t h e “ g erm “l ecture, 1922

Im m o rtality and th e
M o de rn M ind
By

! i rs o pp I ak e , M A , D D
W
. . . .

f
is P nf n n r of eccl es i as tical Hi s tory
i n Harv ard Us h er s ! "

C am bridg e
Harvard U nive rsity Press
Lo ndo n: H arnphrcy Milf o rd
Oxfo rd U nive ni ty Press

1 92 2
 co m m , to”

First im p ress io n, May , roar

Seco nd im p res s io n, July, 1 92 3
T hird in an e-io n. Decem ber, 1 92 3

3 08 8 47

cam mcx. wus s . 0. 8. A

.
 T HE {N GE R SOLL LECT UR ES HIP

w
M
m mw
M J
d m
M
m
NQ H W
au i a tw
IM
w w
fi tO”
u

Fi rst In carrylng
. ou tbelo ved
the wis hee of my h te
father, George Gold thwait Ingem ll , u declared by him
in hia h s t fl and teefl mentfl give m d bequu th to
Harvard Univ ersity in Camb ridge , Man , where m y
late f ath er was graduated, and which he d waye held in
love and hono r , the s um of Fi ve thousand dollars

on e p h n ao m e what i
am ilar to that o f th e Du dleian
lec ture , that ia— o ne lec ture to b e deli vered eac h yw ,

o n any co nvenient day between the ln t day of May m d

r
m o tali ty of Man, said lec ture no t to form a p art of
”

the nmml mq no r w be dellvered by any

co flege cw

m esao r o r l utor ae part o f his um al ro u tine o f in

' ‘

sancti on , thoug h any s uch Pro f eeao r or “ to r may be

is no t to be lim i ted to any o ne religlo us deno minatio n,

no r to any o ne p mf enion, but m ay be the t of eithet
clerg ym an o r laym an , the app o intm ent to take p lace at
least six m on ths before the d eliv ery of m id lec ture .

Th e abo ve aum to be eafely inveeted and three fourths

of the annual interes t thereo f to be paid to the lecturer
fo c mg eervicee and the remaining fo urth to be exp m ded

leemre, acop y of which is al ways to be fum ished by

the lecturer fo r euch p nrpo ee Th e -am e lecture to be
.

the l ng em ll lecmre o n the

“
m m ed and kno wn as
Im o rtality of Man ”
.
 A
'

IM M ORT AN D-

LI T !
T HE Mo naBy M IN D -

Har vard College but few to question the

,

irpp qrtance o f the subject o rto doubt the

that the authoritative revelation of

after death they would retain o r recover

all the characteristics of their individual
—
a
“ -

é founded a
w

Scri pture knew more about a future life

z IMMORTALITY
than they did themselves . His torical

f thé
were n ot wh ast
olly
'
'

to be trusted m their prognostications of

'

in the p ulp it or in the

Resear ch began to study the matter from

the point of view of objective evidence

of the by products as it were , o f their

-

activities was a questionnaire sent out in

T he arg um ents i or and agains t a belief in l m

mortality did no t answer each o ther T he o ppo .

the s up p o rters of it on metaphysical considerations .

In an age oi h
p yaical p g
ro rees the f o rm er held a
 AND MODERN MIND 3
American branch of the Society This .

questionnaire was an attempt to collect

information as to the general attitude of
educated pers ons towards belief in Im

by Dr F C S Schiller in a paper read

. . . .

to the general meeting of the Society on

N ovember 1 4 1 90 2 forming part 49
, , ,

pp 41 6 453 of the Pr oceedings of the

.
-

ity of those cons ulted were not deeply

interes ted in the contin uance of exist
ence and that f ar more than might have
,

been supp osed actually welcomed the

g ospel of E ternal D eath as more com
forting than the threat of E ternal Life .

I desire m erely to set f orth the m a

sons whi ch lead so many reluctantly to .
 4 m um m y

wards lif e whi ch seem s to be taking its

t
p
"
lac e . I wish to show ho w thi s attitude
la
p y s the s am e p art in m o de rn lif e as the

ho pes f o r Eternal Life rather than f o r

Ev erlas ting Living though the prac tical
,

v ers e o f all that h as us ually been as s o

cis ted with such mysticism in the past ,

especially in the E ast .

