ATHANASIA: OR, FOREGLEAMS OF IMMORTALITY. BY EDMUND H. SEARS. "Shade here, authenticating substance there." FOURTH EDITION. BOSTON: AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION, 21 BROMFIELD STREET. 1858. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE LIBRARY OF JUNF 12, 1939 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: INTRODUCTION. Ir might well be supposed that man's prerogative as the heir of an endless life would be his unfailing resource both in temptation and sorrow. How could he fall into sin or into despondency, if the august future were before him as an object of living faith, and the pains and pleasures of this mortal state took the inferior place which belongs to them in the grand economy of things? And how could the charm of existence ever depart, or the humblest lot become poor and mean, if its incidents were once discerned as belonging to a plan which included eternity as well as time? Nevertheless, it is hardly to be denied, that with vast multitudes the years flow on very much as they would if man were only an animal more finely organized and more highly endowed. |