The natural i^roofs of the immortality of the soul are treated very skilfully by professor Chace, in the Bihli- o/heoa Sac7-a for February, 1849. First he analyzes the Phaido of Plato, and finds it to contain the followuig ar- guments for immortality : 1. From the capacity and de- sire of the soul for knowledge, bej'ond what in this life is attainable ; 2. From the law of contraries, according to which, as rest prepares for labor, and labor for rest ; as light ends in darkness, and darkness in light ; so life, leading to death, death must, in turn, termuiate in life ; 3. From the reminiscences of a previous existence, which the soul brings with it into the present life ; 4. From
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the simple and indivisible nature of the soul; only com- pound substances undergo dissolution ; 5. From the es- sential vitality of the soul itself. He adds that al- though these arguments did not amount, in the estima- tion of Socrates, " to an absolute proof of the doctrine, he thought them sufficient not only to deprive death of all its terrors, but to awakeniw the mind of a good man, when approaching death, the calm and cheerfid hope of a better life." These arguments, however, are far behind the present state of science. The second and third rest on purely imaginary foundations ; the fourth and lifth are inconclusive ; and the lirst only, we grant, has a real, though subordinate value. Cicero adds to these arguments one from the consensus gentium, a uni- versal prevalence of a belief in immortaUty. Of But- ler's argument for immortality in the Analogy, the pro- fessor remarks that it is perhaps less fortunate than any other part of that great work. " Both of the main ar- guments employed by him are no less applicable to the lower animals than to man, and just as much prove the immortality of the living principle connected with the minutest insect or humblest infusoria as of the human soul. It is not a little remarkable that this fact, which in reality converts the attempted proof into a reductio ad absurdum of the principles from which it is drawn, should not have awakened in the cautious mind of But- ler a suspicion of their soundness, and led him to seek other means of establishing the truth in question. These he would have found, and, as we think, far better suited to his purpose, in the facts and principles so ably and so fully set forth in his chapters on the moral government of God, and on probation considered as a means of disci- pline and improvement. Indeed, we have always beeiT of the opinion that these two chapters contain the onlj-^ real and solid grounds for belief in a future life which the work presents; the considerations adduced in the one particularly appropriated to that object serving at furthest only to answer objections to the doctrine." Professor Chace founds his own argument chieflj' upon the gradual and progressive development of life in our planet, from the epoch of its earliest inhabitant down to the present hour, which development, taken in connec- tion with the capacities and endowments of the soul, in- dicates, on the part of the Creator, a purpose to con- tinue it in being.
See, besides the authorities already referred to, Mar- silius Ficinus, De Immortalltate AnimcB (Par. 1641, fol.) ; an extract of it is giveia in Buhle, Gesch. d. tieueren Phi- loso2)hie, ii, 171 sq. ; Spalding, Besthnmung des Menschen (Leips. 1794) ; Struvius, Hist. Doct. Grcecorum et Ronia- norum, de Statu A nimanun post mortem (Alten, 1803, 8vo) ; Meier, Philosophische Lehre v. Zustand der Seek ; Mendelssohn, Phcedon (Berlin, 1821) ; Hamann, Unster- blichkeit (Leips. 1773, 8vo) ; Jacobi, Philos. Beweis. d. Unslerblichkeit (Dessau, 1783) ; Fichte (J. G.), Destina- tion of Man (tr.by Mrs. E. Sinnett, London, 1816, 12mo) ; Jean Paul Eichter, Das Campaner-Thal. (Frankf. 1797, 8vo); Olshausen, Antiq. Putnim de Inimortalitate Sen- tentice (lleglom. 1827, 4to) ; Herrick, Si/Uoge Scriptm-uni de Immortalitate, etc. (Eegensb. 1790, 8vo) ; Knapp, The- ology, § 149 ; Hiiffell, Ueber d. Unsterblichkeit d. mensch- lichen Seele (Carlsruhe, 1832) ; Hase, Evangel. Protest. Dogmatik, § 82, 84 ; Duncan, Evidence of Reason for Im- mortality (1779, ^vo); TiUotson, A^emorw, ix, 309 ; Hale, Sir ^Matthew, Works, i, 331 ; Stanhope, Boyle Lectures (1702, 4to, serm. 3) ; Foster, Sermons, i, 373 ; Sherlock, Works, i, 124; Dwight, Sermons, i, 145; Channing, Works, iv, 169 ; Chalmers, Works, x, 41o ; Drew, on Im- mortality (Philadel. 1830, r2mo) ; Newman, The Soul (Lond. 1849, 12mo) ; Quarterly Review, Aug. 1834, p. 35 ; New York Review, 1,331; Coleridge, A ids to Reflection, p. 209-212 ; Eobert Hall, Woi-ks, i, 189 ; ii, 373 ; Howe, Works, 8vo ed., p. 193 ; Amer. Bible Repository, x, 411 ; Christian Spectator, viii, 556 ; Xew Engkinde'r, ix, 544 sq. ; xi, 362 sq. ; xiv, 115 sq., 161 sq. ; jilefh. Quart. Rev. July, 1864, p. 515 ; Oct. 1863, p. 685 ; Julv, 1860, p. 510 ; Jan, 1865, p. 133; Bib. Sacra, 1860. p. sio sq.; Bajitist
Quart. Rev. 1870, April, art. v; Journal of Speculative Philosophy, April, 1870, art. i; Schalberg (Dr. J.), Un- sterblichkeit o. d. pers. Fortdauer d. Seele n. d. Tode (3d edit. Naumberg, 1869) ; Egomet, Life and Immortality (Lond. IsCiO) ; Schott, Sierben u. Unsterblichkeit (Stuttg. 1861); \)mm'i^m\,i:iiiimortalite (Paris, 1861) ; Naville, La Vir lit, rnillv (ViXK. IS(io); Huber, /(/ee (/. Unsterblich- keit ( Municli, isci) ; r,;i-u(iiault de Puchesse, L7/«7«or- i'ilii< { r.'ir. Im; I ) ; I'lall'. Idrm e.Arztes ii.d. Unsterblich- hit d.S.ilr (^l)rcs.len, L^tU); Wilm&xshoi, Das .renstits (L[)Z. 1863); Kitzsch, System of Christian Doctrine (see Index) ; Pye Smith, First Lines of Christ. Theol. p. 144, 352, 357 ; Saisset, Modern Pantheism (Edinburgh, 1863, 2 vols. 12mo), i, 140 sq., 263 ; ii, 36 sq. ; Alger, history of Future Life (3d ed. Phila. 1864) ; Schneider, I Hi- I 'usfo'b- lichkettsidee, etc. (Regensb. 1870, 8vo) ; Brinton. Myths of the New World (N. Y. 1868, 12mo). (J. H. W.)