Man Know Thyself
        
        
          The Afterworld
        
        
          ~ 25 ~
        
        
          THE AFTERWORLD
        
        
          The question arises at this juncture as to the actual
        
        
          existence of this afterworld to which he is destined.
        
        
          In what way can it be apprehended? In what way
        
        
          can it be made intelligible to us?
        
        
          Take sound, for instance. Everyone knows that
        
        
          sound is the name of waves which cannot be seen
        
        
          with the naked eye, and in the case of human
        
        
          utterance, resulting from the motion of our tongues
        
        
          and larynxes. It then forms a kind of invisible
        
        
          pattern in the air. Whenever anybody speaks, his
        
        
          voice is so indelibly imprinted on the atmosphere
        
        
          that, according to scientific theory, any sound
        
        
          uttered by a human-being even thousands of years
        
        
          ago, still exists in wave-form, though we do not
        
        
          hear or see these waves. If, however, we possessed
        
        
          the apparatus to detect them, they could be
        
        
          replayed exactly, in their original form, and many
        
        
          would be the historic discussion upon which we
        
        
          could then eavesdrop.
        
        
          Just as we are enveloped by a blanket of air on
        
        
          which, every word of ours is engraved, even though