after the body is cast off like the shell of
a chrysalis. Still existing, it will seek its object. And shall it seek
forever and not find? God forbid! No! The love I bear my wife is not,
I trust, all of the earth, earthy; but instinct with a heavenly
perpetuity. And when we sleep the sleep of death, it will be in the
confident assurance of a speedy and more perfect conjunction of our
lives. On a subject of such deep concern, we are dissatisfied with the
vague and conjectural; and this is why the record of things seen and
heard in the spiritual world by Swedenborg--especially in what relates
to marriages in heaven--has for us such an absorbing interest."

"Are you satisfied with the evidence?" I ventured to inquire, seeing him
so confident.

"Yes."

He answered quietly, and with an assured manner.

"How do you reach a conclusion as to the truth of these things?"

"Something after the same way that you satisfy yourself that the sun
shines."

"My eyes testify to me that fact. Seeing is believing," I answered.

"The spirit of a man has eyes as well as his body," said Wallingford.
"And seeing is believing in another sense than you intimate. Now
the bodily eyes see material objects, and the mind, receiving their
testimony, is in no doubt as to the existence, quality, and relation of
things in the outer world. The eyes of our spirits, on the other hand,
see immaterial objects or truths; and presenting them to the rational
and perceptive faculties, they are recognized as actual existences, and
their quality as surely determined as the quality of a stone or metal.
If you ask me how I know that this is quartz, or that iron; I answer, By
the testimony of my eyes. And so, if you ask how I satisfy myself as to
the truth of which I read in this book; I can only reply that I see it
all so clearly that conviction is a necessity. There is no trouble in
believing. To attempt disbelief, would be to illustrate the fable of
Sisyphus."

He spoke calmly, like one whose mind had risen above doubt. I objected
nothing further; for that would have been useless. And why attempt to
throw questions into his mind? Was there anything evil in the faith
which he had adopted as exhibited in his life? I could not say yes. On
the contrary, taking his life as an illustration, good only was to be
inferred. I remembered very well when his mind diverged into this
new direction. Some years had intervened. I thought to see him
grow visionary or enthusi