This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI THE METHOD OF POSITIVE BENEVOLENCE IN THE LAW OF DEATH IN approaching this more personal part of the problem of mortality, we shall seek first to apprehend the utilities of physical death for the immortality of the human race as a whole; for if we succeed in grasping the nearer end of any great principle of life, our thought may swing itself up by it to higher and more fruitful conceptions of the truth. Ignoring for the moment our personal desires of life, and man's many sorrows, it will prove of advantage if we may gain some clear, broad view of the utility for our humanity, as a whole, of the natural law of death. If we succeed occasionally in seeing things as a whole (as a prophet once said), it will become less difficult for us to understand and to accept with cheerfulness our personal place and part in an order of providence which in its largeness and completeness is seen to be benign. The author has indicated the usefulness of this method of faith in his Personal Creeds, pp. 55 seq. One of these first more evident utilities of death for human life as a whole consists in the immense enlargement, through its means, of this earth as a field for the birth and training of a race of immortals. In natural history one of the vital questions concerns the field for life; whether it is large and rich, or sheltered enough to secure the maintenance and spread of. vegetation, and to afford animal life ample opportunity for its increase. If the field is crowded or barren, or if it lies exposed to destructive elements, then among the plants and animals the struggle will become severe; and the possible amount of the variety, beauty, and joyousness of life in that too limited field will be reduced to narrow limits. Upon the same field of...