ON THE PROBABLE EXISTENCE AND CHARACTER OF DISEMBODIED SPIRITS.
We have considered the mode by which, without revelation, we arrive at a
knowledge of the existence and character of one eternal, self-existent
Creator, and of other _eternal beings_ endowed with all the attributes
of the human mind.
We will next inquire as to the existence of other created minds in
addition to those whose existence is manifested by a material body.
There are several principles of reason to aid us in this inquiry. The
first is that which establishes the existence of mind and matter as two
distinct and diverse causes or existences. By this we decide that every
human being has a body and a soul.
The second principle of reason to guide us is that which teaches us to
believe that things continue to exist as they are and have been, unless
there is some known cause to destroy or change them.
The other principles to guide us are, that nothing is to be assumed to
be true unless there is some evidence that it is so, and, in case of
conflicting evidence, the _balance_ of evidence is to decide what is
right and true.
These principles being assumed, we find that at the death of every human
being we have evidence, first, that the body ceases to be connected with
the spirit, and is dissolved.
Next, we have evidence at the period of this dissolving of soul and body
that the soul exists without a body, and no evidence that it is changed
in any of its powers, or habits, or character.
Thus we arrive at the conclusion that the spirits that have existed in
this life connected with bodies are still existing with all the powers,
habits, and character which they possessed in this life, except as they
are modified by causes and tendencies that experience in this life has
disclosed. We thus infer that all minds who have left this world have
continued in the upward or downward tendencies of character which
existed when they were disconnected with the body.
This is all the knowledge we can gain by reason and experience alone in
reference to other created beings, and their character and mode of
existence.
As to _the time when the soul commences existence_, we have no evidence
of such existence except what is manifested in the body. We can only
infer, then, that the soul begins to exist when the evidence of its
existence commences in the body. To assert that it begins before that
time is to violate the principle of reason which forbids us to assume
any thing to be true unless there is evidence of it.
Thus, without a revelation, we are led to a belief in the existence of
two classes of disembodied spirits, the good and the bad. But we have no
evidence of the existence of any other created minds except those that
have formerly been connected with bodies in this world.
So far as animals give evidence of possessing an independent spiritual
existence, the same argument that proves the continued existence of the
human mind after death, proves that the animal spirit, if there be one,
continues after the dissolution of the body.
But we can not reason in regard to animals as we can in regard to human
minds, for we never had the _experience_ of animal existence to commence
with, as we have our own experience in reasoning as to the nature and
experience of mind in reference to other beings of the same race.