PREFACE. If one object more than any other has exercised a controlling influence over my thoughts and motives in the preparation of this volume, it has been to throw, if possible, some new light from a philosophical and scientific standpoint upon the problem of man's conscious and substantial existence beyond the present life. Aware of the almost numberless books which have appeared from time to time during the last hundred years with this object partially or wholly in view, I still could not help feeling that the subject had not yet become exhausted. The impression seemed to fasten itself upon me that whether or not I should succeed in finding a single grain of additional golden truth, there nevertheless remained hidden beneath the scoria and rubble of the scientific investigations which are now agitating the minds of advanced thinkers, undreamt-of lodes of precious evidence, favoring, if not absolutely demonstrating, a future state of being,—while in no department of philosophical or biological research were such stores of evidence likely to be discovered so richly deposited as in that which includes the great and complicated problems raised by Modern Evolution. It is a fact which thoughtful minds can not fail to recognize, that no philosophical theory in any way related to man's origin or destiny, or which in any degree involves man as a sentient and intellectual being, has ever so suddenly sprung into popular favor or taken such general possession of all classes of scientific thinkers as this modern crusade against religion popularly known as Darwinism. I therefore felt, after years of reading and thoughtful study and after carefully considering the true basis on which this theory rests, that no line of philosophical, metaphysical, or physiological discussion, could possibly furnish so varied an opportunity as this for directly and indirectly unfolding any new ideas I might have hit upon during my investigations bearing on this question of all questions-Are we destined to live after this earthly pilgrimage is ended, or is conscious existence eternally blotted out at death? Whatever scientific or philosophical discussions, therefore, may be found incidentally woven into this book, they will prove to have an indirect if not a direct bearing on this unparalleled problem of man's perpetual existence. Many of the subjects introduced and much of the reasoning concerning them will no doubt at first strike the reader as irrelevant to this central and paramount question of a future life; yet still, if the arguments are followed out to their legitimate aim and culmination, they will be seen to tend toward the predominant thought that all things in Nature which exist or can form the basis of a concept are really substantial entities, whether they are the so-called principles or forces of Nature or the atoms of corporeal bodies, even extending to the life and mental powers of every sentient organism, from the highest to the lowest. And since science has determined that no substance in the universe can be annihilated, there must therefore be deduced a scientific basis for the immortality of the soul if the life and mind should be conclusively shown to be substantial entities. It matters not, therefore, what analogical questions or facts of science may come before the reader in the preliminary chapters of this book, such as those relating to the substantial or entitative nature of Sound, Light, Heat, Gravitation, Electricity, Magnetism, Odor, Air, &c., they have one intrinsic and paramount object constantly in view, and that is, to insensibly but surely prepare the way for an intelligent conviction in the mind of the reader that the present life can not, in the very nature and fitness of things, be all there is of us or for us. In view of this matchless consummation, I now venture the assertion that the reader will find, ere he finishes this volume, numerous scientific proofs which may be fairly classed as demonstrative, showing that the life and mental powers are as really substantial entities, though intangible to the physical senses, as are the blood, bone, and muscle, constituting our corporeal organisms. A writer in the North American Review (Thomas Hitchcock), after showing the entire reasonableness of the substantial nature of the soul, calls upon scientists for the physiological and psychological facts which shall demonstrate it, and truly adds: "Certainly, the achievements of science, of which we boast so much, are worth but little if they can not aid us to solve this problem." The facts thus called for are to be found in this volume, though they were written and in type months before the article referred to appeared in the Review. For many years I have had incessantly before me, as the crowning ambition and culminating triumph of my earthly existence, this one superlative achievement, namely, to add a few rationally scientific reasons, hitherto undiscovered, which should go to render a future conscious state of being for man clearly probable, aside from and in addition to theological considerations, and thus bring the certitude of immortality so far into accord with the settled principles of philosophy and science-making it so harmonious and consistent with the current modes of thought—as to command the attention and respect of advanced thinkers and investigators in whatever department of scientific research. To accomplish so grand a work as this, I saw plainly that, first of all, the complete overthrow of evolution, by the destruction of the main arguments on which it rests, had become an absolute necessity; for so long as naturalists can triumphantly point to one of their leading scientific facts or physiological phenomena which has not been fairly wrenched from the grasp of evolution, so long will all scientific evidence of man's intrinsic susceptibility of and primordial adaptivity to an immortal state of being have with them but the weight of a provisional hypothesis. Prior, however, to undertaking the task of breaking through the entrenched works. of the evolutionist, and in order to prepare the reader for placing the proper estimate upon these so-called scientific theories which assume to overthrow religion,—such, for example, as Mr. Darwin's doctrine of man's development from the monkey,I resolved, as an example of what might be expected in the future, to attempt the overthrow of one of the universally accepted theories of science, a theory which has never been called in question by any writer on the subject, and one which is considered to-day by all scientists as firmly established as the Copernican Theory of Astronomy, or as little to be doubted as the law of gravitation, namely, the WaveTheory of Sound, out of which has been developed the Undulatory Theory of Light and the more recently constructed theory of Heat as a Mode of Motion. In this seemingly preposterous and hazardous attempt I was necessarily compelled to undertake the additional task of reviewing no less an authority than Professor