming you to the halls of this venerable College which is to become your Alma Mater, with the kindest feelings of the Instructors and their best wishes for your success and welfare. This is the fourth and last time that this service has devolved upon me; before another period shall return, in the order of nature, the speaker will have passed into another and higher sphere of action. Hence it is natural that the subject matter selected for this occasion should deal mainly with the all important problem of life and its persistence. As a further consid- eration; at the close of last year’s examination, the grad- uating class requested a discourse on the higher life of evolution. This accordingly was given at the time extemporaneously, and the present address embodies modified and extended what was then rather crudely said. As Medical Students you are especially concerned in all that appertains to the human structure; that mechanism which the physician is expected as an expert to repair when out of order. Of all machines this is the most complex and wonderful in the combinations and uses of the various parts. All the known principles of Physics and Chemistry are employed in its construction, and all the forces of nature appear to be brought into requisition in its operations. ‘he variety of its parts are endless, nevertheless combined and moulded into the smallest possible space with perfect symmetry and beauty of form. The minuteness of its ultimate vessels and fibres call for the highest powers of optical art to assist in bringing them into view, still leaving an extended field of action whose operations must forever remain invisible. It has slowly been elaborated through eons of time, beginning with mathematical points of force—passing through various gradations of matter and form with in- creasing complexity—until man was evolved as the final result and apparent culmination of the work. The strue- ture—so admirable in the perfection of its mechanism— is overlooked in the contemplation of the astonishing psychical phenomena, which pari passu has accompanied the material development. Attraction, contraction, sen- sation, perception, thought, memory, will, and reason, follow each other; and as man rises in knowledge, gleams of a higher existence flash into perception; then the earth becomes too small and life too transient to meet his expanded desires and aspirations. The science of medicine is the conservator of this efHorescence of development; to its doctor is entrusted the repairing and keeping in healthful condition this master production of nature. How extended should be his acquirements to meet the demand! He should be familiar not only with physical science in its yaried ramifications; the physical construction of the body and its surgical operations; the uses of its various parts; their normal and abnormal action; with a knowledge of drugs and other remedial agents with their proper application, but also, with the psychological forces that control the human organism, whose action at times overpowers chem- ical affinity and controls the medical agent employed. The Medical College assumes to instruct in the former, but has so far but little to do with the latter ; the term of instruction is too limited to include the complete problem of education desirable to the physician. In my address this morning | shall endeavor to partially lift the veil of man’s higher nature, and thus give a glimpse of his com- plete organization, leaving to the student at his leisure the exploration of the vast field thus opened to his view. 5 In my address to the Class of 1881 from this rostrum, I took for my subject the “Persistence of Life,” in which the constitution of atoms, erystals, and cells, formed the basis of my argument. I now propose to continue the subject by entering more fully into the investigation of the generation of matter and life, and to discuss their evolution. To do this within the limited time at my disposal, it has been judged expedient to treat the subject under separate heads, each distinct within itself, yet bearing on the general issue. Profound questions require mature consideration. No important truth, however clearly set forth, can be at once assimilated; the mind like the body requires time for digestion and absorption. To hear or read of important new ideas, unless afterwards thoroughly considered, imparts no real knowledge; but as Locke says, like fairy money vanishes into dust when we attempt to use it. The Origin of Patter. Throughout the interminable universe, through all space, through all substances, and between all atoms and molecules, there exists an excessively attenuated matter, forming a boundless ocean of ether composed of an infin- ity of particles, or more strictly of mathematical points of action. Prof. Huxley says “Astronomy demonstrates that what we call the peaceful heavens above us is but space filled by an infinitely subtile matter, whose particles are seething and surging, like the waves of an angry sea.” rom each of these particles there radiates an attractive force which tends to draw contiguous particles towards each other, the result being a globular mass, the revolution of which, generates centrifugal force or repulsion. This fundamental attractive power, called gravitation, is in each separate particle indefinitely small, but becomes infinitely great in the mass. The agglomeration of such particles into separate revolving ether nebulas—pr