The evolution of immortality ...

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Preface

OEING convinced that an individual immortality lies outside of the realm of demonstration ; that it is a consciousness, a possession, an apprehension if anything, the aim of the writer as embodied in this little book is to make it merely suggestive. Should his work, therefore, prove helpful in this direction to any who may read, it will have sufficiently accounted for itself.

There are two or three questions not touched upon in the body of the volume that will, quite likely, arise in the minds of some who give this line of reasoning careful thought, which I desire to mention here :

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i. If, as is claimed, self-consciousness is spirit birth, and the individual, from the point of attaining self-consciousness, is an immortal being, the question will very naturally arise regarding the destiny of spiritual embryos, or infants. In other words : Must the continuity of development remain unbroken until the state of self-consciousness is reached before it may be said that an immortality is possible? In the case of infants, self-consciousness and self-determining powers have not emerged above the potential state. But as human life as we know it is potential in the embryo, so self-consciousness is potential in the unconscious infant. And right here is found a suggestion of an answer to the question. If the embryo is viable human life before actual birth, may we not believe that the infant, even before self-consciousness becomes an actual fact, has potential viable spirit? If the normal period of

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physical gestation may be considerably shortened, and still the potential life of the embryo may be realized, why should we not suppose that a like law relates to the spiritual life ?

2. It will also be noted that, assuming self-consciousness to be spirit birth, other forms of life, below man, may not possess viable spirit, and, consequently, do not have the quality or property of immortality common to man. Professor Le Conte, of the University of California, has written on this and similar points very strongly and convincingly, under the head of " Relation of Man to Nature," to which reference may be had to tbe advantage of such as are interested enough to pursue the matter further. In this connection, however, it is an unimportant consideration.

3. If it should seem to some that the element of a personal will has been overlooked in the conclusions arrived at, this

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must result, as it appears to me, in consequence of a failure on the part of such to apprehend the full meaning of the term used so often, viz. : environment. By this term, in its largest sense, is meant the infinity of spiritual forces that press down upon and around every human being with the constancy of gravitation itself. In fact, from the viewpoint of science to-day, all forces are spiritual forces, and the order and sequences of law are inseparable from any clear concept of God.

The whole realm of morals lies between the inheritance of imperfection, on the one hand, and the perfection of the spiritual nature and being, on the other. As God — of whom by Gospel and by Law we are taught to say " Our Father " — is superior to any supposed devil ; as good is more enduring than evil — an imperfect good ; in short, as infinite spiritual forces are stronger than the imperfections that come

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down to us by inheritance, so may our faith be as regards the ultimate destiny of that upon which these forces operate. We are indeed self-determining beings ; we are free to run counter to law ; not, however, to the injury of the law, for it mercifully and continually repays tithe by tithe, and will claim the last farthing. But the whole of life is an education, a discipline, which is calculated to result in that choice, that will, that action which is in harmony with the laws of Nature, which are, in themselves, essentially spiritual. Law vindicates itself by its power to save, not by destroying. Law is our divinely appointed schoolmaster, and it is capable of justifying its appointment. It is appointed with a purpose and for an end ; and the divine ends are believed to be sure by the

Author.

Springfield, Mass., September, 1887.

Contents

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Preface 9

I. Introductory 17

II

Of Embryological and Cell Life THAT do we know of our own life his-

" » tory ? What do we know of its origin ? It is not enough to say that we were born of this or that parentage, or at a certain time or place. This relates simply to an event, or to particular events in our history, and only to that part of it which appears at this stage of our being, this world of our existence. We have already lived in another stage or world, the embryological, and have been brought forth — born — from it into this. We, here, awake to a consciousness of selfhood and, at least, find ourselves related to an infinite past by an uninterrupted connection. Looking about us for further facts, we find that it may fairly be assumed that life, or the life-principle, is potentially and essentially the same in all past stages of our being ; that it made its own conditions and formed its own environments, having asked no questions of us ; that to be born or to die simply means, for the real identity, a change of worlds or environments ; that birth and death are allied functions of life, each the act or event of the emergence of an identity from a lesser to a higher stage or circle of existence ; that one possesses, or exhibits, the quality of destruction no more than the other ; that birth marks the beginning of a definite stage of physical existence, while death is its closing act — and also an introduction to another and higher stage ; that the only difference between the now and then, in each successive stage, is that which results from growth or development, " the unfoldment or evolution of a potentiality or germality that each preceding stage possessed, although obscured from the sense perception of finite beings/ '

These conclusions are based upon general facts of physical science, and find very strong support in that part of our history that relates to embryological and cell life. Hence it would seem apparent that our life history affords a reasonable premise upon which to postulate future states.

