Immanuel Kant
Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven
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Immanuel KantUniversal Natural History and Theory of Heaven |
Conclusion
We do not really know what the human being truly is today, although our awareness and understanding should instruct us in this matter. How much less would we be able to guess what a human being is to become in future. However, the curiosity of the human soul greedily grasps for this far distant subject and strives to put some light on such unilluminated knowledge.
Must the everlasting soul for the full eternity of its future existence, which the grave itself does not destroy but only changes, always remain fixed at this point of the cosmos, on our Earth? Must it never share a closer look at the rest of creation's wonders? Who knows whether it is destined that in future the soul will get to know at close quarters the cosmic structures and the excellence of the dwelling places in those distant spheres which already attract its curiosity from afar? Perhaps that is why some spheres of the planetary system are already developing, in order to prepare for us in other heavens new places to live after the completion of the time prescribed for our stay here on Earth. Who knows whether those satellites do not circle around Jupiter so as to provide light for us in the future?
It is permitted and appropriate to entertain ourselves up with ideas of this kind. But no one will ground future hope on such uncertain imaginary pictures. When vanity has demanded its share of human nature, then will the immortal spirit swiftly raise itself up above everything mortal, and further develop its existence in a new relationship with the totality of nature, which arises out of closer ties with the Highest Being. From this time on, this lofty Nature, which in itself contains the origin of happiness, will no longer be scattered among external objects in order to seek out a quiet place among them. The collective totality of creatures, which has a necessary harmony with the pleasure of the Highest Original Being, must also have this harmony for its own pleasure and will light upon it only in perpetual contentment.
In fact, when we have completely filled our minds with such observations and with what has been brought out previously, then the sight of a starry heaven on a clear night gives a kind of pleasure which only noble souls experience. In the universal stillness of nature and the tranquillity of the mind, the hidden capacity to know speaks the unnamable language of the immortal soul and provides inchoate ideas which are certainly felt but are incapable of being described. If among thinking creatures of this planet there are lower beings who, regardless of all incitements which such a great subject can offer, are nevertheless in the state of being stuck firmly in the service of vanity, how unfortunate this sphere is that it could produce such miserable creatures. But, on the other hand, how lucky they are that there is a way, one supremely worthy of following, for them to reach a spiritual happiness and nobility, something infinitely far above the advantages which the most beneficial of all nature's arrangements in all planetary bodies can attain!
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