ly vortex rings—is sup- posed to form, or condense, into what are called atoms, of different dimensions, those of the greater size constituting the atoms of chemistry; collections or aggregations of which form the seventy recognized simple substances or elements of thatscience. The latest researches, however, seem to indicate that they in fact are compounds of more subtile elements, or elements formed of a still finer mat- ter; perhaps combinations of two primary elements,— perhaps but the one seen enveloping the sun im total eclipses and constituting mainly, in volume, its corona. It would be safe to assume finer gradations of matter to the ether itself, hence beyond the visible bounds and known laws of chemistry and physics. Discussion of a ital Ether. In the essay on the Persistence of Life the cell or vital force was discussed; it was there shown that it survived the destruction of the cell itself, being associated with a finer matter which interpenetrated completely every part of the mass of the cell, and which separated from it on the coagulation of the cell’s contents; the cell life in such case associated with its finer matter becomes an invisible cell germ floating in the air. Granting that such is the fact, then there must be distributed throughout the atmosphere such an inconceivable number of them that language has no words or terms to express it to the mind. The noted Scientist De la Rive ascribes the haze of the Alps in fine weather to floating organic germs. Professor Tyndall asserts that the biue of the sky is caused by a fine matter, probably organic germs, of such excessive tenuity that the whole of it, if compressed to a solid, could be held in the hollow of the hand. He says that the vastness in point of number may be inferred from the continuity of the light. 7 This blue of the sky must then be formed of what might be termed the finer-matter-forms of living germs. These life germs, or life-force germs, constantly arising from the disintegration of organic life in all its varied forms, from the simple cell-force of the spores of fungi to its highest manifestation, must form an all-pervading life-fluid made up of widely different intensities. As planets with their organisms have existed in the infinite past, then this vital or living ether must have also existed and been intimately commingled with the material ether of space. Papillon says ‘‘as there is a lifeless ether so there is an ether endowed with life.” Mr. Wallace, the eminent naturalist and co-originator with Darwin of organic evolution through variation of species by natural selection, calls this vital ether “the spiritual essence of nature, which superadded to the animal nature of man, enables us to understand much that is otherwise mysterious or unintelligible in regard to him.” Then in the formation of ordinary matter, varying amounts of the vital ether must have been enclosed, so that in the construction of a crystal a certain amount of vital energy being involved, accompanied by its finer matter, the crystal might be taken as in fact constituting a kind of low form of organic life. Its regular fo:m of ordinary matter, interpenetrated by an equivalent form of finer matter, and the whole acted upon and arranged by its interior vital ether or polarity. The incipient crystal is the first visivle representation ‘of matter, and it may be also taken as the commence- ment or lowest representation of visible life. The advance that petrology has made in recent times by the aid of the microscope and chemical analysis, has been so remarkable that the President of the Geological Society of London, in his annual address, proposed to throw aside entirely the distinction between crystallized and living matter. - Professor Williams, of the Johns-Hopkins University 8 states “that not onl¢ do the component minerals assume a form as directly inherent in their nature as that of a plant, but if the surrounding conditions become unfavor- able, they change to other forms.” ‘And as far as can be judged by the phenomena presented by the organic and mineral worlds, they differ rather in degree than in kind. And to one familiar with the facts, there can be no con- fusion in speaking of the “embryology of a erystal.” “That the vital fluid circulates unceasingly through the arteries of the oceans and currents of the air, penetrat- ing the rocks, producing with the helps of heat and pressure like changes in the histology of the globe.” In the successive formation of atoms, molecules and crystals, there has resulted necessarily a progressive cou- densation of the vital ether, which thus supplied the pabulum for the lower germs of organic life. Thus arises organic cells, whose aggregations generate all the forms and structures of the vegetable and animal king- doms. In this progressive growth or evolution, the start is a germ of life of a certain order, which draws to itself the next inferior germs; these fusing together or uniting their vital forces are thus lifted to its own plane; thus supplying pabulum for the growth of the next higher germs; in each case a new form of life is generated. It has been seen that cell or vital force may be trans- formed into the physical forces of sound heat, light and the electric forces, but by no arrangement can these forces be reconverted into life. No mechanism can fabricate them into vital force; but it is conceivable that it might be gathered or condensed from organic matter or