It is hard to conceive a soul entirely cut loose from the old bones,
and roving rudderless about eternity. It was probably this inability to
mentally divorce soul from substance that gave us that absurdly
satisfactory belief in the resurrection of the flesh. There is said to
be a race of people somewhere in Africa who believe in the immortality
of the body, but deny the resurrection of the soul. The dead will rise
refreshed after their long sleep, and in their anxiety to test their
rejuvenated powers, will skip bodily away and forget their souls. Upon
returning to look for them, they will find nothing but little blue
flames, which can never be extinguished, but may be carried about and
used for cooking purposes. This belief probably originates in some dim
perception of the law of compensation. In this life the body is the
drudge of the spirit; in the next the situation is reversed.
The heaven of the Mussulman is not incompatible with this kind of
immortality. Its delights, being merely carnal ones, could be as well
or better enjoyed without a soul, and the latter might be booked for
the Christian heaven, with only just enough of the body to attach a
pair of wings to. Mr. Solyman Muley Abdul Ben Gazel could thus enjoy a
dual immortality and secure a double portion of eternal felicity at no
expense to anybody.
In fact, there can be no doubt whatever that this theory of a double
heaven is the true one, and needs but to be fairly stated to be
universally received, inasmuch as it supposes the maximum of felicity
for terrestrial good behaviour. It is therefore a sensible theory,
resting upon quite as solid a foundation of fact as any other theory,
and must commend itself at once to the proverbial good sense of
Christians everywhere. The trouble is that some architectural scoundrel
of a priest is likely to build a religion upon it; and what the world
needs is theory—good, solid, nourishing theory.
Music—Muscular and Mechanical
One cheerful evidence of the decivilization of the Anglo-Saxon race is
the late tendency to return to first principles in art, as manifested
in substituting noise for music. Herein we detect symptoms of a rapid
relapse into original barbarism. The savage who beats his gong or
kettledrum until his face is of a delicate blue, and his eyes assert
themselves like those of an unterrified snail, believes that musical
skill is a mere question of brawn—a matter of muscle. If not wholly
ignorant of technical gymnastics, he has a theory that a deftness at
dumb-bells is a prime requisite in a finished artist. The advance—in a
circle—of civilization has only partially unsettled this belief in the
human mind, and we are constantly though unconsciously reverting to it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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