we, weak and ignorant as we are, might dare to assign
limits to that Power from whom we have received every thing, we might
possibly imagine that we were placed on the very confines of his empire,
where life is perpetually struggling with death, and innocence for ever
in danger from the power of tyranny!

"Somewhere, then, without doubt, there is another world, where virtue
will receive its reward. Virginia is now happy. Ah! if from the abode of
angels she could hold communication with you, she would tell you, as she
did when she bade you her last adieus,--'O, Paul! life is but a scene of
trial. I have been obedient to the laws of nature, love, and virtue. I
crossed the seas to obey the will of my relations; I sacrificed
wealth in order to keep my faith; and I preferred the loss of life to
disobeying the dictates of modesty. Heaven found that I had fulfilled my
duties, and has snatched me for ever from all the miseries I might have
endured myself, and all I might have felt for the miseries of others. I
am placed far above the reach of all human evils, and you pity me! I
am become pure and unchangeable as a particle of light, and you would
recall me to the darkness of human life! O, Paul! O, my beloved friend!
recollect those days of happiness, when in the morning we felt the
delightful sensations excited by the unfolding beauties of nature; when
we seemed to rise with the sun to the peaks of those rocks, and then
to spread with his rays over the bosom of the forests. We experienced a
delight, the cause of which we could not comprehend. In the innocence of
our desires, we wished to be all sight, to enjoy the rich colours of
the early dawn; all smell, to taste a thousand perfumes at once; all
hearing, to listen to the singing of our birds; and all heart, to be
capable of gratitude for those mingled blessings. Now, at the source
of the beauty whence flows all that is delightful upon earth, my soul
intuitively sees, hears, touches, what before she could only be made
sensible of through the medium of our weak organs. Ah! what language can
describe these shores of eternal bliss, which I inhabit for ever! All
that infinite power and heavenly goodness could create to console the
unhappy: all that the friendship of numberless beings, exulting in the
same felicity can impart, we enjoy in unmixed perfection. Support,
then, the trial which is now allotted to you, that you may heighten the
happiness of your Virginia by love which wi