from the vital ether existing in the atmosphere, and probably the time will arrive when this will be accom- plished; then the health-restoring apple of the Arabian tale will have been discovered, and the fond dream of the Physician realized. The low form of this life-force, which appears to be condensed at the poles or extremities of crystals and magnets, was extensively investigated by the notéd 9 chemist Von Reichenbach in 1843-44, and classed as a separate force which he named Qd, or Odic. Its higher phase was examined by Professor Crookes the prominent English chemist who, recognizing a force new to Science, called it Psychic or Soul force. A comprehensive name embracing all its phases is desirable; I propose to give it the designation of Psychod, or Psychodic, being a union of the two names. This remarkable force was known in the earliest times by the Brahmans of India and Priests of Egypt and the Orient; the first giving it the name of Akasa. Its knowledge was carefully concealed from the mass, and its employment by the educated will constituted the basis of those occult arts practised in the mysteries of the old temples of India, Egypt, Assyria and Greece; as also by the secret societies of occultists called Astrologers, Magicians, Rosecrucians, and Alchemists. Its study has been revived in recent times under the names of mesmerism or hypnctism, also in the subjects of theosophy and spiritualism. Bulwer, who was a student of occultism, speaks of it as being employed by the edu- cated will of the “Coming Race” as the great power of the future, under the designation of Vril or Will force. The interest in the subject has been widely extended within the past forty years, it being no longer confined to secret societies or particular localities; it has engaged the earnest attention of some of the ablest chemists, physi- cians, physicists, astronomers, mathematicians, jurists and theologians of the time. It is by the aid of this semi-intelligent force mainly that the astounding pheno- mena of Spiritualism are accomplished, by Spirit intelli- gence either in or out of the body. By its action or vibration man is placed in sympathy with nature, and mind responds to mind without the use of language. Its germs are assimilated in respiration adding to the activi- ties of the organism, particularly to the psychological powers which perhaps have their origin or growth in the assimilation of its higher intensities. 10 Gravitation, [he Fundamental Energy of [Plaftre. Sound, heat, and light, we know to be the sensations of the mind or soul, caused by vibrations of ordinary matter in the first, and by undulations of the etherial medium in the last two ; their laws are extensively known and, to a certain extent, we are satisfied with our knowledge. When Electricity and Magnetism are touched the ground reels beneath our feet, and when Gravitation is reached we find ourselves floating in space. The most renowned mathematicians have successively attacked the problem of its nature, only to lose themselves in a cloud of meta- physical abstraction and to give up its solution in despair. Newton said of gravitation what Faraday did of elee- tricity, that he knew nothing as to its real nature. Sir William Herschell said “it is but reasonable to regard the force of gravitation as the direct or indirect result of a consciousness, or a will, existing somewhere.” Other physicists have made similar statements. All definitions of force or energy refer to the effects produced and not to the nature of force itself; this has been a mystery, and we come to its best conception when we speak of the will force of the soul. The physical forces are generally classed as gravitation, molecular forces, heat, light, electricity, and magnetism ; these are held to be correlative or mutually con- vertible. Such, however, is not the case with gravita- tion. Each and all the physical forces arise directly or indirectly from this fundamental energy; but it cannot be generated by any combination or inter-action of these forces. Laplace found its velocity of transmission exceeded that of light by more than eight million times, indeed was instantaneous in its action throughout the realms of infinite space. It is the one grand pervading energy of the universe, from which all matter and all force appear to proceed. From the tiny atom to the huge globe of the ll planet, which like a ponderous cannon ball rushes through space with a hundred times its velocity: to the blazing sun, a million times larger; to the vast starry systems boundless in extent—all are formed, moved, guided, and held in leading strings by this Almighty Power of Gravitation ! It can be only the direct and continued action of the Will Force of God. Evolution in its Gomprebensive Sense. The theory of evolution, the greatest generalization of the century, which has produced such great changes of thought in recent times, had its foundation laid at the end of the 17th century by the celebrated Descartes and Leib- nitz. It however made no prominent advance until Lamarck in the early part of the present century began the erection of the structure which brought the subject more conspicuously into notice. It was sustained or carried onward by Robert Chambers in his Vestiges of Creation, but it was principally through Darwin’s works, supported by Wallace, Spencer, Huxley, Fiske, LeConte and others, that it was more fully develop- ed, and accepted by scientists, and is now being geuerally adopted by the intelligent of the world. To those who may not clearly apprehend what is pop- ularly known as evolution, I will state that it had its origin in the fact that no two organisms are exactly alike. There is always some variation—apparently accidental—from the parent and from each other. This variation may be an increase of the acuteness of the senses, as sight, hearing, etc; or fleetness, strength, or other quality which imparts increased capabilities of obtaining its food, or escaping from its enemies. In sach case the animal will have a longer life than the other members of the family, and this is called the “survival of the fittest,” or “‘natural selection.” 