before it! But for that same preternatural quasi-infernal
Portent; one could not know what to make of this wretched world,
in these days' at all. The deplorablest quack-ridden, and now
hunger-ridden, downtrodden Despicability and _Flebile Ludibrium,_
of redtape Protocols, rotatory Calabashes, Poor-Law Bastilles:
who is there that could think of _its_ being fated to continue?--

Penalties enough, my brother! This penalty inclusive of all:
Eternal Death to thy own hapless Self, if thou heed no other.
Eternal Death, I say,--with many meanings old and new, of which
let this single one suffice us here: The eternal impossibility
for thee to _be_ aught but a Chimera, and swift-vanishing
deceptive Phantasm, in God's Creation;--swift-vanishing, never to
reappear: why should it reappear! Thou hadst one chance, thou
wilt never have another. Everlasting ages will roll on, and no
other be given thee. The foolishest articulate-speaking soul now
extant, may not he say to himself: "A whole Eternity I waited to
be born; and now I have a whole Eternity waiting to see what I
will do when born!" This is not Theology, this is Arithmetic.
And thou but half-discernest this; thou but half-believest it?
Alas, on the shores of the Dead Sea on Sabbath, there goes on
a Tragedy!--

But we will leave this of 'Religion;' of which, to say truth, it
is chiefly profitable in these unspeakable days to keep silence.
Thou needest no 'New Religion;' nor art thou like to get any.
Thou hast already more 'religion' than thou makest use of. This
day, thou knowest ten commanded duties, seest in thy mind ten
things which should be done, for one that thou doest! Do one of
them; this of itself will skew thee ten others which can and
shall be done. "But my future fate?" Yes, thy future fate,
indeed? Thy future fate, while thou makest _it_ the chief
question, seems to me--extremely questionable! I do not think it
can be good. Norse Odin, immemorial centuries ago, did not he,
though a poor Heathen, in the dawn of Time, teach us that, for
the Dastard there was and could be no good fate; no harbour
anywhere, save down with Hela, in the pool of Night! Dastards,
Knaves, are they that lust for Pleasure, that tremble at Pain.
For this world and for the next, Dastards are a class of
creatures made to be 'arrested;' they are good for nothing else,
can look for nothing else. A greater than Odin has been here. A
greater than Odin has taught us--