It might be held that the abandonment

of the traditional hope and the la ck of
“

interest in Immortality shown in the

an swers to the questionnaire o f the So
ciety f o r Ps yc hi cal Res earch are due to

a change o f thought on the previous

 AN D MODER N MIND 5

‘
should have been willi ng to face the
troubles o f life or have preferred to re

which hangs over the value of life ex

those who in answering Mr Schiller s

.
’

questionnai re rejected as undesirable the

prospect o f Immortality woul d also had ,

they been asked have declared life a

,

poor thi ng full of weariness and not

, ,

are probably many who without regard

,

consistently to wish for its close never

,

a normal view and its occurrence is not

,

a suflicient explanation M any of those

.
6 IMMORTALITY

plained . For mysel f though

,
I can p er

to a depreciatio n of life ,
I canno t yield to

and the lo nger I liv e , tl_1e m o re I like it .

thus elah and to be able to contemplate

Those who still cling to the traditional

pra ch t fo rm , or -
so m ethi ng lilre it, are
 AND MODERN MIND 7
wont to des cribe the o b ect o f thm hop e
'

j
as the Su rvival of Personality
‘
,
’
but
Pers o nali ty is a dificult word, and as l

difi tbe
‘
erent sens e , I will say rather

nature of this Individuality

‘ ’
? It is es

I t separates the worker from his tas k ,

is the bars between which we canp eep

we can hide — tho ug h no t always s afely .

T he dific ulty and the danger m ake up

ably the gam e of hide and s eek is pleas

8 IMMORTALITY
on contact but not union . It is idle to

some element of pleasure I have no

cal and social enjoyment o f all kinds ;

and material physical and s ocial enjoy
,

ment of whatever so rt is dependent o n

, ,

wish to be ourselves ; to give free rein to

to do the sam e to theirs is o ne of the joys

of life .

tho s e who do no t s hare m it m us t be re

garded as lac k ing one of the m

it o n to o ur anti cip atio n o f the f uture is

’
roost natural and as soon as man s im ag
,

inatio n once enabled him to construct

visions of a possible triumph over death
nothing was ever dearer to human hope
than the expectation o f a future life
 AND MODERN MIND 9

memo ry the society of fri ends and the

,

jy
o o f li v i ng I.t is no t bec ause o ur gen
eratio n enjoys lif e less but because we
,

understand it better that so many turn

,

know it now . For that better nder

u

is impossible without physical structure ,

and that the survival o f physical strue

ideas , the beli ef in the R es urrectio n

of the B o dy, and the belief in the Im :

The ph rase the Resurrection of the

Bo dy m eans that at some period after
death li f e will return to the co rps e , whic h
IO IMMORTALITY
will , so far as is neoem ry, be reco ns ti

word which means flesh was translated

‘ ’

in the English Prayer Book by body ,

wo rd can be legitimately used to ex

p res s the exac t o p p o s ite o f th e m eaning

doubted by any who know enough Latin

to trans late cam is o r Greek to rende r
co mbs .

In Greek p agan d rclos the do ctrine of

a Resurrection of the Flesh waS n ot
'

f ormd, but its p lace was tak en by a belief

12 IMMORTALITY
the Gr
eek s in j
re ec ting a be lief in the

spiritual rather than anim al . It is I

,
'

thrnk , p lai n that he m eans by thi s a

to say the lightest and most ethereal

form o f matter but hi s language is no t
,

all , are capable of being interpreted as

m eani ng a bo dy o f fles h whi ch was m ade
alive by the spiri t instead of by an ordi
nary s o uLs o that it becam e s p iritual in
l
stead o f animal .

