la de la tombe, que cette vie n'ait
pas de suite. Mais non, tu ne saurais le croire! Quand tous
les autres le penseraient, toi, tu ne le pourrais pas. Tu as
une preuve d'immortalite qui t'appartient en propre. Cette
tristesse qui te consume, est quelque chose de trop intime et
de trop profond pour se dissoudre avec tes organes, et ce qui
est capable de tant souffrir ne pent pas s'aller perdre dans
la terre. Les vers heriteront de la poussiere de ton corps,
mais l'amertume de ton ame, qui en heritera? Ces extases
sublimes, ces tourments affreux; ces hauteurs des cieux, ces
profondeurs des abimes; qu'y a-t-il d'assez grand ou d'assez
abaisse, d'assez eleve ou d'assez avili pour les revetir en
ta place? Non, tu ne saurais jamais croire que tout meurt
avec le corps; ou si tu le pouvais tu n'en serais que plus
insense, plus miserable encore.

It is proof how child-like I had been, how obedient in suppressing all
forbidden thoughts, that these words smote me with such horror. I had
indulged in no speculation; I had never thought of him as haunted by the
self he fled; as still bound to an inexorable and inextinguishable life,

"With time and hope behind him cast,
And all his work to do with palsied hands and cold."

The terrors I had had, had been vague. I had thought dimly of
punishment, more keenly of separation. If I had analysed my thoughts, I
suppose I should have found annihilation to have been my belief--death
forever, loss eternal. But this--if this were truth--(and it smote me as
the truth alone can smite), oh, it was maddening. To my knees! To my
knees! Oh, that I might live long years to pray for him! Oh, that I
might stretch out my hands to God for him, withered with age and shrunk
with fasting, and strong but in faith and final perseverance! Oh, it
could not be too late! What was prayer made for, but for a time like
this? What was this little breath of time, compared with the Eternal
Years, that we should only speak _now_ for each other to our merciful
God, and never speak for each other afterward? Spirits are forever; and
is prayer only for the days of the body?

It was well for me that none of the doubts that are so often expressed
had found any lodgment in my brain; if I had not believed that I had a
right to pray for him, and that my prayers might help him, I cannot
understand how I could have lived through thos