12 Some of its descendants will inherit its advantages and improve still farther by variations of their own. In each case there has been a still farther departure from the original parent, until ultimately the changes will have become so decided as to constitute a new species. It will be understood that the advantageous variation in the animal will be brought more frequently into action, and thus will be strengthened by use and become more prom- ineni. Thus the ancestor of the horse was an animal the size of a fox, having three toes on the hindfoot and four perfect serviceable toes on the forefoot, with the vestiges ot a fifth toe or thumb. The middle toe or finger being most advanced or used, gradually became predominant, while the others, in successive generations, dwindled away; the bones of this finger with its claw or nail, thickened and strengthened, and the animal itself increased in size. Ultimately the horse was evolved, treading on a hoof which originally started asa claw of the middle finger of its ancestor. Evolution in its fullest extent starts with the all- pervading ether of space, the constitution of which has - already been considered. The atoms of matter resulting from the agglomeration of its particles, are supposed to unite into small masses, and these being drawn together by gravitation, by their collisions generate heat, and this heat increasing by the action continuing, vecomes sufli- ciently intense to vaporise the masses into a nebule of incandescent gas. This irregular gaseous mass, cooling by radiation, per- mits the constituent atoms to be drawn towards the common centre of gravity, thus generating a revolving motion resulting in a globular form. The continued cooling of the mass lessened its diam- eter, and correspondingly increased its rotary velocity ; a 13 period ultimately arrived when the centrifugal force of the equatorial parts, which had the greatest velocity, balanced the centripetal force of gravitation urging toward the centre. Then the main mass, still shrinking in volume from continued loss of heat, would part com- pany with its equator, which would be left as a nebulous ring encircling the receding nucleus. This incandescent ring becoming cooler, would ultimately break up into a number of fragments, which from a mathematical law, would be drawn together into a globular mass. Thus there would result two spherical bodies ; the larger ultimately condensing into a sun, and the smaller into a planet. This process continuing there would be a succession of rings condensing into planets, and these, forming rings of their own, would generate satellites or moons. Thus according to the nebular theory our solar system was formed, and in Jike manner all the distant suns or fixed stars were created, the aggregations of which are called stellar systems, each being composed of many mil- lions of shining orbs. Following the cosmogony of the earth after it had cooled to a hardened crust surface, and then passed over by astronomy to geology, it still continued an incan- descent globe interiorly, with its cool surface enveloped by a warm ocean. In this medium organic life first made itself visible to the naked eye, in the simple protoplasmic cell or jelly mass, endowed with properties in which are recognized the attributes of living matter. From the aggregations of organic cells have arisen all the forms and structures of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, as has been previously stated. Geology exhibits in its fossils the progressive forms of life, through a long series involving millions of years, before it culminates in the highest of the animal structures or that of man. This growth commencing with the simple life forms of the Archzn age, represented in the lower sedimentary strata, thence rising to the diminutive fish of 14 the upper silurian, ascended through the succeeding varied — geologic formations to the earth’s surface. Passing from the amphibians to the land reptiles and flying pterodactyls, thence to the birds and mammals; the highest genus of the last includes the family of catarrhine apes, to which zoologists assign man. This development has proceeded along one type of structure, involving a vertebral column with its head and ribs, spinal cord and brain, with two fore and two hind organs of locomotion. The fins of the fish gradually develop into the legs of the reptile, and these into the legs and wings of the birds, and thence into the four legs of the quadruped, to the four limbs of the quadrumana —the two forward ones being used as arms; the perfect type being unfolded in man. Iu this ascending series is seen the gradual evolution of the fin of the fish into the arm aud hand of man, with his five fingers, and two lower bones