such a fact what suits our purpose, and leave a fatal weakness in our argument.  The butterfly does, indeed, emerge from the coffin of the cocoon and the seemingly dead pupa.  But it is only for a brief day of life.  Then it lays its eggs and dies forever.  It is born to no immortality, but to the most ephemeral life.  The early Church; yea, the Jewish Church, found rational warrant for belief in immortality and the resurrection of the body, first in the thought that it was unjust for those who fought for and brought in the kingdom of God, to enjoy nothing of what they secured.  So the doctrine of the first resurrection appears as a contribution of justice to holy life.  Later on, similar reasoning demanded the resurrection of all.  A judgment is necessary, not to acquaint God with the merits of men, but to acquaint men with the righteousness of God.  This would be impossible without the resurrection of all.  Very close to this is the reasoning of Kant, summarized as follows:  “Every moral act must have as an end the highest good.  This good consists of two elements, virtue and felicity, or happiness.  The two are inseparable.  But these can not be realized under the limitations of this existence.  Immortality follows as a deduction.  The moral law demands perfect virtue or holiness; but a moral being can not realize absolute moral perfection or a holy completeness of nature in this present life.”  It is wholly of faith that men are immortal.  It of necessity can not be demonstrated.  The mass of mankind have believed it, and do believe it, and it is one of the most difficult of beliefs to escape from, returning to some skeptical scientists almost as an intuition, conquering the logic of death and decay.

[Footnote 8:  Biography, Vol.  II. p. 322.]

[Sidenote:  How Faith Grows.]

It is also true that faith in immortality grows with the fullness and intelligence of the spiritual life.  It becomes a complete persuasion to the pure in heart.  Yet some scientific facts, as related to man, make the idea of his extinction improbable, and separate him from the “beast which perisheth.”

[Sidenote:  Men and Brutes.]

[Sidenote:  What Brutes Have.]

It is true that much is common to men and brutes.  They walk the same earth; breathe the same air; are nourished by the same food, which is digested by the same processes.  Their life is transmitted by the same methods, and their embryonic life is strangely similar.  It is also true that there are strong mental resemblances.  Both love and hate; are jealous and indifferent; are courageous and cowardly; they perceive by similar organs; record by similar mnemonic ganglia; and are within certain limits impelled by the same motives.  Nor can a measure of reason be denied to animals.  While much of what appears to be mental life is automatic and unconscious response to an external stimulus reaching a nerve-center, yet within limits they deliberate; they exercise choice; and determine routes and methods.