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 whirled absolutely out of the universe and into a blank nothingness. A tree sawed into planks is a tree no longer, although the wood, so far as mere essence is concerned, remains as before. The tree as a tree is ruined forever, albeit the wood of it may endure for centuries. To sum up: All the theories of the Platonists, the followers of Thales, and the disciples of every one of the ancient philosophers, as well as those of scores of the modern "Spiritualists," especially of that peculiar school who prate of immortality and annihilation in one and the same, the very same breath, are unsatisfactory; for, after all, their boasted demonstrations of immortality amount, in their final results and effects upon our minds, to but very little more than pleasing hopes, and fond desires, and longings after immortality! In what follows I have endeavored to solve the problem, in a somewhat novel way, it must be admitted; yet I am in earnest, and have worked up the materials at my command in the most effective manner that was possible.

The belief in ghosts, spirits, apparitions, wraiths and doubles, is almost universal. Millions of people affect to disbelieve in them; and yet, deep down in the soul-caverns of these identical millions may be found all that exists in the minds of the most credulous. Disbelief in such things is very near akin to the asserted creeds of atheism. Thousands there be who in words deny the existence of a God; and yet, let any one of these loud-mouthed sceptics become racked with a real, genuine, old-fashioned toothache, and ten to one he cries out "O,