The Conception of Immortality by Professor Royce.

The annual Ingersoll lecture on the Immortality of Man was delivered last night in the lecture room of the Fogg Art Museum by Professor Josiah Royce, Ph.D. As the special theme for his discourse, Professor Royce took "The Conception of Immortality." He spoke in substances as follows:

The question of immortality is a question of the permanence of the individual man. To solve the mystery of immortality, we must solve the mystery of individuality Existence implies individuality; but it is difficult for us to discover this, since we can not separate like and different aspects of our known world. We can not discover by our senses that difference, which lies deeper than all likeness. In the circle of family and friends we feel individuality, but can not define it by thought. In other words, individuality is our ideal, but not our reality, and it is neither describable nor sensible.

A being in a world which satisfied his will, would know individuality as such for an individual being is a unique embodiment of purpose. If the real world satisfies these conditions, it has individuality. Also, an individual expresses a purpose which no other individual can express. When a lover loves, he has but one object of his affections; yet in praising this object, he describes a type. Does he love a class of women or a single woman? If another had the same face, voice and inward sentiment as the one "perfect Woman," would he love both? If he did, he would have neither true love nor true loyalty, which, if he possessed, would hold him faithful to his one ideal. We may hold an idea in common with another being and we are linked to that being. God is linked to finite beings are seeking him and are striving to reach Truth.

This present life is just a meeting place, from whence we pass on to something better. We are dwelling in a realm of reality, which we cannot see in a world of longing for an ideal. in God we have a primary individual who is an all in all. And if the whole is but the expression of a unique will, every part--and we, as parts in the universe--have unique places. We live, therefore, in a realm of individual reality where God is one and where we have a n individuality which is immortality.