expressed in definite formulas, for the reason that no mental
image of a purely spiritual world can be formed. Much stress is
commonly laid upon the recognition of friends in a future life;
and however deep a meaning may be given to the phrase "the love
of God," one does not easily realize that a heavenly existence
could be worth the longing that is felt for it, if it were to
afford no further scope for the pure and tender household
affections which give to the present life its powerful though
indefinable charm. Yet the recognition of friends in a purely
spiritual world is something of which we can frame no conception
whatever. We may look with unspeakable reverence on the features
of wife or child, less because of their physical beauty than
because of the beauty of soul to which they give expression, but
to imagine the perception of soul by soul apart from the material
structure and activities in which soul is manifested, is
something utterly beyond our power. Nay, even when we try to
represent to ourselves the psychical activity of any single soul
by itself as continuing without the aid of the physical machinery
of sensation, we get into unmanageable difficulties. A great part
of the contents of our minds consists of sensuous (chiefly
visual) images, and though we may imagine reflection to go on
without further images supplied by vision or hearing, touch or
taste or smell, yet we cannot well see how fresh experiences
could be gained in such a state. The reader, if he require
further illustrations, can easily follow out this line of
thought. Enough has no doubt been said to convince him that our
hypothesis of the survival of conscious activity apart from
material conditions is not only utterly unsupported by any
evidence that can be gathered from the world of which we have
experience, but is utterly and hopelessly inconceivable.