“THE NEXT WORLD.”

Hokitika Guardian, 16 June 1924, Page 4

“THE NEXT WORLD.”

.SIR OLIVER LODGE’S THEORY. LONDON, April 12. Sir Oliver Lodge's new book. “The Making of Man” contains thoughts or this life and hereafter of exquisite interest. ||,. declines “man e. unfinished": and he answeis his own question, ‘AYliv is mi much human "long and suffering permitted by Almighty Power?” as follows : Because in the creation of man an exceptionally lofty result was aimed at. the achievement of which was hound to he slow and painful, hut which was foreseen as in the long run making all the effort and suffering worth while. A free and noble creature "its contemplated, one who was fitted to became a companion of Deity. AYe should oven onto our moods of sadness and perplexity anil realise that man-made evils van l.e overcome hv man.

In a deeply interesting passage speculating oil the functions of the Ether ho suggests that the material vehicle utilised by Life and Mind “perhaps need not he Matter in any of its familiar forms. It may he something more fundamental than Matter, something of which Matter is only a sensuous modification.”

Vaguely and indefinitely this has been the view of religious geniuses, from St. Paul downwards: that which they have called “a spiritual body” is turning out likely to be a reality. We probably act on Ether directly. on Matter indirectly.

Sir Oliver adds: Hence, on the hypothesis oT its (the Ether’s) utilisation, there seems every banco that when we have got rid our temporary imperfect instruments our real existence will he unhampered and perpetual. •‘There is no ‘next world.’ save subjectively.” Its lidil.t, couliiiuhiw this train of thought. The Universe is one; it is not so

much a sequence as a co-existen: c. What we call “the next world” is coexistent and simultaneous with this.