"Nor in my own thoughts, can I compare man more fitly to anything than to the Indian fig-tree, which, being ripened to his full height, is said to decline his branches to the earth, whereof she conceives again, and they become roots in their own stock.

"So man, having derived his being from the earth, first lives the life of a tree, drawing his nourishment as a plant, and made ripe for death, he tends downwards, and is sowed again in his mother the earth, where he perisheth not, but expects a quickening."-LORD BACON, Essay on Death.

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ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND

FREDERICK TEMPLE, D.D.,

LORD BISHOP OF LONDON.

MY LORD,

Two of my previous books were dedicated to my esteemed and loved former Diocesan. I regard as a great honour the permission to dedicate this work to yourself; however unworthy it may be of one who is an accurate scholar, and has been a successful cultivator of science from his youth.

A Proof of Immortality, based on Physical Science, is deemed by some to be impossible; but Tertullian said, "The impossible is true." I endeavour to justify his word.

Greatly as I fall short of realizing my ideal, I am sure that the effort so to present the common facts of life that thoughtful men may find in them the highest moral certainty of future happiness, cannot fail to have your favourable regard.

Trusting that you may be long spared, and your goodness, culture, and wisdom continue to help us all,

I have the honour to remain,

Your Lordship's most obedient servant,

JOSEPH W. REYNOLDS.

"In acts of devotion we give manifestation and embodiment to our inward elevation to that unity which lies beyond all differences; we gather up our fragmentary temporal life into its anticipated eternal harmony; we forecast and enjoy, amidst the efforts and struggles of time, the sweetness and rest of the blessed life that is to be. . . . The world in which we outwardly live is only the unreal and evanescent making believe to be real; the true, the real, the world of unchangeable and eternal reality, is that in which we pray."-REV. JOHN CAIRD, D.D. (Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow,) Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, chap. ix. p. 301.

ADVERTISEMENT.

PHYSICAL Science, properly so called, is the knowledge of natural phenomena, their antecedents and sequences. In all questions of quantity and of space-conditions the processes of reasoning are rendered very exact by mathematical science. An inferior and auxiliary department, "Scientific Phenomenology," pushed beyond its powers, has called in question the great truth-Personal Immortality.

The following researches exhibit various material and mental processes by which, perhaps after a somewhat unwonted method, every man may obtain reasonable proof of a future life. Death is not destruction, but a means of passing into other states and places. The body is outward form, and the soul an inward principle which is indestructible and eternal. No fact in science, rightly understood, is adverse to a future life; indeed, all things indicate it.

The present work completes a quadrilateral statement of scientific and sacred truth. "The Supernatural in

Nature" has shown that Nature is, in every part, a revelation of the Supernatural, and cannot otherwise be explained. "The Mystery of Miracles" set forth the undeniable fact that every event, even the commonest, when fully investigated, rests on the inexplicable, the transcendental, the miraculous. "The Mystery of the Universe" maintained that the essential truths of Christianity were the correct philosophical and moral aspects of the great physical processes by which the Eternal Power created and sustains the world.

These series of investigations have not been controverted; nor is it likely, notwithstanding the errors and weaknesses natural to such reasoning, that the main principles can be destroyed.

Sometimes, though rarely, the same facts reappear with but slight differences of statement, in order that the reasoning may become familiar, and that every research may be complete in itself. This, I trust, will not be deemed a fault.

I am indebted to the Rev. Charles C. Collins, Vicar of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, for very painstaking revision of the whole work for the press; and to Mr. Charles Lavers-Smith I owe the very good Index. Their labours enable me to present the book in a more useful and accurate form than would have been possible to my unaided efforts. The scientific friends with whom I have taken counsel are too many for me to name.