come a part of
our punishment, or of our reward, according to their kind. Those
persons, therefore, in whom the virtue of patriotism has predominated
continue to regard with interest their native land, unless it be so
utterly sunk in degradation that the moral relationship between them is
dissolved. Epaminondas can have no sympathy at this time with Thebes,
nor Cicero with Rome, nor Belisarius with the imperial city of the East.
But the worthies of England retain their affection for their noble
country, behold its advancement with joy, and when serious danger appears
to threaten the goodly structure of its institutions they feel as much
anxiety as is compatible with their state of beatitude."

_Montesinos_.--What, then, may doubt and anxiety consist with the
happiness of heaven?

_Sir Thomas More_.--Heaven and hell may be said to begin on your side the
grave. In the intermediate state conscience anticipates with unerring
certainty the result of judgment. We, therefore, who have done well can
have no fear for ourselves. But inasmuch as the world has any hold upon
our affections we are liable to that anxiety which is inseparable from
terrestrial hopes. And as parents who are in bliss regard still with
parental love the children whom they have left on earth, we, in like
manner, though with a feeling different in kind and inferior in degree,
look with apprehension upon the perils of our country.

"_sub pectore forti_
_Vivit adhuc patriae pietas_; _stimulatque sepultum_
_Libertatis amor_: _pondus mortale necari_
_Si potuit_, _veteres animo post funera vires_
_Mansere_, _et prisci vivit non immemor aevi_."

They are the words of old Mantuan.

_Montesinos_.--I am to understand, then, that you cannot see into the
ways of futurity?

_Sir Thomas More_.--Enlarged as our faculties are, you must not suppose
that we partake of prescience. For human actions are free, and we exist
in time. The future is to us therefore as uncertain as to you; except
only that having a clearer and more comprehensive knowledge of the past,
we are enabled to reason better from causes to consequences, and by what
has been to judge of what is likely to be. We have this advantage also,
that we are divested of all those passions which cloud the intellects and
warp the understandings of men. You are thinking, I perceive, how much
you have to learn, and what you should first inquire of me. But expect
no revelations! Enou