THE IMMORTALITY OF ANIMALS AND OF MAN. [TO TUN EDITOR
Ole TOR "SPECTAT0R:1 Srn,—There seems room for a word, if you can find space for it, in reply to " Philozooist," not so much in the way of argument as of history, in reference to opinion on Immortality. Your corre- spondent says, "if man's immortality be accepted as proven," certain consequences will follow favourable to the survival of the higher animals. But what if it be not "accepted as proven "? There is no small company of our contemporaries who think that the phenomena of animal intelligence and moral feeling, taken in connection with animal death, throw more doubt on the natural eternal immortality of mankind than can be dissipated by assum- ing the immortality of mankind as proven, and then extending a similar hope to the "higher animals." Under any theory of evolution, we seem to be compelled either to abandon the doctrine of man's special immortality, or to extend the expectation of eternal survival to all living creatures.
in this difficulty it is not to be wondered at that an ancient belief is reviving with immense force over all Christendom (held, as I understand, among others, by the late illustrious Rothe), that the notion of man's absolute immortality under a sinful condition is a mistake, that it is the very object of the Incarnation of
the Divine Life to communicate immortality to mankind, but that its enjoyment will be restricted to "regenerate" and curable men, the evil residue of the human race which may resist all present or future redemptive methods lasting long enough only to receive "the due reward of their deeds," in a judgment usually described as "death," "perishing," and "destruction." It is evident that under this view of conditional immortality, com- municated by supernatural grace, the Christian faith of many may be preserved who at present feel themselves compelled to reject in tote a Revelation supposed to base itself on an immortality in man which comparative science, both physical and metaphysical, does not seem to support by evidence.-1 am, Sir, &e., EDWARD WiTITR,
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