It may be pardonable if it is here stated that a personal study in this direction has led to that apprehension of the real meaning of life which is the true basis of a recognition of its possessing the quality of immortality. I do not think this too strong a statement. If, however, " our perception of one object contains a series of recognitions," we may not hope to make clear to others the validity of such recognition. Yet where demonstration is impossible, suggestions are often fruitful, and along this line it is proposed to notice here a few prominent facts that seem to be characteristic of antecedent stages, and which, in accordance with the laws of analogy and continuity, seem to be prophetic in reference to future states of being.

In order to understand the full import and significance of the embryological period, we must trace it back to its inception ; to that moment when it was "born." This occurred at the moment of molecular union or coalescence of the nuclei of two simple cells ; simple, and yet unfathomable with divine mystery, and containing the potency of all that we have been, are, and shall be.

But have we reached here, in the union of two cells, the origin of our life history ? By no means. We may have reached a point in it when we can say that here begins our identity, or personality, as an individual material organism ; but we have not reached the origin or completed the history of our life. Back of the embryological stands the cell life ; and back of the cell life stand the antecedents of cell life. Whence came these cells ? What are their functions ? And what is the relation of one cell to the other ? These are questions of very great importance. Especially is this true of the last, for, in this field, as in all others, "Knowledge is a perception of relations."

The embryological life, it has been stated, owes its immediate origin to the union of two living cells. Each of these cells, however, has had a distinct antecedent life history, and is capable of distinct functions. Neither of them alone is capable of assuming that higher expression of life which is manifested by reproduction. Either cell, left to itself, enters upon no higher form or stage of life. Let us, at this point especially, reverently view the facts ; for the histology, physiology, and functions of these cells are intensely suggestive of divine relations and creative power. Science has positively determined so little, especially with reference to the peculiar function of each of the two cells, that a very large range is left to mere inference. But in regard to the organic structure of each we do know, approximately at least, many things that, by the law of analogy, give more or less force to certain inferences or conclusions.

The paternal cell, for instance, is highly organized, and possesses the power of motion, and of locomotion also, to an extent; while the maternal cell exhibits an organic structure relatively minor in degree, and consequently a motion less peculiar to organisms is manifested. It presents rather the appearance, or more nearly the appearance, of matter in the mass or homogeneous state. The paternal cell is active, energetic, and apparently capable of acting upon the maternal cell and imparting to it an impulse, a "mode of motion," or power, that is inherently foreign to the latter, or that would, at least, otherwise remain latent. The maternal cell is, in many ways, suggestive of that phenomenon that is called inorganic matter ; while the paternal cell is equally suggestive of the life-giving principle, called spirit. In other words, the paternal cell seems to be the organized, vitalizing, life-giving agent which, acting upon the maternal cell, renders it capable of the resultant phenomenon of a higher form or expression of life.

Some of our scientists state as their opinion, based upon a long and careful investigation, that the paternal cell is the differentiating agent ; that the maternal cell represents the conservative element, while the paternal gives the impulse to change, or differentiation. In other words, the principle of inheritance — the first in the trinity of forces that stand back of and surround every individual being, governing and controlling its destiny — is vastly stronger in the maternal element than in the paternal ; while in the latter is found represented the second force of the above trinity, — the impulse to differentiate, or the power of adaptation to environment, which is the third force alluded to ; a trinity of forces, but, nevertheless, a unity.

And here, between inheritance on the one hand and environment on the other, is, surely, a tremendous demand for a quality of force that, in its essence at least, shall be no less than spiritual. If we regard environment in its largest and deepest significance, as forms of spiritual forces ever pressing down upon us, then we may perceive a plan of immense promise to the individual in the fact that each possesses, as a primary endowment, that which is designed to be responsive to the touch of a universe of spiritual realities external to it.

We thus gain the high vantage ground of susupremacy over mere animal inheritance. It is a divine way outward and upward that is coeval with the beginning of the physical organism.

