Mortal or Immortal? Which?

CAPACITIES OF THE SOUL

The argument here is, that as all men are capable of immortality, therefore, all are immortal. We might sternly remind the adducers of this argument that we are here asking for proof, and that inferences will not be admitted to the stand. As to the argument itself, we might brand upon its idiotic forehead, “Incompetent,” and thus give a summary dismissal. But we ask, Is it not almost an infinitely small portion of the race that has manifested those great powers on which this argument is based? And if an argument may be based on the capacities of some, may not an equal and opposite argument be based on the incapacity of others? And as there is almost every conceivable gradation of intelligence, who will tell us whereabouts in this scale this infinite endowment is first perceptible? Looking at the human race, and the races immediately below, we behold a point where they seem to blend indistinguishably into each other. Will an utter lack of capacity be affirmed of the higher order of animals? And descending in the scale, where shall we stop? or, which is the same thing, according to this argument, where does immortality first let go its hold? “Dr. Brown, according to his biographer, Dr. Welsh, ‘believed that many of the lower animals have the sense of right and wrong; and that the metaphysical argument which proves the immortality of man, extends with equal force to the other orders of earthly existence.’” ¹ Similar views are attributed to Coleridge and Cudworth. MOI 25.1

But on this argument we have said enough. It has already wrapt itself from sight in the heavy mantle of its own fog. MOI 26.1