_Nothing!_
I have no misgivings about the "future." I am firmly convinced that
there is no "after life," that when we "breathe our last" we arrive at
our eternity. We are "one with yesterday's seven thousand years." We are
like the flower which, "once blown, forever dies."
I firmly believe that life as now manifested in our bodies is a
combustible force identical with that of any other form of life. No less
so than the "seed" of the flower is different from the "germ" of the
wheat.
Both are forces!
So are we!
They may be different manifestations, but fundamentally they are the
same.
In fact, the very force that manifests itself in a mechanical instrument
made by man is the identical substance that rules the organs, and
charges the brain of our being. In the same manner that the force
dissipates itself in the mechanical instrument made by man, and no
longer gives motion to its parts, so the force that animates our being
dissipates itself and is no longer capable of giving motion to our parts
and organs.
As man's instruments are dependent upon many channels for their complete
performance, so the human brain and body have their many dependencies
that must fully and properly be nourished to maintain their power.
Each day science draws another veil from the mystery of life.
Our eye is but a chemical camera, that we have not only reproduced, but
even improved upon.
Our voice is nothing but a vibration, that we have not only reproduced
and improved upon, but whose minutest modulations we have recorded in
innumerable duplications.
Our ear is but a drum, that carries and conveys to the brain the
vibrations of our voice, and that function we have reproduced and even
improved upon by the instrument we call the telephone.
The telegraphic system of the human body that communicates to the brain
the conditions that the senses perceive, is no other than that which man
has even improved upon by the transmission of an intelligible message to
a far-distant land without the use of any apparent conductor. With the
marvelous instrument, the telephone, man sends his voice around the
world.
Man's greatest inventions, the phonograph, the camera and the telephone,
both wire and wireless, make the work of Nature, as manifested in our
bodies, a simple, childish affair, fit only for the kindergarten of
things.
When Edison invented the incandescent light and reproduced the human
voice in the phonograph he pulled aside the veil of secrecy and
penetrated the infinite.
_He proved and demonstrated man to be greater than God._
Our limbs carry our bodies in the direction our brains dictate, and
_that_ function we have reproduced and even improved upon in all the
means of locomotion that we daily use and which we now consider as a
"matter of fact" among the ordinary things of life. "Comparisons are
odious" when we compare the awkward motion of Nature with the rapid
locomotion of man.
Man progresses far too rapidly for the accommodation of Nature, and as a
result adapts for his use and benefit vital essentials that Nature in
her laziness has either failed to utilize, or will not utilize.
Although we have not yet completely discovered all the material and
mechanical elements that compose life, we are sure and certain of their
origin.
We hear ourselves talk; we decide upon our destination and direct our
motion; we eat when we are hungry; sleep when we are tired; cry when we
are in pain; and laugh when we are tickled. Our whole being from start
to finish is mechanical, and the element of something "spiritual,"
something separate and distinct from a purely material sense, is
absolutely illogical and ill-founded in view of the illimitable
illustrations that are being demonstrated every day.
It is a thing easily understood, if we logically, and intelligently,
without blindness, preference or prejudice, analyze the problem.
It may sound better and more desirable to say that we possess a
"soul"--that this life is but a "stepping stone to a higher plane"--but
it is not true.
We cannot observe the true, actual facts of life by coloring our
subject. If we want to determine the _truth_ we must be mentally
prepared to accept the _truth_.
A painted face, brightened eyes, blackened eyelids, Marcelled hair, and
a form draped in all the splendor of the finest silks do not make a
woman possess the sweetness and charm that all this "dope" is intended
to make us believe.
As much as man wants to have the end of this life attain certain
benefits and destinations, this desire does not make them real.
The implicit confidence in a faithless wife does not make her loyal and
virtuous. A wife's confidence in a profligate husband does not make him
stanch and true.
Life calls for a cold analysis. It must be stripped of all its
artificial colorings and superfluities. It must be measured and weighed
for what it actually is, not for what we would like it to be. It must be
determined in the unwavering scales of science.
The proper study of mankind is not the man in the white starched collar,
with trimmed hair, shaven face and polished shoes, but the man recently
from the forest, with coarse, grizzly hair upon his back, brutal and
violent passion dominating his body, and savageness and hatred in his
startled and terrifying eyes.
The sooner we come to the realization of this vital fact, the sooner we
become acquainted with the basic origin of life, the sooner we shall
understand life, with its achievements, with its aspirations and hopes.