When I look round these gloomy
walls, made to terrify, as well as to confine us; this light that only
serves to shew the horrors of the place, those shackles that tyranny has
imposed, or crime made necessary; when I survey these emaciated looks,
and hear those groans, O my friends, what a glorious exchange would
heaven be for these. To fly through regions unconfined as air, to
bask in the sunshine of eternal bliss, to carrol over endless hymns
of praise, to have no master to threaten or insult us, but the form of
goodness himself for ever in our eyes, when I think of these things,
death becomes the messenger of very glad tidings; when I think of these
things, his sharpest arrow becomes the staff of my support; when I think
of these things, what is there in life worth having; when I think of
these things, what is there that should not be spurned away: kings in
their palaces should groan for such advantages; but we, humbled as we
are, should yearn for them.

And shall these things be ours? Ours they will certainly be if we
but try for them; and what is a comfort, we are shut out from many
temptations that would retard our pursuit. Only let us try for them, and
they will certainly be ours, and what is still a comfort, shortly too;
for if we look back on past life, it appears but a very short span, and
whatever we may think of the rest of life, it will yet be found of
less duration; as we grow older, the days seem to grow shorter, and our
intimacy with time, ever lessens the perception of his stay. Then let
us take comfort now, for we shall soon be at our journey's end; we
shall soon lay down the heavy burthen laid by heaven upon us, and though
death, the only friend of the wretched, for a little while mocks the
weary traveller with the view, and like his horizon, still flies before
him; yet the time will certainly and shortly come, when we shall cease
from our toil; when the luxurious great ones of the world shall no
more tread us to the earth; when we shall think with pleasure on our
sufferings below; when we shall be surrounded with all our friends, or
such as deserved our friendship; when our bliss shall be unutterable,
and still, to crown all, unending.

CHAPTER 30

Happier prospects begin to appear. Let us be inflexible, and fortune
will at last change in our favour

When I had thus finished and my audience was retired, the gaoler, who
was one of the most humane of his profession, hoped I would not be
disp