Death being seen to end our mortal existence, the de sign was at least a benevolent one, which should labour to discover the means to ma'ster this event. And thus efforts — originating in periods of mental darkness, and suited to the quackery of the Schools, to the cravings and the ignorance of man, and to the selfish interest of the Philosophers as well as of the Priests, — became, and still continue to be, formidable from authority, and powerfully operative from age. But the history of our species forces the conclusion, that all speculations upon man's condition and future hopes, when not derived from Revelation, have been wild, extravagant, and generally im moral, — giving a sanction to practices tending to debase our nature, and to sink men to a low degree of ignorance and consequently of depravity.