Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Title in the Series
- CHAPTER I Nature of the Argument
- CHAPTER II Argument in favour of Design from the changing of Laws in Natural Events
- CHAPTER III Argument to show that the Doctrines in the preceding Chapter do not lead to Fatalism
- CHAPTER IV On the Account of the Creation, in the First Chapter of Genesis
- CHAPTER V Further View of the same Subject
- CHAPTER VI Of the Desire of Immortality
- CHAPTER VII On Time
- CHAPTER VIII Argument from Laws intermitting—on the Nature of Miracles
- CHAPTER IX On the permanent Impression of our Words and Actions on the Globe we inhabit
- CHAPTER X On Hume's Argument against Miracles
- CHAPTER XI À priori Argument in favour of the Occurrence of Miracles
- CHAPTER XII Thoughts on the Nature of Future Punishments
- CHAPTER XIII Reflections on Free Will
- CHAPTER XIV Thoughts on the Origin of Evil
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX
- CORRECTIONS
CHAPTER VI - Of the Desire of Immortality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Title in the Series
- CHAPTER I Nature of the Argument
- CHAPTER II Argument in favour of Design from the changing of Laws in Natural Events
- CHAPTER III Argument to show that the Doctrines in the preceding Chapter do not lead to Fatalism
- CHAPTER IV On the Account of the Creation, in the First Chapter of Genesis
- CHAPTER V Further View of the same Subject
- CHAPTER VI Of the Desire of Immortality
- CHAPTER VII On Time
- CHAPTER VIII Argument from Laws intermitting—on the Nature of Miracles
- CHAPTER IX On the permanent Impression of our Words and Actions on the Globe we inhabit
- CHAPTER X On Hume's Argument against Miracles
- CHAPTER XI À priori Argument in favour of the Occurrence of Miracles
- CHAPTER XII Thoughts on the Nature of Future Punishments
- CHAPTER XIII Reflections on Free Will
- CHAPTER XIV Thoughts on the Origin of Evil
- CONCLUSION
- APPENDIX
- CORRECTIONS
Summary
That wish, universally expressed in every variety of form, of remaining in the memory of our fellow-creatures after our passage from the present scene, has rightly been adduced as evidence of the desire of immortality, and has sometimes been explained as being founded on an instinctive belief that we are destined to it by the Creator.
The hope of remaining embalmed in the fond recollection of those we held most dear in life, and even of being remembered by our more immediate descendants, has something in it nearly connected with self; but the wish for more extended reputation,—the desire that our name should pass in after times from mouth to mouth, cherished and admired by those whose applause is won by no personal recollections: or the still more fervent aspirations, that we may stamp indelibly on the age we live in some mark of our individual existence which shall form an epoch in the history of man: these hopes, these longings, receive no interpretation from the all-dominant principle of self; unless indeed we suppose the sentient principle of our nature not merely existing, but also conscious of, and gratified by, the earthly immortality it had achieved. Yet the more distant and the higher the objects we pursue, the less is it possible to suppose the mind, so occupied on earth, can, in another stage of its existence, derive pleasure from such perceptions.
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- Information
- The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise , pp. 82 - 87Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1837