The Day After Death; Or, Our Future Life According to Science (New Edition)Figuier, Louis
Religion
The Day After Death; Or, Our Future Life According to Science (New Edition)
Figuier, Louis
Cosmology; Future life; Transmigration
Owing to the immense scope of their faculties, and to the perfection of
their language, in itself a certain means of increasing and exalting
their knowledge, superhuman beings have a power of reasoning, and a
clearness of judgment, which, added to the immense number of facts
stored in their memory, place them in possession of absolute science.
Arduous questions, before which the mind of man humbly confesses its
powerlessness, or which drive him mad if he persists in the effort to
solve them, such as the thought of the Infinite, the idea of the First
Cause of the Universe, the Essence of Divinity, all these problems,
forbidden to us, are easily accessible to these mighty thinkers. He who
is regarded by mankind as a genius of the first order, an Aristotle,
a Keppler, a Newton, a Raphael, a Shakespeare, a Molière, a Mozart, a
Lavoisier, a Laplace, a Cuvier, a Victor Hugo, would be among them a
babbling child. No science, no moral idea is above their conception.
Beneath their feet rolls the earth, with the splendid train of the
planets, its sisters; they behold the planets of our solar system
gravitating in harmonious order round the great central star, which
deluges them with its light. From the height of their sublime abode
they witness the infinitely various spectacles furnished by the
elemental strife of our poor globe, and those which resemble it; and,
happier than terrestrial humanity, they admire the works of God, while
knowing the secret of their mechanism. In the moral order they have
penetrated the great _Wherefore_! They know why man exists, and why
they themselves exist. They know whence they come, and whither they
are going; and we, alas! know neither. Where, to our eyes, there is
only confusion, they perceive harmony and order. The designs of God
are distinctly apparent to them, and also the events of the lives of
nations and individuals, which often seem to us cruel, unjust, and bad
on the part of God; but they understand that these events are just and
useful, and worthy of our heartfelt gratitude.
We also think, that in the ethereal spaces time is an element which
does not count. We believe this, because time does not exist for God,
and all superhuman beings approach, by their perfections, the entirely
spiritual nature, and consequently approach God. We are confirmed in
this belief by the fact, that very profound grief resists time, that
there is no limit in duration to the great blows struck at the human
soul, that the loss of a beloved being is felt as keenly after a long
interval as when he was taken away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account