§ 4: Proof From Love of the Good, the Beautiful, and the True

Love for abstract pursuits is a psychic phenomenon that testifies to the existence of the soul; and the character of the objects to which it attends proclaims the soul’s immortality; the innate inclination toward philosophy, the desire to seek the perfect from what is relatively such, the inexpressible joy from the discovery of truth—these testify to the spiritual nature of humanity and its character; love of the beautiful, the good, and the true is the ladder that lifts humanity above visible creation into another spiritual world; from there it beholds the wisdom of the Creator, understands His wonders, discerns His omnipotence, and discovers His presence everywhere; God speaks to it face to face; what a privilege, truly! What an extraordinary power! What honor and glory bestowed upon the earthly human! How the wisdom of God lifts that human, perishing in the grave—wallower in eternally flowing life; the waning and raised court of eternal rest, the ephemeral and yet eternal existence of beings; the true and yet false stage of the universal theatre, on which all manner of spectators of this world appear for a moment to vanish forever, each playing a role in the great drama ordered by the dramatist—these lead humanity to the primordial cause, to true substance, to the unchanging, immutable, and likewise eternal existence—the sole truth; which it longs for and seeks to remain in and make eternal in itself. These psychological phenomena would be altogether incompatible with God’s wisdom if the grave were the final boundary of human existence. Since, however, this contradicts God’s wisdom, it follows that humanity possesses a spirit receptive of the knowledge of God and therefore immortal, because the mortal is unworthy of such dignity and honor as is bestowed upon what perishes; thus humanity has an immortal soul; for where knowledge of God exists, there is immortality.