idealism than that which was formerly displayed. Taken
but as an hypothesis, it holds suggestions ampler than any other
conveys. It intimates that just as the butterfly rises from the
chrysalis, so does the spiritual rise from the flesh. It indicates
that just as the sun cannot set, so is it impossible for death to be.

There are topics about which words hover like enchanted bees. Death is
one of them. Mediaevally it was represented by a skeleton to which
prose had given a rictus, poetry a scythe, and philosophy wings. From
its eyries it swooped spectral and sinister. Previously it was more
gracious. In Greece it resembled Eros. Among its attributes was
beauty. It did not alarm. It beckoned and consoled. The child of
Night, the brother of Sleep, it was less funereal than narcotic. The
theory of it generally was beneficent. But not enduring. In the change
of things death lost its charm. It became a sexless nightmare-frame of
bones topped by a grinning skull. That perhaps was excessive. In
epicurean Rome it was a marionette that invited you to wreathe
yourself with roses before they could fade. In the Muslim East it was
represented by Azrael, who was an angel. In Vedic India it was
represented by Yama, who was a god. But mediaevally in Europe the
skeleton was preferred. Since then it has changed again. It is no
longer a spectral vampire. It has acquired the serenity of a natural
law. Regarding the operation of that law there are perhaps but three
valid conjectures. Rome entertained all of them. There, there was a
tomb on which was written _Umbra_. Before it was another on which was
engraved _Nihil_. Between the two was a portal behind which the _Nec
plus ultra_ stood revealed.

The portal, fashioned by the philosophy of ages, still is open, wider
than before, on vaster horizons and unsuspected skies. Through it one
may see the explication of things; the reason why men are not born
equal, why some are rich and some are poor, why some are weak and some
are strong, why some are wise and many are not. One may see there too
the reason of joys and sorrows, the cause of tears and smiles. One may
see also how the soul changes its raiment and how it happens to have a
raiment to change. One may see all these things, and others besides,
in the revelation that this life, being the refuse of many deaths, has
acquired merits and demerits in accordance with which are present
punishments and rewards.

In proportion as these are utiliz