Whatever the deeper law of unity may be that runs throughout the universe of phenomena, there seems to be, as an antecedent of such phenomena, a duality. In tracing the history of all phenomena we soon come to apparent duality — spirit and matter. And so this duality, or apparent duality, that stands back of organized matter is represented in the universe of organisms, and seems to stand back of the reproduction of organisms.

At this point I should state the proposition in this manner : In the realm of causation the reproduction of organisms is dependent upon the united forces of the male and female elements, in much the same manner as organized matter is dependent upon the united forces of — so called — spirit and matter. In other words, the essential division of the universe of organisms into male and female is in strict correspondence with the conception that posits spirit and matter as standing back of organized matter, or of organisms themselves. Thus we have here, to a significant extent, the poetical Genesis portraiture reproduced in the realm of physical phenomena. The maternal cell seems, largely at least, void of any form or suggestion of a higher order of life until it is " breathed upon " — quickened — by the paternal cell. But when this occurs, a new and higher form or expression of activity begins, called the embryological life.

The history, therefore, of the present stage of our life — not our organism — can be traced back on a line of unbroken continuity to the commencement of the embryological stage. Here it seems to branch off into two distinct channels, whence it has descended. But if our analogy is true to the essential facts in the case, the two channels are, on the one hand, that of matter, and on the other, that of life or spirit ; and it is in the latter, the spiritual, that our true personality is to be found. The life - principle or spirit always remains potentially or in essence the same, while the forms and combinations of matter, — the body, — by which the life-principle expresses itself, are constantly changing. It is never, any two hours, or even two minutes, absolutely the same. As a suit of clothes is to the body, so is the body to the individuality or ego ; and it should " have consideration only as a phenomenon which suits wants." " Body has its proper consideration when measured simply as a tool is viewed." Changing and changeable forms of matter per se cannot constitute personality. The " I Am " of any organism is something else than mere matter, at least as commonly understood. The simple elements of matter that constitute the organism come and go continually, forming a current of atoms through every part of our bodies, leaving, however, the individuality untouched and secure. The life-principle remains essentially the same through all the varied changes and stages of our life history, back as far as it is possible to trace it. Hence, while the unity or individuality of our present stage of existence seemingly emerges from duality, I hope to be able to add further evidence later on that it is only seeming, and that in reality it is, and also springs from, a unity.

Returning now to the two cells upon the union of which the embryological stage depends, let us inquire whence they came, and what of their origin and antecedents.

One thing at least is clear. Each of these cells has had a distinct life history. Each has had an inception, an unfoldment, and a death to preceding environments ; that death being its birth into a new world or stage of existence. The maternal cell, for instance, was once an inhabitant of the ovarian world, and was born from it into the uterine world. The paternal cell has also a similar history. Thus we see that even cell life is dependent upon a pre-existing life. Trace cell life back as far as it may be traced, and we are still confronted by a pre-existing life. It should also be noted that the farther it is traced at each step, the evidences multiply that life — all life — has its origin in the spiritual life, God.

The farther back we go, through one form of organism after another, through each successive grade and system, we find life assuming, to an ever increasing extent, a form which declares its divine origin and essence.

In this connection, however, an important fact should not be overlooked : The body, or organism, which the life-principle inhabits, and through which it manifests itself, is, in each successive backward stage, of a lower order ; and, furthermore, the manifestations of life are limited by, and dependent upon, the structure and complexity of the organism with which the life-principle has environed itself. Hence we catch a glimpse of the necessity of a constant succession of births and deaths, so called, if we are to progress endlessly, or have already entered upon a continuous, progressive existence. Viewed from the standpoint of physical science, to die — that is, to change our environment, to outgrow any given material world of limitations — is as much a necessity of growth as to be born. Death — a natural death — is, in fact, the culmination, or culminating act, of a given stage of existence. It is, in reality, simply a new birth ; a going forth of our real selves from organic limitations, or environments, that have become too restricted and are no longer capable of administering to our real growth, into a new sphere, a larger world, a higher and more complex form of material organism, in which, and through which, the life-principle within may have a broader, deeper, and higher scope and range of manifestation. It comes about as the result of the inadequacy of the organism to adapt itself to the demands of an unfolding life. The same life-principle that wove into form the individual organism, lays it down again when it has served the purpose for which it was summoned into existence.

" In death's unrobing room we strip from 'round us The garments of mortality and earth ; And, breaking from the embryo state that bound us, Our day of dying is our day of birth."

This has been the course of the physical law of birth and death thus far in our life's history. What reason then have we to suppose or fear that we have reached a point in our history when we are to pass under a new order or system of laws entirely the opposite in result ? Natural laws are not fickle or changeable; they are, rather, continuous and uniform.

As in the past all the forms of physical organization which our own life-principle has evolved for itself have been invariably from a lower to a higher, so we must infer that this self-same life-principle is now engaged, as it has always been engaged throughout the successive stages of its past development, in evolving an organism through and by which it may hereafter express itself more in harmony with its own nature and essence. In other words, our present physical body stands in similar relation to the spiritual body to be, as does the placenta to the embryo, the graafian vesicle to the ovum, or the membranes of this cell to its nuclear content. When the placenta, the embryological body, dies, the embryo comes forth into this, to it, new and strange world of experience and unfoldment. When the graafian vesicle reaches maturity or has completed its work, its product, the ovum, is born into a new stage of existence and environment in a manner strikingly analogous to the birth of the embryo. And so, in accordance with our analogy, when this physical body shall die, the spiritual body, its nuclear content, will go forth, freed from the limitations of its physical being, into a new sphere of greater possibilities and larger scope, carrying with it the same life-principle which it has inherited from the great past, re-enforced and ennobled by its legacy of human experience and acquired consciousness, the priceless result of this stage of our existence.

Let us now return to that point where it is stated that our identity as an individual organism may be said to have commenced ; the molecular union of the two parent cells. The individual life of both cells is merged into a single channel, and a new form of life commences, namely, the embryological existence ; the highest function of which is to evolve a new and higher material organism or body. The vivified or quickened maternal cell does this work apparently unaided by any other than its own and its newly acquired force or powers, excepting that of environment, up to a certain time, when it seeks for aid — nutrition — from without itself. It first evolves for itself a body, called the placenta, by the aid of which the growth and elaboration of an embryological organization is carried forward. When this work is completed, or when a human body is so far evolved as to render the placental world too restricted, the body dies and it, the embryo, is brought forth into this world of infinitely larger scope and possibilities, relatively, than its former environment.

Here death and birth are as essentially to to be found as anywhere, and the inference is plainly apparent. The body alone, having served its purpose, dies ; but not until another and more highly organized substitute is prepared to take its place as the home of the life or spirit that is undying and immortal. The same life-principle prepares for itself another and higher mode of expression. It is a unity or continuity of life. There never has been, nor will there be, another life ; it is the same life that has come down through the past, appears in this phase of its manifestation, and shall pass on into other and higher forms of material organization or objective expression.

For an analogy in our physical history we will return once more to the two cells, by the union of which ensues the embryological stage of our existence. The organic history of these cells, both paternal and maternal, can be traced back through what may be called a succession of births and deaths, or a bringing forth of the life-principle from one form of organization to another. The ovum or maternal cell has an inception, development, and maturity in the graafian vesicle or follicular body. From this body, when mature, it has a birth strikingly analogous to the birth of the perfected embryo. The graafian vesicle may therefore be termed the external body, or formative world, of the ovum, the ovum itself being the internal body, or the seat, or center, of the life of the vesicle.

The graafian vesicle is, in turn, formed, developed, and matured within its ovarian environment. But the life-principle of each individual cell precedes all forms of material organization that can be traced. Back of each stage of organization, or material expression, stands a pre-existing organism that life has woven into existence. In fact the life of these cells may be traced back into the dim distance of infinite time, beyond even the marriage, so to speak, of spirit and matter.

Ill l HE larger object of this study being to

* trace the history of our own individual life, rather than of the organism, and to draw conclusions therefrom, we must not rest content with following it back to a point where it first expresses itself in organic form. We can, however, merely glance at the general thought of the origin and nature of life.

Were it possible for us to go back in imagination to the time when a " speck " of protoplasm was first evolved from the long train of antecedent modes of creative energy, could we even then say that this is life ? By no means. We have what is termed " live " and " dead " protoplasm. We have protoplasm, it is true, wherever there is life ; but the most that can be claimed for it is that "it is the basis of life " ; the form in which life is first manifested. Life comes to it, and also leaves it.

Granting that the entire phenomena of worlds and of the universe, the expression of life in all forms, are the natural and orderly sequence of matter set in motion, the question of the origin of life would still remain unanswered. All that can be consistently claimed, in view of phenomena, is that it is an evolution simply, or unfolding, of that which had previously been subjected to an infolding, or involution. Evolution implies an involution. An infolding must, in the very nature of things, precede an unfolding. And so, when life is spoken of as being the result of the evolution of matter, or of matter set in motion, it would seem to be a manifest absurdity. It would be nearer the truth to say that matter had, at some far off point of time, been subjected to an involution of life, and is now engaged in the consequent process of evolution.

In other words, as the sun, with its radiancy of life-giving energies, the requisite of living activities of all planetary life, is to this planet of ours, so is Deity to the whole universe of matter. Matter infolds, or involves, the Divine radiancy and, therefore, evolves, or unfolds, this stored radiancy ; the manifestations of which process we have been in the habit of calling life. I said that something like this would seem to be nearer the truth than the proposition that life is a property, or product, of matter. But science and philosophy do not allow us to-day to rest the matter here. The veil has been pushed aside so as to permit of a still deeper and more reasonable hypothesis relative to the mysteries of life and Deity.

We have traced, or may trace, our history back — as all of life's phenomena must be traced — to the united energies, or oneness of God and Matter. I say oneness of God and matter. I do not wish to be understood as claiming that dualism is the ultimatum of this or any view. In the ultimate analysis of matter nothing will be found but Energy ; or, in another and equivalent word, God. This, at least, is a reasonable hypothesis, based upon the scientific investigation and deduction of the highest living authorities. If the entire material universe is now reducible to about seventy " simple elements," who shall say that this number may not be further reduced, even until the unit element is found ? A scientist remarked, not long since, that " the reduction of all the chemical elements to one, is, to-day, an entirely feasible hypothesis." All of our leading scientists will, I think, agree that different forms of matter — so called in a popular sense — are really but "modes of motion" of energies, all of which are reducible finally to one common energy; that the " elements" will finally be found to be nothing but "a mode of wave motion," an expression of Deity. In other words, that "the elements are no elements at all, being simply phenomena arising out of and going back into a primary or noumenon." Matter per se — that is, matter separated from, or independent of, its properties — is not apprehensible to physical sense. Hence matter, as such, cannot reasonably be called a sensible substance. It is, as viewed to-day, far more suggestive of a unity of all being, than of a duality. The real would seem to be a noumenon, that which sub stands — stands under or back of — phenomena. But in speaking of matter as simply phenomena, w r e use words that are liable to be misunderstood. I prefer to use the word Oneness, rather than any term that might imply that matter and Deity are distinct entities, one over against the other. The union or oneness is so complete that, if we say matter is God's organic body, or the form inhabited by Him, through and by which he manifests Himself, we should very nearly state the truth. The same idea may, however, be stated as follows : The universe of matter may be said to be God, if we remember that the Universe per se is an Infinite Organism, having an Ego, and that the ego is the real of any organism ; the thing itself behind phenomena.

The scientist, when looking with analytical eyes at any form or combination of matter, be it a drop of water or an ocean, one of the constituents of air or the whole atmosphere that envelops him, a grain of sand or a mountain, an atom or wavelet of ether, or a star that floats upon the bosom of a boundless etheric sea, an asteroid or a universe of planets, sees, as the result of his analysis, " motion," motion of different kinds, degrees, " modes " ; but all, all, quivering, pulsating, vibrating in answer to an adequate touch. Where motion is found there must be will behind it ; where will is, there also intelligence is. And so there must be behind, or in, this universe of infinite motion an Infinite Will, an Infinite Intelligence, an Infinite Life, that by and through this infinite phenomenon of motion — life — is expressing an Infinite Thought. The universe of matter then is, to us, a materialization of a thought of God.

If the scientist, awed by the immensity of his vision, calls the primal source of this wonderful manifestation an Infinite Energy, this is so because of his special education. If another, considering the same phenonenon, traces it to the same source and, in an ecstasy of soul, exclaims : Behold an Infinite God ! will the wise man intercept the current of uplifting and ennobling emotions in each by raising the insignificant question of terms to be made use of in the attempt to give expression to that which is simply inexpressible ? If, as Goethe says,