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tendencies of Nero, it does not follow that his moral susceptibilities instantly rose to the measure of Howard's; the inequality of the two, even on such a supposition, is as real as before. And thus, while analogy and presumption are wholly against the notion of such an equality, the facts of personal identity, as before given, are utterly subversive of such a theory.

It is sometimes objected, that it implicates the justice of God, to regard him as making such differences in the awards of his government. It is a sufficient reply to say, that immortality is not a thing due to man, but a gift, and that every good thing attached to it, is also a gift; and that it is absurd to reason on the assumption, that the bestowal of a gift on one individual, obligates the giver to bestow, as a matter of justice, an equal gift on every other individual. Besides, the objection defeats itself. It is based on the assumption that a just God must make the whole account with each individual, equal with that of every other. Carried out therefore, this principle would require that those who are of low degree bere, should be made of high degree hereafter; and that those who have been of high degree here, should be made of low degree hereafter; and that this future disproportion should be made to endure sufficiently long, to balance with the present disproportion,-all of which recognizes, though in an absurd form, the very doctrine we contend for, of future inequalities.

3. The future existence of man's personal identity also teaches, that the consequences of character, as formed here, extend into the future state of being. This statement must not be confounded with another, to the effect, that the punishment and rewards due to a man's conduct are to be experienced after death. We do not speak directly of individual acts and their deserts, but of the character which an individual forms, and hence of individual acts only as they help to form this character; and we affirm that some of the effects of this character must be experienced in the future life. This inference follows from the fact already shown, that man's mental developement must commence in the future life at the point where he leaves the present. The higher, therefore, in the formation of a good character, he succeeds in making the mark

of his progress before he dies, the higher will that mark be with which to commence the future; and for the same reason, the lower he fixes, for the present life, the mark of his decline, while in the formation of a bad character, the lower will be his stage of developement on entering the future world. And hence, to speak only of this one fact, the whole difference which one individual is able to make, with reference to his mental growth, between the formation of a good or of a bad character here, must be regarded as the sum of all the consequences he is here able to produce on his future condition. The continuance of a man's personal identity does not admit of any sudden enlargement or contraction in the essential qualities of his personality. Experience shows that these qualities may grow or decline to a great extent, and with great rapidity, without destroying the identity proper to them; but no experience favors the idea of any violent change in these respects; and in the absence of such experience, no such change must be presumed. The facts presented with regard to the relation of a man's present to his future stage. of developement, implying his power to produce, through the formation of character here, important consequences to be experienced hereafter, are thus seen to be based in other essential facts of his identity. The doctrine, therefore, that we have the power, in this world, to affect our condition in the future world, is a clear inference of the position assumed to be settled, that man's personal identity must accompany him into the future and immortal life.

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The doctrine thus developed must have great practical value with all who acknowledge its truth. For if, while we unhesitatingly trust in the attractiveness of goodness finally to win all hearts from sin to holiness, we also feel assured, that we have it in our present power to do much towards hastening this desirable end, we must feel a stronger incentive to live the life on which such important consequences depend.

We have thus developed, without carrying this part of the subject any farther, what we may term three facts appertaining to man's future life;-facts which, though so intimately related as, in many respects, to involve each the other two, may still be stated separately;-that there will be a variety in the condition of man's future life, that

there will be mental inequalites in this condition, and that important consequences to be experienced after death, depend upon the mental character formed here, and even upon individual acts, so far as such acts help to form this character. It is true that, in the common sense of the term, we cannot be said to know these things; neither in the same sense, can we know there is a future life itself. But as religious men unhesitatingly act on the presumption of such a life—in other words intuitively assume that they, their individuals selves, will live after this event of death-so may they, on the same principle, and for reasons equally substantial, act on the presumption that the positions we have now developed are also true. These positions follow with logical certainty from premises, which, as religious men, we never presume to doubt. To us, therefore, they have the authority of truth; and there is no consistent reason, why they should not enter as constituent elements in all our conceptions of the future state of being; why they should not appear in our teachings and appeals with reference to that state; why they should not give a character to the motives which actuate us, as moral and religious beings.

