But it is time that we took a comprehensive view of this outer world
which lies beyond the domain of sense.
What is the most striking difference between that world and this one? I
answer, the world we are now living in is a material world, which to
understand most thoroughly we must acquire a knowledge of the properties
of matter. This we begin to do in earliest childhood by the use of our
senses, and this we continue to do, to a greater or less extent, as long
as we live, calling into play the reason, highest sense of all, as soon
as it is developed; and by the use of this, the royal sense, with the
others as its servitors, we may arrive at a very thorough comprehension
of the world of matter, so far as its relation to our needs is
concerned.
On the other hand, the world that lies before us is, above all else, an
immaterial world, using the phrase to denote an almost entire absence of
matter, but not in the least to indicate any absence of reality. No, for
this future life is a reality more positive in its character than the
foundations of the pyramids, and its manifestations, being neither more
nor less than the manifestations of living beings, can only be
understood when that fact is kept in mind. They do not lend themselves
to the inspection of the curious, these denizens of another life, but
when conditions favor, they take hold of human instrumentalities and
wield them with a power and skill that defy all resistance for the time,
and leave on all who are present an ineffaceable mark.
It may be objected that this statement is incapable of proof, that, of
all who have crossed the line between life and death, none have returned
to bring positive evidence of the existence of such an unknown country,
inhabited in such a way. The contrary is asserted, and while facts do
not need the bolster of argument, whoever is in possession of a fact can
present arguments relating thereto tending to throw light upon it. It is
asserted by those who claim to know, of whom the writer is one, that an
inhabited domain is in immediate touch with the earth, although not
discoverable by any of the scientific instruments of investigation, such
as the telescope, the microscope, or the spectroscope, nor yet by the
surgeon's scalpel.
The camera, however, which may be called an instrument of record, has,
at certain times, produced evidence which has excited a vast amount of
argument pro and con.
This will not now be entered into, but attention is called to a very
important consideration bearing upon the whole subject.