II. On the Immortality of the Soul.
The doctrine that Man lives for ever seems almost as
general as the belief in a God. Like that, it comes
naturally from an eternal desire in the human heart; a
longing after the Infinite. In the rudest nations and the
most civilized, this doctrine appears. Perhaps there has
never been but a single form of Religion among civilized
men under which it was not taught plainly and distinctly,
and here it was continually implied. It seems we have by
nature a sentiment of immortality; an instinctive belief
therein. Rude nations, in whom instinct seems to
predominate, trust the spontaneous belief. They construct
an ideal world, in which the shade of the departed pursues
his calling and finds justice at the last; recompense for
his toil; right for his earthly wrongs. The conception of
the form of future life depends on the condition and
character of the believer. Hence it is a state of war or
peace; of sensual or spiritual delight; of reform or
progress, with different nations. The notion formed of the
next world is the index of man's state in this. Here the
Idolater and the Pantheist, the Mahometan and the Christian,
express their conflicting views of life. The Sentitiment
and Idea of immortality may be true, but the
definite conception must be mainly subjective, and therefore
false. In a low stage of civilization the doctrine, like
the religious feelings themselves, seems to have but little
moral influence on life. It presents no motive to virtue,
and therefore does not receive the same place in their system
as at a subsequent period.
In rude ages men reason but little. As they begin to be civilized they ask proofs of Immortality, not satisfied with the instinctive feeling; not convinced that infinite Goodness will do what is best for all and each of his creatures. Hence come doubts on this head; inquiries; attempts to prove the doctrine; a denial of it. There seems an antithesis between instinct and understanding. The reasoning
dotal class. See some admirable remarks on the savage state in de Maistre, Soirées de St Petersburg, Vol. I. See also Leroux's criticism on the opinions of Jouffroy and Pascal in his Réfutation de l'Eclecticism, 1840, p. 330, et seq. Leroux believes in the progress of all species, Man, the Beaver, and the Bee. M. Maret, ubi sup., p. 30, et seq., and 240, et seq., makes some very judicious observations.