Animal is a far better renderin g of

‘ ’
mm
than is
W
natural B u tPaul s m eaning is in any cas e
‘ ’ ’

W
.

v ery dificul t to define hat exactly is the difl er

.

ence between soul ( ‘

) and ’
spi ri t ( w h )?
‘
o
’

Ap p arently the f o rm er is that which m akes an

anim al alive ; thus Adam was a li ving s o ul
‘
T he
’
.

latter is the principle of di vine life , shared in by

Chris t and Chri s tians Such at leas t s eem s to be
.

the m eaning of I Co rinthians ; but in o ther p lam s

 AND MODERN MIN D
'

x3

Nev ertheles s the Greek belief in the

no tdie To the fi
. rs t generation death

seem ed a short sleep from which men

would soon be awakened by the last
trump But as time went on and the
.

trumpet still p res erved as aec ular silence ,

the period assigned to slumber seemed

more and more attention . ! arious fanei

tu red the souls of the dead enjoying the

pleasures of Par adise in anticipation o f
the permanent joys of Heaven or passing
,

their time amid the flames of Purgatory ,

where transitory pain might purify the

sinner so that he should escape the eter
nal p angs o f Hell On the resurrection
.

from its long sleep and would be

, re
x4 IMMORTALITY
do o med to an eternal s entence of blms
'
'

or wo e

It was a clear cut s ys tm easy to un

ders tand, impossible to r efute , and
thro ug ho ut the lj ark
it was the f o undatio n

ings in p ain o f the wi ck ed . In which

i c ult to deci de and unpro fi

wo uld be difi t

tained o nly the j

unc ture of so ul and
 AND MOD ERN MIND rs

Tt was a cho ice inn

fiitely clums y: it lef t

But in the nineteenth century the cur

strongly ; not merely did men perceive

beg an to feel the general absurdity of

exp ecting that the wo rn o ut bo dy of the
dead would be reassembled from the ele

new bodies of similar composition would

be pro vided f or s o uls so m e o f which had

In any science other than theo logy men

16 IMMORTALITY

wo uld have said that the creeds were

wrmrg o n this p o i nt, and that they co uld
no longer s firm them but that was im
,

possible in theology It is one of the

.

that though the ornaments in which she

courtiers often think that they must be

So it was wi th th e belief in the res urrec

tion , and today probably a majority of

thecreeds think that their affirmation of

‘
the Resurrection o f the body merely ’

m eans the Surv ival o f p ers o nal identity

‘ " .

Turning from ecclesiastical circles to

secul ar ones the belief in the R es urrec
tion of the Flesh may fairly be re
garded as obsolete and a belief in the
,

x
Sce App endix I .
 AND MODERN MIND 17

Survival of lif e wavers The essential s

.

Of thi s beli ef are that af ter death o ur

as spirits It here merges into the belief

.

in the Immortality of the Soul s o that ,

the tendency o f modern thought is to

reject the Res urrection of the Body in ,

f ac t if no t in wo rd, and to n
cli g to the

though we are none of us likely to accep t

right . T he theory that the bo dy is a

m echani s m op erated by the so ul which

to commend it when viewed by the cold

there is no evidence for the existence of

18 IMMORTALITY
the s o ul at all . T he p heno m ena o f lif e as

agreem ent on this p o int, and there has

been a curious and interesting revival
and reversal of early arguments The .

modern man has affi rmed the validity of

R esurrection Of the Flesh while denying

the final conclus ion He treats as a re

.

Christian was a dem Ons tratio n; _

l_
Jg t h e

lif e , insis ted that in that lif e m an rrms t

so IMMORTALITY

material o r has extraordinary power over

matter In either case its presence ought
.

ble tests If this were done I should

.

ac cept the fac ts as evidence for the co n

tinuanc e Of life beyond death in a fo rm
which either preserves its material in
dividuali ty or is capable under certain
,

circumstances o f reproducing the ma

,

teris i form which it once possessed .

tality at least in the form in which it is

,

usual ly propounded Men regard the

.
 AND MODERN MIND 21

m conclusion is Often deplored by

those who do not share it But it has .

of lif e The pursuit Of individual Immer

.

sal vation was th ought to be the Object

fi xis tence T his l
.ife was held to be 111

m iseries to be lived thro u gh as well as

possible valuable only because success
,

in withstanding temptation and endur

ing misery would secure eternal happi
ness Tho se who thought most narrowly
.

in thi s way were considered to be the

best It is not altogether surprising that
.

people who argued in this way con

tributed little to the improvement of
22 IMMORTALITY

as the wo rds Of J
es us that he who will
seek his
‘
s o ul
’
s hall los e it
. Men went on
year af ter year thinking of no thing so

than by the h p e o f heaven In generai

o .

