ith admits that it would be hard to have
made the sacrifice, and be rewarded only by death; while the many
unbelievers who have virtually made it for one or other of the hobbies
which he describes, have at least its success to repay them. But even
so, he continues, he would have chosen the better part; for he would
have chosen Hope,--the hope which aspires to a loftier end. "His
opponent, it is true, hopes also; but _his_ hopes are blind. They are
not those of St. Paul, but those which, according to AEschylus, the Titan
gave to men, to spice therewith the meal of life, and prevent their
devouring it in too bitter haste; and if hope--or faith--is meant to be
something more than a relish...!"

The opponent protests against this attack upon the "trusting ease" of
his existence, and declares that his interlocutor is not doing as he
would be done by. Whereupon the first speaker relates something which
befell him on the Easter-Eve of three years ago, and which startled him
out of precisely such a condition.

He was crossing the common, lately spoken of by their friend, and musing
on life and the last judgment: when the following question occured to
him: what would be his case if he died and were judged at that very
moment? "From childhood," he continues, "I have always insisted on
knowing the worst; and I now plunged straight into the recesses of my
conscience, prepared for what spectre might be hidden there. But all I
encountered was _common sense_, which did its best to assure me that I
had nothing to fear: that, considering all the difficulties of life, I
had kept my course through it as straight, and advanced as rapidly as
could be expected." (More reflections, half serious half playful ensue.)
"Suddenly I threw back my head, and saw the midnight sky on fire. It was
a _sea_ of fire, now writhing and surging; now sucked back into the
darkness, now overflowing it till its rays poured downwards on to the
earth. I felt that the Judgment Day had come. I felt also, in that
supreme moment of consciousness, that I had chosen the world, and must
take my stand upon the choice. I defended it with the courage of
despair. 'God had framed me to appreciate the beauties of life; I could
not put the cup untasted aside; He had not plainly commanded me to do
so; He knew how I had struggled to resign myself to leaving it half
full; Hell could be no just punishment for such a mood as that.'"

"Another burst of fire. A brief ecstasy which co