In the course of these researches many have been at a
loss to account for the change which takes place in the body at the
time of death. By some it has been attributed to the flight of its
tenant, and by others to its final annihilation.
The questions, "What becomes of the soul at the time of death?" and,
if it be not annihilated, "What is its destiny after death?" are those
which, from the interest that we all feel in them, will probably
engross universal attention.
In pursuing these inquiries it will be necessary to divest ourselves
of all that knowledge which we have obtained from the light which
revelation has shed over them, and place ourselves in the same
position as the philosophers of past ages when considering the same
subject.
The first argument which has been advanced to prove the immortality of
the soul is drawn from the nature of the mind itself. It has (say the
supporters of this theory) no composition of parts, and therefore, as
there are no particles, is not susceptible of divisibility and cannot
be acted upon by decay, and therefore if it will not decay it will
exist forever.
Now because the mind is not susceptible of decay effected in the
ordinary way by a gradual separation of particles, affords no proof
that that same omnipotent power which created it cannot by another
simple exertion of power again reduce it to nothing. The only reason
for belief which this argument affords is that the soul cannot be
acted upon by decay.
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