and one upper bone in the arm, supported and moving in another bone attached to the trunk; the leg and foot not differing essentially from the arm and hand. In all the forms below man can be traced, for these parts, the same number of principal bones, in the same positions, and for similar ends; but obscured at times by elongation, contraction, or union of some of the bones. If the representative skeletons of all classes of animals from the fully formed fish to man were arranged properly side by side, the evolution of the one type would be plainly seen. In the animal the contfolling energy may be called a soul, which arose gradually from the instincts, progressed to a rudimentary intelligence, and passed ultimately into * the development of intellectual and spiritual man. “When that momentous period arrived,” says Professor Fiske, “in animal evolution, when the physical variations became of less value than the mental or psychical, then all physical variations ceased.” 15 The cerebrum, or that portion of the brain employed as the organ of the mind, by constant exercise commenced to expand in a rapid ratio. The enlarged mind required the full action of the hands, and this necessitated by use — the full development of the arms and legs, and the animal became a biped with its head raised toward the heavens. The use of the hands rendered unnecessary that strong jaw which had been used to hold on to objects and for defense and assault, hence its bones and muscles receded by disuse, and the mouth retreated as the forehead was pushed forward by the increased cerebrum. The ape- like features gradually disappeared, as the mute ancestor of man built his fires, and broke off fragments of rock to use as knives, hatchets, and arrow heads. The mighty fabric of evolution which had passed from nebulz to sun, from sun to planet, from planet to crystal- line rocks and thence into organic life, ascending through the vegetable and animal kingdoms through a continued struggle for existence which had lasted eons of time, was at last putting forth the bud of its efflorescence. At what precise period the germ of the immortal spirit was implanted or budded in the half human ancestor of man, we have no means of knowing. . The change was wonderfully momentous, for then man was created, speech was evolved, and as the divine ray within him opened his perceptions, he looked forward to the future and desired continued life. The buried dead seemed gone forever, but their spirits returned to say that they had never truly died but were still living in a spirit world. Thenceforth the dead were buried with ceremonies and funeral feasts, and the implements they had used with food were placed in their graves ; at certain times sacrifices were offered, and supplications made for their good will and assistance. “From that period to the present the intellectual advance has been so great as to overshadow all previous 16 achievements of evolution,” says Fiske, “a new chapter in its history had opened with the advent of man. Hence- forth, along this supreme line of geueration, there was to be no further evolution of new species through physical variation, but through the accumulation of psychical varia- tions, one particular species was to be indefinitely per- fected and raised to a totally different plane from that on which all life had hitherto existed.” Man has continued to ascend from the rough and polish- ed stone ages, through those of bronze and iron, until he is now passing into the age of steel. This progress was very slow at first, but became more rapid as art and science gave new and better tools to work with, and moreenlarged perceptions of his relatious to the conditions under which he lived. The present century has far surpassed all the past in the number and value of its inventions and discoveries; a new leaf has been turned in the world’s history; man, no longer satisfied with picking up pebbles on the shore of the ocean of truth, has fairly embarked on the great expanse, and startling have been the results. Im the eloquent language of the Reverend Heber Newton, “the face of the universe has practically changed for man. To read the story of science for the last fifty years, is to read a tale stranger far than the wildest fairy tale which the fancy of man has ever written. Forces that would have dwarfed the genii of romance and made Aladdin’s Lamp a childish toy, are our familiars. The law of evolution stands over all life. Before this revolution the old intel- lectual systems are breaking away on every hand. A new universe, with a new man confronting it, forces upon us a new thought of God and of human destiny.” The supernatural is passing away as a deeper insight opens to the understanding that nature is but the expres- 17 sion of God’s thoughts, hence there can be nothing above her laws; everything that happens must be natural, how- ever surprising or incomprehensible it may seem to man’s limited mind and powers; such would be superhuman but not supernatural. ‘We live in anage of mystery. There is not a problem in the simplest and most exact depart- ments of science which does not speedily lead us to a transcendental problem that we can neither solve nor elude.” —( Fiske. ) The physicist confines himself to the known laws of nature in his examination of phenomena, and is doing valuable work in the fields of science; he is wise if he admits that there are possibilities in transcendental physics not