there was p ro duced a typ e o f sel s hnos s fi

In p lace o f a ques t f or l mm o rtality

there is to day am ong the m os t active
 AND MODERN MIND 23

{E n this has afiected lif e in the las t hun

dred and fif ty years , and when his to ry

com es to be written at a su ficient dis
tance it will probably appear to be the

work rs in their minds the impro vement

o f t
h e wo rld i n whi c h o ur ch ildren are to

live It is an unse lfi
. s h o bject and the,

gate for the hope of a better world above

If I s ee the f acts of m o dern lif e rightly

the bos t m en o f to day are no t engaged in

and educate instincts and to control the

,

See App endix II

 IMMORTALIT Y
’

34

battle which man upon the earth must

fight against disease ignorance and toil
, , .

To do this is the goal which they have

set before them and is to them what the
,

pursuit Of Immortality was to their

duce a world f o r their chil dren to in

habit which will be better than that in

themselves will never enter the L and of

Promise but it is s uficient for them to
,

have seen it afar 05 ( Their life has come

.

and the Christian preacher is Often

for all questions concerning a future life .

Nevertheless there is no type of man at

fices him s elf f o r the go o d of o thers or

 AND MODERN MIND 25

They are not seeking the crown but ,

many Of them are bearing the cross and ,

tho ug h see king the cro w n has been the

prac tice of the Chri stian bear ing the
,

Therefore even if the conclusion that

,

new I should no t be afraid Of it judged

,

Eas t the permanent surv ival o f individ

uality has long been regarded by many

confinement of individuali tyis as marked

as the des i re to retain it is co m m o n in the

West It does no t however mean a de

.
, ,

sire for or a belief in the destruction Of

the release Of Life from the limitations

26 IMMORTALITY

The Oriental saint seeks this g o d by

1
ciati o n Of all desire or even Of all action .

cussed seems to aff ord both a parallel

and a contrast to this Eas tern mysticism ,

f or as Bernard Shaw once pointed out

, ,

many Of the great scientists and busines s

men o f today are not s o much sceptics as
mystics Though perhaps few Of them
.

they have reached a belief in the Im

f arthe position is parallel to Eastern

thought But it afiords a contrast in
'

‘ T his is o nl y true of certain s ec ts , so m e o f

desire ; bu t the popular cults such as that of

,

! rishna o fler the immortal salva tion of the in

,
28 IMMORTALITY

workers is one ! et to him who has this

.

experience life is enriched not im p o ver

is hed ; he has not lost a home but gained

tiers close down once more and with

their closing the sense Of unity gro ws dim ,

the perception that the imperfections Of

many workers complement each other
for the perfection o f the whole gives
place once more to the insistent yet dis
satisfying emphasis on the necessity Of
one s o wn work and the superiority Of
’

’
one s o wn truth ! et though the bar
.

riera close the memory that they were

,

Closely allied to this is the way Of the

artist Indeed I am no t sure that it is
.
,

no t reall y the same way, but I m ean

rather the way Of the artist who enjoys
art than Of him who produces it For .

the contemplation of beautiful things

 AND MODERN MIND so

whether by eye or by ear resul ts in that

s am e rais ing of the barriers and in a c uri
ous recognition Of the unity o f life It .

was Wordsworth who at times was so

overcome by this feeling that he had a s

it were to remind himself by so m e sud

den appeal to the senses Of his actual in
dividuality He had lost hims elf in the
c o ntenmlati o n Of beauty Had he or
.
,

had he found himm lf ?

of As we go on o ur way
f riendship .

through the world we make an infi

nite

shhw and Of whom we see as much as it

suits us both to permit There are others
.

to whom we would gladl y show more Of ,

cannot It is beyond our power to lift

.

sons is strictly li mited by the p o s s ibil

30 IMMORTALITY

Of outward appearances there is a re al

sex and pos sibly they do not come at all

,

to everyone nor do they always remain

, ,

but they are nev er forgotten .

