most learned Brahmin on the banks of the Ganges to the untutored red
Indian beside the Mississippi, has the question, "is there an
existence after death," been approached with the most earnest hopes to
solve as one of the greatest mysteries. Shelley devoted a vast amount
of energy to the elucidation of this occult, yet overt, truth; and in
one place remarks:

"The desire to be forever as we are; the reluctance to a
violent and unexperienced change, which is common to all;
the animate and inanimate combinations of the universe, is,
indeed, the secret persuasion which has (among other
reasons) given birth to a belief in a future state."

Full well he knew, that independent of matter, there was a power,
which has been denominated by some, Spirit; by others, simply mind,
force, or intelligence; and by metaphysical philosophers, soul. If he
approached the subject logically, as in his essay, "On a Future
State," the _ignis fatuus_ seems to escape him and be lost; if
poetically, with the innate voice which speaks within us all, ever
present.

After close reasoning in the essay I have referred to, he arrived at
the conclusion that even

"if it be proved that the world is ruled by a divine power,
no inference can necessarily be drawn from that circumstance
in favor of a future state."

and that