all men of science who think not to twenty only, but to thirty-two points of the compass, now kneel, hushed, dead, in the presence of a Living God, but ready to rise up alive, and fill civilization with their own enthusiasm. [Applause.] IX. DOES DEATH END ALL? IS INSTINCT IMMORTAL? THE FIFTY-FOURTH LECTURE IN THE BOSTON MONDAY LECTURESHIP, DELIVERED IN TREMONT TEMPLE NOV. 27. "DES Todes rhürendes Bild steht, Nicht als Schrecken dem Weisen, und nicht als Ende dem Frommen." GOETHE: Hermann und Dorothea. "DIE Schöpfung hängt als Schleier, der aus Sonnen und Geistern gewebt ist, über dem Unendlichen, und die Ewigkeiten gehen vor dem Schleier vorbei, und ziehen ihn nicht weg von dem Glanze, den er verhüllet. . . . Ich und du, und alle Menschen und alle Engel und alle Würmchen ruhen an seiner Brust, und das brausende, schlagende Welten- und Sonnenmeer ist ein einziges Kind in seinem Arm." -JEAN PAUL RICHTER, Hesperus. IX. DOES DEATH END ALL? IS INSTINCT IMMORTAL? PRELUDE ON CURRENT EVENTS. ON the morning of Saturday, Oct. 23, 1852, Daniel Webster, whose statue was unveiled last Saturday in Central Park, said to his physician, "I shall die to-night.' Dr. Jeffries, much moved, replied, after a pause, "You are right, sir." The gorgeous and jewelled October day rolled on at the edge of the sea; and, when evening came, the last will and testament of your greatest statesman and orator was brought to him for his signature, which he affixed, and then said, "Thank God for strength to do a sensible act! O God, I thank thee for all thy mercies." His family was brought to his bedside; and his biographer, Curtis, noticing that Mr. Webster was about to say something which should be recorded, took his seat at a table, and caught these last words. Curtis says they were uttered slowly in a tone which might have been heard through half the house: "My general wish on earth has been to do my Master's will. That there is a God, all must acknowledge. I see him in all these wondrous works. Himself how wondrous! What would be the condition of any of us, if we had not the hope of immortality? What ground is there to rest upon but the gospel? There were scattered hopes of the immor tality of the soul, especially among the Jews. The Jews believed in a spiritual origin of creation. The Romans never reached it; the Greeks never reached it. It is a tradition that communication was made to the Jews by God himself through Moses. There were intimations, crepuscular, twilight. But, but, but, thank God! the gospel of Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light, rescued it, brought it to light." Then the greatest reasoner this country has produced caused a sacred hush to fall upon his dying-chamber; and in a loud, firm voice he repeated the whole of the Lord's Prayer, closing with these words, "Peace on earth, and good-will to men: that is the happiness, the essence, -goodwill to men." Another authority, that of his own secretary, says, that, in the last week of his life, this man, whose career you know, often repeated the whole hymn, of which the first stanza is, Show pity, Lord; O Lord, forgive! Are not thy mercies large and free? Webster knew his own need of these petitions. I am not here to say that he lived a Christian life. I raise this morning, when Webster is before the nation, the question, whether there is any evidence that he |