IMMORTALITY (Lat. immortalitar, in mortalis, "not mortal"). The doctrine that the soul continues to exist after death, or more specifically the doctrine of eternal personal sur vival. To the question becomes of the soul after death*? various answers have been given by different philosophers and civilizations. The most noteworthy of these answers may be grouped as follows: (1) Complete annihilation (the Materialists) ; (2) Survival of the soul for an indefinite period in a world of filmy shadows (Aboriginal); (3) Eternal existence in a moral world of retribution (Christian and certain idealistic philosophies) ; (4) Transmi gration (Indic, as early as the Upanishads; the Egyptians, Plato, the Pythagoreans, and sporadic amongst aborigines) ; (5) Absorption into an Infinite or Absolute Being (Pantheism; the Buddhistic Nirvana, where the individual is annihilated only in the sense that the seed is annihilated in the fully developed plant,— the seed's life-goal) ; (6) The survival of the in dividual in the form of the posthumous influence of his personality and achievement, which is scarcely more than a metaphorical use of the term Immortality (many Evolutionists and Positivists; cf. also Ostwald, Miinsterberg); (7) Merging or diffusion of the psychic energy of the individual into an unseen hypothetical etheric energy (quasi-materialistic).
Belief in some form of immortality is wide spread, although not universal. It is found in all stages of civilization from the lowest form of aboriginal life to the highest Occidental cul ture. The doctrine varies from a belief in an indefinite survival-period after death to the belief in eternal personal life, the latter being the legitimate use of the term Immortality.
Aboriginal Amongst primi tive peoples, belief in the survival of the soul is due mainly to four things: (1) Their prevailing animism, which ascribes a soul to everything; (2) The phenomena of dreams and apparitions; (3) The instinctive will to survive and the in stinctive aversion to (4) The belief in the substantial character of the soul as an entity. "Looking at the religion of the lower races as a whole, we shall at least not be ill advised in taking as one of its general and prin cipal elements the doctrine of the soul's future life.° (Tylor, 'Primitive Culture,) Vol. II, p. 19). By future life° is not meant immortality in the strict sense, but simply the soul's survival after death. Amongst aboriginal peoples we find two forms of the doctrine : Transmigra tion and the independent personal existence of the soul. It must be noted, however, that the dominant idea in the lowest civilization is simply the continuance of the soul in a new life similar to the present life. The abode of souls is usually in some distant part of the earth, less frequently in the nether world or the sky (some Hindus represent the seat of happiness to be vast mountains on the north of India), where they pursue a life modeled after this life, with out ethical coloring. To some aborigines the
idea of a bodiless existence is unintelligible or ludicrous (cf. Lubbock, (Origin of Civilization,) 5th ed. p. 378). In the Tonga Islands, the chiefs are thought to be immortal, while the common people are held to be mortal. Amongst the Fijians the belief prevails that everything has a spirit, and they even hope that every coconut will be made anew in Paradise. (Peschel, The Races of Man,) 2d ed., p. 259). They do not restrict future life to man or even to animals. So also the Itelmes of Kamschatka believe in the rebirth of all creatures °down to the small est (Peschel, op. cit. p. 259). The Fijians think that as is their condition at death, so will their condition in the next world be. The infirm and diseased will find it difficult to make the long journey to Mbulu; consequently it is a custom to put the aged to death before they become too weak to travel. A common belief amongst some primitive peoples is that the in dividual has several souls, as amongst the Chip pewa Indians, the Khonds of Hindustan. and in Madagascar. The Sioux Indians believe that man has four souls, as has also the bear (in their view the most human of animals). The Totemism of the Indians rests on the theory that the souls of ancestors have passed into the bodies of animals. Certain Eskimos put a dog's head in a child's grave, because the dog is skilful in finding its way and can guide the child's soul to the spirit-land. (Tylor, op. cit. p. 424). The Hottentots place the body of the deceased in the same position as the embryo occupied in the mother's womb, symbolizing thereby their belief that in the womb of the earth's darkness the dead will mature and come to birth. The lower races, in general, regard the soul as a filmy body, i.e., a corporeal entity capable of life and action, and needing, conse quently, no bodily renewal. The idea of a resur rection of the body is, however, often found amongst primitive peoples, although it forms no important feature of their belief, as it does in the doctrine of immortality in Persia, later Judaism and the Pauline Epistles. On the whole, one may say that the difference between the conception of lower races and that of higher civilizations regarding the immortality of the soul is that the former look upon the future life as a continuance of the present type of sense life, with activities analogous to the present crass activities, a corporeally refined shadowy state, with a decrease in the struggle for exist ence and an increase in the amount of pleasure. The higher civilizations, on the other hand.