DEATH AND ITS MYSTERY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11251, 1 July 1922, Page 11

DEATH AND ITS MYSTERY

(By Camille Flammarion.)

From “Death and Its Mystery: Before Death. Proofs of the Existence of the Soul.” A thinking atom, borne on a material atom across tho boundless space of the Milky Way, may well ask himself if lie is as insignificant in soul as he is in body, if the law of progress can raise him in an indefinite ascent, and if there is a system of order in the moral world that is harmoniously associated with the order of the physical world Is not spnifc superior to matter? What is our true nature? What is OUr future destiny ? Are we merely ephemeral flames shining an instant to be forever extinguished? Shall we never see again those whom we have loved and who have gone before us into the Great Beyond? Are such.separations eternal? Does everything in ns die? If something remains, vrtiat becomes of this imponderable element — invisible, intangible, but conscious—which must constitute our lasting personality ? Will itj endure for long ? Will it endure forever? To be or not to he ? ’ Such is the great, the eternal question, asked by all philosophers, the thinkers, the seekers of all times and all creeds. Is death an end or a transformation ? Do there exist proofs, evidences of the survival of the human being after the destruction of the living organism? Until, to-day the subject has remained outsido the field of scientific observation. Is it possible to approach it by the principles of experimentation to which humanity owe© all the progress that has been realised by science? Is the attempt logical? Are we not face to faoe with the mysteries of an invisible world which is different from that which lies before our senses and which cannot be penetrated by our methods of positive investigation ? May we not essay, seek to find whether or not certain facts are carefully and correctly observed, are susceptible oi being scientifically analysed and accepted as real by the severest criticism-? We want no more fine words, no more metaphysics. Facts 1 Facte 1 It is a question of our fate, our destiny, our personal future, our very existence.

It is not cold reason alone that demands an answer; it is not only the mind; it is our longings, our heart also.

It is childish and may appear conceited to bring one’s own self upon the scene, hut it is sometimes difficult to refrain from doing so: and as I, have undertaken these laborious researches primarily in order to answer the questions of sorrowing hearts, it seems to me that the most logical preface to this hook will be furnished by some of those innumerable confidential communications which have reached mo curing more than half a century, begging with anguish for a solution of the mystery. Those who have never lost by death some ono deeply loved havo never sounded the depths of despair, have never bruised themselves against tlie closed door of the tomb. We seek; and on impenetrable wall rises inexorably before the terror that confronts us. I have received thousand of earnest appeals which I should have liked to answer. Should I make these confidences known ? I have hesitated a long time. But there are so many of them, they reflect so faithfully on the intense desire that exists to ifeach a solution, that it has now become a matter of general interest and my duty is clear These expressions of feeling are the natural introduction to this work, for it is they that have decided me to write it. Nevertheless, I must apologise for reproducing these pages without alteration; for if they reveal the very souls of their sensitive authors they also express themselves about me in terms of praise which it might well seem, immodest on my part to publish. But this is only a personal detail, and consequently insignificant, especially as an astronomer, who realises that he is an atom before the infinite and eternal universal is inaccessible to and hermetically. sealed against feelings of worldly vanity. J