Tyndall (the ablest and most popular exponent of the sound-theory now living), and of thus demonstrating the complete unreliability and defenselessness of the scientific opinions and statements of one of the most aggressive advocates of modern evolution, even when treating on the simplest facts of science and making the most ordinary philosophical deductions. If I have succeeded in this attempt, and if the wave-theory of sound has had to succumb fairly to the arguments brought against it, in defiance of the supposed facts and demonstrations published to the world by this highest living authority, then the reader may justly discount evolution in advance as having no sort of claim on the belief of mankind based on the ground of scientific authority. I had, moreover, another and distinct object in view in attempting to break down and revolutionize the current sound-theory, as the reader will frequently observe coming to the surface, and that was this: If the wave-theory of sound is really a fallacy in science, then nothing remains to be accepted but the hypothesis that sound consists of corpuscular emissions and is therefore a substantial entity, as much so as is air or odor; and if sound is thus absolutely proved to be a substance, there can not be the shadow of a scientific. objection raised against the substantial or entitative nature of life and the mental powers. In that portion of this work relating directly to the review of Mr. Darwin's theory of transmutation, I have sought primarily to present the arguments in opposition to evolution, spontaneous generation, &c., in such concise and simple language as to make every question discussed at once understood by the most ordinary reader. In seeking to avoid circumlocution, I may have sometimes gone to the extreme the other way; and in aiming at directness of results by dealing with and massing solid and naked facts, may have occasionally hurled too abruptly the monstrous inconsistencies of the doctrine into the teeth of evolution. Whatever apparent want of courtesy certain passages may have at times betrayed, nothing but the kindest of feelings and highest personal and professional regard for the great authors I have had occasion to review, coupled with an earnest desire to rivet the truth and force of my arguments upon the memory of the reader, has had the slightest influence in dictating the tone of such occasional paragraphs. I have therefore made it my leading object to conduct the discussion and condense the arguments against the theory of man's descent by transmutation from lower animals in such a manner that the most superficial reader shall hereafter have the weapons at hand to meet with irresistible effect even the acknowledged champions of the system, if need be, and thus put a check to its progress where most required. With what success the following pages shall have carried out this programme, and to what extent they may in the future accomplish the result intimated, the reader must judge after he has perused the volume. It need only be added that the work is frankly offered to the public as an imperfect and humble contribution to what is believed to be the cause of true scientific knowledge, by NEW YORK, June 1, 1877. THE AUTHOR. PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. Since the early edition of this book was published, partly in meter, the author has had an abundant reason to become satisfied that the metrical form of the argument was a mistake, so far, at least, as the general reading public is concerned. Without disparagement of the force of the arguments thus rhythmically composed, their appropriateness for critical discussions, such as those involved in the investigation of evolution, materialism, etc., can be justly questioned. This mistake, however, which has forced the present revision, was not without its value, since it has given the author occasion to reconsider the entire subject, take advantage of the more recently developed phases of the questions discussed, and to incorporate into his reviews criticisms of fresh scientific researches, particularly those just brought out in Prof. Haeckel's masterly work entitled, The Evolution of Man, examined in the seventh chapter of this book. Many other things contained in the re-written chapters, and necessary to the completeness of the general argument of the work, have been called forth by recent literature on these subjects, and consequently could not have been so effectively discussed by the author at the time the book was originally written. A demand is beginning to be felt throughout Christendom, particularly among the reading and thinking laity, no less than the clergy-for a book on evolution and kindred materialistic questions, suitable for the common reader, and which shall, by unmistakable arguments, lay the ax at the very root of the tree of descent with blows that can neither be parried nor resisted. It is seriously believed that nothing less than such heroic treatment, without temporizing with evolution or apologizing for its possible truth under any view of natural science, can meet the vii exigencies of these aggressive theories, or cause the masses of students in our colleges and universities to pause and reflect before making their final decision against the claims of religion. In a word, it is felt that a book on this subject is imperatively needed that not only shall explain every scientific fact upon which these modern doctrines are based, but shall turn such facts, when fairly interpreted, directly against the doctrines thus opposed. Only such treatment of the subject, in opposition to the carping and quibbling tendency of so-called modern science, and the compromising policy of many of the clergy, will have any force in checking the advance of evolution even into the pulpits of our most enlightened evangelical churches. Let the reader, who doubts the danger here intimated, read the introductory chapter of this book, and he will be convinced that we are rapidly approaching a common ground on which all essential distinction between evolution and religion, or even between spontaneous generation and God's creative, intelligent intervention is about to be obliterated by this temporizing surrender to so-called science on the part of the most learned divines in our land. As an evidence of the existence of these dangers, there appeared recently in the New York Sun (April 18, 1880,) an editorial article containing this paragraph: "To these ideas, and to this philosophy, as we have said, the clergy, learned and pious as they are, scem almost indifferent. No effort is made to confront them and drive them from the field by clearer demonstration, more solid learning, and superior force." To this statement a writer, replies as follows: because they cannot. "The reason why the clergy do not do this is Before the Napoleonic charges of Huxley and Tyndall and Spencer, even, the clergy might have rallied, but their party." armies are disbanding in the face of the storming |