This, then, is the ultimate which we should keep in view; but the fact
remains that, though there may be hidden ones who have thus attained, the
bulk of mankind have not, and that the common lot of humanity is to go
through the change which we call death. In broad philosophical terms death
may be described as the withdrawal of the life into the subjective
consciousness to the total exclusion of the objective consciousness. Then
by the general law of the relation between subjective and objective mind,
the subjective mind severed from its corresponding objective mentality has
no means of acquiring fresh impressions _on its own account_, and therefore
can only ring the changes on those impressions which it has brought with it
from its past life. But these may be of very various sorts, ranging from
the lowest to the highest, from those most opposed to that ultimate destiny
of man which we have just been considering, to those which recognize his
possibilities in a very large measure, needing little more to bring about
the full fruition of perfected life. But however various may be their
experiences, all who have passed through death must have this in common
that they have lost their physical instrument of objective perception and
so have their mode of consciousness determined entirely by the dominant
mode of suggestion which they have brought over with them from the
objective side of life.
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