measured by his metre, or weighed by his gram. In the ascending organic structure of evolution the roots of which were embedded in the debris of crystalline rocks, branches of different life-forms were from time to time thrown out, which in some instances after a certain ascent curved downwards, but the main stem steadily continued to rise upwards and ultimately put forth the efflorescence of man. Will it continue to grow, or has evolution ceased ? The grand mechanism of creation, with its countless operations extending through many millions of years, continually evolving higher and higher conditions and organisms to man, cannot cease its operations ; 2t pushes forward toa higher existence. But what higher life can there be? “Upon the Darwinian theory, it is impossible that any creature zoologically distinct from man and superior to him, should ever atany future time exist upon the earth.’"—(Fiske.) Here, apparently, the old problem presents itself of an irresistible impelling force encount- ering an immovable obstacle. fa'ge ty eet ne | P , 4% awe ye > 18 Any new existence, following in the line of evolution, must have the organization of man —it cannot be other- wise. Perfected man can only be surpassed by having a body of such light matter that it can be moved by voli- tion, and endowed with such superior senses as to impart superior powers. Such a superior existence is conceivable, and would be strictly in the line of type evolution. It would have to grow up with living man, for at death evolution would cease. Then in a living human being there must be two co-existing complete bodies; an inner one of finer matter interpenetrating the exterior or grosser one, somewhat analogous to the gelatinous bone pervad- ing the mineral one; the two bones are of the same size and occupy practically the same space, and can be separ- ated by chemical art, but together form the one or actual bone of the structure. The separation of the two bodies in man is possible during life, and may be less or more, and this is represented by the amount of consciousness remaining with the grosser body. A slight separation is indicated by a state of leth- argy, and enfeebled physical perceptions and feslings; a greater degree is followed by a state of trance or profound sleep, in which sensation is lost, and but feeble action of the heart and lungs; a complete separation results in death. In proportion as consciousness leaves the outer body it increases in the lighter form as demonstrated by occult facts; and the powers of this Ego or Soul inerease in a greater ratio, since they are no longer largely neutralized by the gross matter to which it was attached—like the strengthening or releasing the action of a magnet by the removal of its armature. Under tavorable conditions it may be able to condense the light matter into a visible and tangible form, which is called the Double or Doppelganger, Scin Lecca, Wraith, Ghost or Spirit, and by the Brahmans Astral body; this fact has been vouched for by all peoples and in all times. It is only in a recent period, however, that the matter has 19 been critically examined by a large number of able men, in this country and in Europe, whose statements are sustained by unnumbered thousands of living witnesses. The accumulated literature on the subject—in several instances by men prominent in the world of science—is very large, and the earnest investigator bas abundant means at his command, as weil as actual and conclusive experimental observation. It is now known that the priests of Egypt and of the Orientals, had studied the matter from very early times, and had imparted their knowledge in several instances to the ancient philosophers as initiates. It is not intended at this time to enter further into the discussion of the subject, except by imparting information, derived from the above sources, in the line of continued evolution. After the process of death, which is in fact but the sep- aration of the two bodies, the soul of the animal, like that of man, continues to exist with its lighter body; but living only in the present with a dreamy memory of the past, it has no conception of a continued existence, hence no desires predicated thereon; thus its will power is not exercised like man’s, to prevent that gradual disintegration into life yerms—or dissolving into the vital ether—which has been shown in the essay on the Persistence of Life to be the law or tendency of all organic forms and forces. Its continued existence however, can be assured by the desire or will of man, as long as such will continues to act. It is customary to call the human being when separated from its grosser body a Spirit, but this leads to confusion of ideas, as will be seen in the analysis of man’s organiza- tion to be presently given; a less objectionable designation would be Evolved Human. +hy} Organization of J¥lan. Bopy. FoRM OF LIGHTER MATTER. Psycnop, a semi-intellectual force which unites the soul with the body. AnimaL Sout, with an interior yerm of @ superior existence called the Sririr. Pure Sprrir is the result of the complete develop- ment of the spirit-germ of the soul. In the earth-life these all exist together but in different proportions. In the lowest man there is present a mere germ of the Spirit, which indicates its existence by ex- hibiting a feeble conscience; the animal soul rules. In the best developed man the Spirit largely influences bg thoughts and actions. The soul has