The highest point in this experience is

always felt that the goal of existence was

a union with Go d so complete that it

unified T O such a mystic individuality

.

was something to be overcome not to be ,

be a Christian the doctrine of the Trin

,

ity, the o ne Go d in three Pers o ns , was

 AND MODER N M IND 3 x

the ul tim ate reality o f which all lif e is

b ut a p al e reflectio n . In the Div ine Be

fringe on the other was a mystery which

,

verseness or the other more orthodox

heresy if o ne may so call it which treats
, ,

the do c trine of the l rinity to aweak ened

’ ‘

tri theism ,
f or his o wn experience , tho ugh

the doctrine . N o t Often , it may be yet

,

been lifted and the mystic has found

3 2 IMMORTALITY

they are o ne and man discovers that

,

what he has lost if it be called loss is no t

, ,

true that he who wi ll lo s e his lif e s hall

This experience of lifted barriers ‘

Is

so wi th t
ehe a rtis t
c
a

Fo r
.
‘

lifted at times . all o ur desire to

when the time has c ome ang the lim i ta

l
c o s ed, the lo ck has a ke y and tho s e
am ong the children o f m en are p erhap s
most blessed who have that key and use

is Heaven ; to find that one has all owed

the key to rust o r th e lo ck to beco m e
 AND MODERN MIN D 33

ture whi ch m o s t m en hav e , no do ubt the

key Often m ats and the lock is often

to be in Hell at o thers , the p ric e is not

theory N eve rtheless rel ation to meta

.

physical theo ry is I think, clearly

,

their kinsmen nominalists but is easy of

, ,

te naci ty to a belief in the l m m ateri al

and in the p erm ane nce of Lif e , as dis

one of the thi ngs which becom e clearer

is the diff erence between Life and Living .

I can see no reas o n f or beliefing in a s o ul

34 IMM O RTALITY

leave it , but I do see that there is reason

the Immaterial as in that Of the Ma

terial I have never felt obliged to stake
.

m y intellectual all o n a decis io n between

uni vers ali a per! mm ante rem or even i n
,

rc,but that the Im m aterial is real is the

one thing whi ch to m e is frm dam ental .

torne to belong wholly to the im material

tio n o f th e
Material and the Im m aterial .

I can conceive thou gh I cannot imagine

, ,
3 6 IMMORTALITY

and the theologian at leas t has no di ffi

culty in recogniz ing that one chapter Of

’
use the word person to express the
‘

reality Of distinction in the Immaterial

alongside o f the most complete unity In .

that sense a personal Go d and personal

imaginable ; in other senses to me at

,

its bad I fear as well as its goOd ff But I

‘

, ,

am not so much intoxicated by the love

it can be or ought to be immortal If I.

times I have felt the as s urance that I

 AND MODERN MIND 37

theirs . Greatly though I enjoy the life

that which is ours The sense Of individ

.

uali ty is swallowed up in unity ; yet the

sense o f distinction survives the loss of

di fi I thi nk that I know that the
'

erence .

work whi ch I have to do is life and that

it is mine in spite Of the limitations of an
,

quite as Often as it helps and forwards ,

and that it will still be mine when the,

barrier Of those limitations is removed .

And at times I have thought that I have

seen a glimpse Of the great light Of eter

lighten the darkness which now sepa

rates us I and my friends and my wo rk
,

resolves diff erence yet preserves dis

3 8 IMMORTALITY

APPEN DIX I

OF T HE BELIEF IN T HE R ESUR

Until the middle Of the nineteenth

ine to the Opinion demanded by the

Apostles Creed and nfirm ed the Resur
’
,

rection of the Flesh The fi

. rst theo lo

obscurity of his style renders it hard to

 AND MODERN MIND 39

Westcott is really the author Of the

as formulated in the Creed ; but he never

s aid so . On the co ntrary he us ed all his
m atchlms powers Of shading language ,

so that the change from white to black

scar cely perceptible He writes for

.
,

instance in The His toric Fai th page 1 36,

, ,
“
as follows : I bel ieve i n the res urrection

than co m m o n care les t we allow gro ss ,

realm where they have no place The .

‘
fies h Of which we speak as destined
’
40 IMMORTALITY

of the Fles h (th o ugh b o th i n the Greek

it was aff i rming the Survival of Per

sonal Identity N o doubt it was ; but
.

in T he Creed of the Chris tian page

, 2
9 ,

io n o
res m ree e
'

f the body . This does not

be collected together again ; b ut it

m eans that we in o ur s am e s elv es s hall

selves .

