cannot, be at all on their hypotheses. It is not inherited (of necessity); it is not a gift, nor the result of fiat or miracle, but is a process, an evolution, the principia of which arc as clear and plain as one, two, three, or a, b, c.
Three brothers may live: one of them shall survive the process of Death; the second shall die forever, as that specific Person or Individuality; and the third one having once been possessed of the elements and conditions of immortality may lose them and go out like an extinguished taper or snuffed candle, by reason of his repeated violation of either one of the fundamental or organic laws of his nature; while a fourth brother may nearly lose the great boon,—if boon it be,—as some believe it, and millions of others do not; but this fourth brother, by prompt action, the instant abandonment of all his pernicious, soul-wasting, mind-dwarfing practices and habits; the total and persistent avoidance of all infractions of the fundamental love-laws of his being, and a steady, manly course and demeanor, may regain what he has so rashly jeopardized and imperilled.
Some human infants are born immortalized, death-proof, and indestructible from the moment they were conceived; while others require long years and terrible disciplines and experiences ere they reach the coveted goal. For thousands of years the followers of Gantama, the Budha, have considered what we call immortality as an unmitigated curse, and continued existence as the most terrible and tremendous evil that can possibly befall a human being. They regarded Narwana, or the final cessation of existence, as the grand desideratum,—the Ultima Thule of all possible human hope, aspiration, and endeavor.
Dissatisfied with life, its pains and penalties, there are millions of us who would gladly cease to be. [Time was when the penman of these lines, disgusted with the sham Philosophies and Philosophers of the age, actually tried to accept the doctrine of Budha; but, having reached the power—through the extraordinary means recounted in Part III.—of glimpsing the mystical states beyond, he changed his faith, and raised his hopes, and all the more so by