In conducting our inquiry thus far, we have purposely avoided the question, whether all, or only a part, of man's present personality is to survive the event of death. However we may answer this question, it will be seen, that the views already presented, can in no way be affected. Whatever of present man goes into the future life-be it all or but part of him-takes its identity, and this identity introduces into his condition all the results which we have already pointed out as necessarily following from such a position.

We do not propose to consider, at any length, the question-in itself of much importance-what part of man's present personality will be destroyed by death? In general terms, however, it may be stated, that there must be some essential attributes of our personality, which cannot be destroyed without destroying the personality itself, however true it may still be, that other attributes, at present attached to it, may be dissevered. without such a result. As with the body, certain limbs and organs of sense may be severed without destroying

the life of the body, while the destruction of other parts, such as the heart and lungs, is instantly followed by death; so with any particular personality,-some of its attributes may be taken away without any vital result, while other qualities must ever be essential to its existence. In other words, a man's personality, as well as his body, has vital properties; so that the future existence of this personality, or any part of it, implies the future existence. of these properties. Now, without undertaking to enumerate these properties, we may safely include in them the spiritual nature-meaning by this term, all that is essential to a man's moral, religious, and reflective existence. And hence, applying the argument already presented, we may be certain, that, while there will be a general variety in the future destinies of man, there will, at least, be a spiritual variety; that while there will be a general inequality in these destinies, there will, in particular, be moral, religious, and intellectual inequalities involved; and that while there will be general results experienced as occasioned by characters formed here, there will, in particular, be results which concern us as moral, accountable, and rational beings.

In concluding these remarks, it is proper to observe, that no theory with reference to a future life, can be complete, which overlooks the rapid results attendant on the change of circumstance, in the passage of the soul from the present to the future world. The same plant which is rank with poison at the equator, if transplanted in the sterile soil, to inhale the pure atmosphere of Lapland, may, in a comparatively short period, be eaten as a luxury. And so the human soul, when released from many gross accompaniments, and removed from the temptations of a life in the flesh, may, under the purifying influences of a spiritual state, make very rapid advances in holiness and bliss. We have good reason to infer, both from Scripture and from the nature of the case, that the change for the better, in this respect, will, at the event of death, be very great.

But still, as these favorable circumstances, whatever they may be, will be the equal inheritance of all, the general truth, already considered, is in no way affected. Such favorable influences do not change the essential

nature of man, but simply favor its growth. Hence they do not destroy his personal identity; nor in any way destroy the inference inevitable to the preservation of this identity, that the conditions of men in the coming life will be various, mentally unequal, and necessarily characterized by consequences resulting from the characters they have formed in the present world.

G. H. E.

ART. XXVIII.

Literary Notices.

1. Off-Hand Takings; or Crayon Sketches of the Noticeable Men of Our Age. By George W. Bungay. New York: Dewitt & Davenport.

THIS is one of the readable works of the day. It is a book of clever gossip, and much of it, (with some of Headley's descriptive repetition,) of good, forcible sketching, and sometimes of stirring eloquence. The author wields a lively and vigorous pen. The portraits here presented are chiefly of Americans, or of persons living and acting in our own land. Statesmen, politicians, lawyers, ministers, editors, generals, and authors figure in the company. The characters are given according to the views of the author, and with little apparent regard to what others may think of them. Yet we have no reason to suppose that public opinion was a minor consideration with him. A very large reading public will, doubtless, bear him out in his criticisms. Twenty portraits on steel accompany the pen sketches. All of these are admirably done, and, so far as we know of the originals, are excellent likenesses.

J. G. A.

2. My Schools and School-Masters; or the Story of my Education. By Hugh Miller. Boston: Gould & Lincoln. 1854.

The author of this book needs no introduction to the reading public. It is enough to say of him, that he is the author of “The Old Red Sandstone," and of "Footprints of the Creator," two works which have not only given him an enviable fame, but to the science of geology a noble contribution. Mr. Miller is self-educated,—one of the men first made by nature, and then improved through selfexertion and application. He has been an untiring worker all his

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