Am o re co m p lete denial of the Creed

 AND MODERN MIND 41

m t be imag ined and the s ituation

,

Gore ,unlike Bishop Wes tcott did not ,

shrink from quoting the erroneous Eng

’
lish translation body instead of
,
”
flesh — though he k new even if most
, ,

of his readers did no t, what the o riginal

im p o s ing the change on the Englis h

the Creed

when in 1 92 2 , Mr M ajor, the Pri ncipal

.

of R ip on Hall in Oxf o rd, p ut the cas e

frankly he was dele ted to his bishop as
a heretic He did not however follow
.
, ,

the policy of Bishops Westcott and Gore ,

but admitted that thoug h the Church

 IMMORTALITY
’

42

Resurrection o f the Flesh the Church ,

1
had been wro ng R e clai med that it

the Creed in s uch a way as to afirm

and to interpret the Resurrection

of the Body as meaning the continu

body He won his case But the

.

reasons given by the Bishop o f

ford in acquitting him are remarkable .

“
Mr Major said
. I desire to state as
,

plainly as possible that I do not hold ,

nor do I make any pretence in my

teac hing to hold that belief in the mode
,

of the resurrection of the dead which

1 Mr M ajo r has published a mos t adm irable
.

statement of his case including a catena of quo ta

,

ti ons from the Fathers of the Church to es tabli sh

by H D A M ajor, published by B asil B lack well,
. . .

Oxford, 1 92 2 , price two shill ings .

44 IMMORTALITY
England that if the
Apostles Creed should appear to be
’

wrong it can still be afirm ed by mak

,

its writer intended . I have myself

sometimes wondered whether it wo uld
no t be simpler to say that the Creed is
wrong and to cease afirming it but the
,

res ul t reached is much the sam e for,

very often in lif e as in chess Bishops

, ,

move obliquely .
 AN D MODERN MIND 45

APPENDIX II

IT m ay not be out of place to summarize

m an is m ade up o f a num ber o f ins ti ncts

without incurring the severest social

a policy which , if completely successful ,

all energy and produce either feeble

! ictorian epoch insisted on dividing l n

s tinc ts into good and bad categories
,
46 M ORTALITY
for which instincts were never intended ,

are almost wholly physiological rcs c

’
tions o n man s psychology Therefore.

tra
nsmutation , or , to use the word

at
_ present passing through a p erio do f

happier era has dawned in which the

 AND MODERN mum 47

graduates and youthf ul criminals will

,

degenerates so that the excess of energy

, ,

of which their misdeeds are the measure ,

may be transmuted into good I t may

.

naughtines s . That is true ; but I be

children of course cannot be suppres sed,

, ,

sights than the dull virtuous

, , esp ect
r

I f this be called the conquest of in

sti nct the second object which men set
48 IMMORTALITY

cov ery o f o ur o wn tim e , so great that

im p o rtance , is that m an has it in his

power to control material circumstanc es
in this world so as to m ak e exi s tence an
altogether better and more val uable

is no
much devotion and energy and only ,

half as much money as was devoted in

,

the days of war to the preparation of

death were transmuted to the preserva

other thing whi ch would go far

This other thi ng is the diminution of

Of course work
‘ ’ ‘
unintelligent toil .
’

cannot be abolished nor do I mean that

,
 AND MODERN MIND 49

‘ ’
‘
toil and work which enters I think
’
, , ,

in relation to the freedom o f the crea

tive will M an.
— the righ t kind of
—
man will wo rk him self to the bone in
order to create by himself or in co
,

operation with others that which he has

,

and contented in doing so . But if the

an instrument in the hand of others his ,

‘ ’
work is merely toil and the better
educated and more intelligent he is the

Up till the present the price

, of civili

W
of the greater part of the population
h ether they were slaves or whethe r
.
so IMMORTALITY

jo rity of the populati on had to spend

this bas is , o nly to f all in rui ns when the

it seems probable that the spread of

deba
cle in o ur generation for the educa
,

condition more obvious and more in

tolerable every day But though curi
.
,

human worker and pass it over to o u r

common mother the earth , If the .