Let this thought now be carried into the realms of thought. The mind, or
circle, or sequence of ideas, acts, or thinks, or exists in a balance, or
what seems a balance to it. A straight line of
thought is set in the centre, with equal branches each side, and with a
generally rounded outline.
But this corresponds to nothing in tangible fact. Hence I
think, by analogy, we may suppose that neither does it correspond to the
circle of ideas which caused us and all things to be, or, at all events, to
the circle of ideas which
accurately understand us and all things. There are other ideas altogether.
>From standing face to face so long with the real earth, the real sun, and
the real sea, I am firmly convinced that there is an immense range of
thought quite unknown to us yet.

The problem of my own existence also convinces me that there is much more.
The questions are: Did my soul exist before my body was formed? Or did it
come into life with my body, as a product,
like a flame, of combustion? What will become of it after death? Will it
simply go out like a flame and become non-existent, or will it live for ever
in one or other mode? To these questions
I am unable to find any answer whatsoever. In our present range of ideas
there is no reply to them. I may have previously existed; I may not have
previously existed. I may be a product
of combustion; I may exist on after physical life is suspended,
or I may not. No demonstration is possible. But what I want to
say is that the alternatives of extinction or immortality may
not be the only alternatives. There may be something else, more
wonderful than immortality, and far beyond and above that idea.
There may be something immeasurably superior to it. As our ideas have run in