, perhaps, less lofty, but his actions were infinitely
more excellent, and his theories infinitely more wise.

Stage after stage we have proceeded with him through the MYSTERIES OF
LIFE. The Eleusinia are closed, and the crowning libation poured.

And Alice!--Will the world blame us if you are left happy at the
last? We are daily banishing from our law-books the statutes that
disproportion punishment to crime. Daily we preach the doctrine that we
demoralize wherever we strain justice into cruelty. It is time that we
should apply to the Social Code the Wisdom we recognize in Legislation!
It is time that we should do away with the punishment of death for
inadequate offences, even in books; it is time that we should allow the
morality of atonement, and permit to Error the right to hope, as the
reward of submission to its suffering. Nor let it be thought that the
close to Alice's career can offer temptation to the offence of its
commencement. Eighteen years of sadness, a youth consumed in silent
sorrow over the grave of Joy, have images that throw over these pages a
dark and warning shadow that will haunt the young long after they turn
from the tale that is about to close! If Alice had died of a broken
heart, if her punishment had been more than she could bear, _then_, as
in real life, you would have justly condemned my moral; and the human
heart, in its pity for the victim, would have lost all recollection of
the error.--My tale is done.

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Alice, or The Mysteries, Complete, by
Edward Bulwer-Lytton

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALICE, OR THE MYSTERIES, COMPLETE ***

***** This file should be named 9774.txt or 9774.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/9/7/7/9774/

Produced by David Widger and Dagny

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered