hello-earth.com ~ Nikola Tesla ~ Can A Man Live Forever ~ Chapter 17 ~ The Dead Past

Others, I doubt not, if not we,
The issue of our toils shall see;
And (they forgotten and unknown)
Young children gather as their own
The harvest that the dead had sown.

..... To us, the history of our race prior to the conquest over death, must ever be of pathetic interest. Why were their lives to end ~ ours to continue?

..... With their history ~ the errors and vicissitudes of their imperfect existence ~ we are thoroughly familiar. We note with keen interest their trails and hardships, the environments and embarrassments, that hampered their progress.

..... Physically they were doomed to take all sorts of substances into their bodies and through a tortuous and dangerous process of digestion, to secure the vital germs of life.

..... Mentally, they were prone to accept the situation as they found it, and adapt themselves to the environ-

..... The dead past ! Ah ! what an interest centers in that past history of the human race !
As we of the present wander among the tombs of our progenitors ~ those who died that we might live ~ what reflections must come.

..... Was life sweet to them, who had but so short a time to enjoy it? Where are the master minds who accomplished so much within the limited period of their existence, and with the pall of death ever threating?

142

Chapter 17 ~ The Dead Past

ments surrounding them. The tendency was to accept a long extablished custom as a finality, unalterable, and fixed. They believed that death was a certainty, an unchangeable condition of their existence.

.....And yet, there appears to have been a vague and intangible idea, through all time, that a future state with life immortal, was in some way in store for the human race. They waited, however, for it to come through some outside agency, ~ and not until about the time of the close of the nineteenth century of the old age, did it occur to them to rely on themselves; ~ that to them had been given the power to work out their own destiny; ~ that within themselves was lodged the power of all knowledge, ~ the choice between good and evil, life and death; ~ to become worthy of the notice of, and, to commune with the creator of the Universe.

.....Like a silken thread through the coarser fabrics, their runs throughout all their histories and writings, the idea of an immortal life.
In what is known as their bible, is found, ~ Man's last victory shall be over death ! ~
There shall e no sorrow, or crying, and
there will be no pain, and ~ no ~ death !

.....In many works of prose and poetry, are found expressions that may be summed
up in the following words from
Young's Night Thoughts:

I nothing know, but that I am, ~
And since I am, ~ I conclude,
That I am, or should be ~ Eternal !

.....There was also a recognition of the power of wisdom, after the sixteenth century of the Old Age; as there was, also. before the second century.

.....Prior to the latter period, when the race was ap-

143

Chapter 17 ~ The Dead Past

proaching the study of humanity, the value of wisdom was gaining i appreciation. Solomon, one of the leaders of that time, said:

Happy is he that findeth wisdom,
And the man that getteth understanding;
For the merchandise of it better than silver,
And the gain thereof than fine gold.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
And all her paths are peace.

.....Blessings on Science! When the Earth seemed old, When Faith grew doting, and our reason cold,
Twas she discovered that the world was young,
And taught a language to its lisping tongue.

.....And, thus, death which had been the end became the beginning, and the prophecy was fulfilled. Life immortal had dawned, and the evils and terrors of the old, partial existence, had vanished in the glorious sunrise of
a new Creation.

Time's noblest offspring is the last.

(THE END)

.....Wisdom had thus become recognized as the greatest agency in the alleviation of the ills and sufferings of mankind; ~ and finally to be acknowledged as a thing divine through which was to come the salvation of the human race.

In the nineteenth century Mackay exclaimed:

last update
25 June 2021 ~ 15:33 EST

Hello Earth
Historicity Productions

hello-earth.com

Historicity Productions
91 River Rd.
Stockton, New Jersey 08559
USA