more or Jess intelligence, but the highest intelligence is derived from the Spirit, which in its com- plete development may be called Cexesriat. Cevestiat or Hicuestr Spirirs possessing unbounded éntel- ligence must perceive everything in its true relations; there can be necessarily no difference of idea in any case, hence they must have a unity of will and act as a unity, with inginite knowledge and infinite power. a The Evolved Human continues its development by the interior Spirit absorbing the higher faculties or forces of the soul; the lower or animal parts, from disuse, gradually disintegrate and dissolve into the vital ether. The development is complete when the last traces of the soul disappear, and the Pure Spirit emerges in the boundless realms of infinitude. If the human being’s organization was of such low degree that there was insufficient higher forces in the soul to supply pabulum for the growth or development of the interior Spirit, the latter is set free, and passes into the vital ether to enter into the existence of a new human - a1 embryo. In such case the Evolved Human becomes a mere animal soul, and shares its fate of ultimate annihi- lation as an individuality. After death the Evolved Human leaving behind its grosser parts, is no longer subject to physical disabilities ; it carries with it its conscious individuality and finds itself in a new world, in some respects not unlike the one it left. Its far more delicate senses, which had been obseured in the body by the grosser ones, now place it in communication with its new world of finer matter; this it realizes as being more perfect and actual than that of its previous earth life. It is met by relatives and friends, some of whom may have long passed away, but who it now perceives had never ceased to live; thev welcome it to its new existence, after which it gravitates towards tiat society most in accordance with its sympathies and former pursuits. It finds this great difference between the new life and the old; in the latter, communities are heterogenously formed; the wise and ignorant, good and bad are associ- ated together by the necessity of circumstances. The worser are sustained and protected by the laws and customs of the better. In the new life its numerous com- munities are each homogeneous in itself ; the good are no longer hampered by the bad, and the bad congregate together. Like seeks like, and the material surroundings and capabilities of each association are in accordance with its desires. Thus the undeveloped in Spirit live in contentions, and more or less unhappiness; the worst avoid the good with whom they have no sympathy of feeling nor of pursuits. The animal-soul holds the feeble Spirit in bondage, and thus the soul is left to its own devices. Unlimited memory recalls every incident of misspent lives, and the tide of wordly influence having passed away, it is left stranded,—it may be for years or centuries, —on the barren shores of neglect, discontent, regret, and remorse. 22 The Spirit, in the more developed or good, leads the soul as a child into cheerful and sympathetic associations and surroundings: where congenial pursuits and higher aspirations lead upwards continually to superior states of happiness, knowledge, and power. In continuation of the philosophy of evolution a few more words will be added. Humanity is regarded as a Brotherhood of many grades, enveloped by physical and moral conditions over which it has but partial control, thus suggesting and urging universal charity. The evolutionist holds that this world is a grand and complex machine in process of construction, hence incom- plete and necessarily imperfect in its action ; it is becom- ing better and better as time advances, gradually evolving good out of apparent evil, and this has been its history from the beginning and will so continue. In the words of the able Cambridge Author, “The future is lighted for us with the radiant colors of hope. Strife and sorrow shall disappear. Peace and love shall reign supreme. The dream of poets, the lesson of priest and prophet, the inspiration of the great musician, is con- firmed in the light of modern knowledge.” The evolutionist worships in a temple that has the broad earth for its floor, and the blue dome of heaven for its canopy. Its music is the murmuring forest, the sound- ing shore, and the grand chorus of heavenly harmonies sung by the sweet voice of nature. Its preachers are “the tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, teaching there is good in everything.” 23 The Being adored is the Mighty Spirit of the Universe whose divine presence fills the immensity of creation dis- pensing lifeand action throughout the realms of infinitude. In conclusion, I cannot do better than to quote the elo- quent words of Canon Kingsley’s Hypatia, somewhat mod- ified: ‘It is but a little time, a few days longer in this prison-house of our degradation, and each thing shall return to its own fountain; the blood-drop to the abysmal beart, and the water to the river, and the river to the shining sea; and the dewdrop which fell from heaven shall rise to heaven again, shaking off the dust-grains which weighed it down, thawed from the earth-frost which chained it here to herb and sward, upward and upward, ever through stars and suns, through angels, archangels - and seraphs, purer and purer through successive exist- ences, till it enters the great J Am and finds its home at. hast.