_,' etc.

Does not the very idea (not to mention the composition of the word) of a
'return' involve a previously having been in the place? And we can
scarcely call that 'home' where we have never been before. So, that 'old
Hebrew book' sublimely tells us that 'the spirit of the man _returneth_
to God who gave it.'

Is it possible that these can be obscure intimations of that bygone time
when WE were rocked in the bosom of the Divine consciousness?
Perhaps.... And now if the reader will pardon a piece of moralizing, we
would say that these expressions teach us in the most emphatic way
that--'_This is not our rest_.' So that when we have dived into every
mine of knowledge and drunk from every fountain of pleasure; when, with
Dante, we arrive at the painful conclusion that

'Tutto l'oro, ch'e sotto la luna,
E che gia fu, di queste anime stanche
Non poterebbe farne posar una,'

(since, indeed, the Finite can never gain entire satisfaction in
itself)--we may not despair, but still the heart-throbbings, knowing
that He who has--for a season--enveloped us in the mantle of this
sleep-rounded life, and thrown around himself the drapery of the
universe--spangling it with stars--will again take us back to his
fatherly bosom.

Somewhat analogous to these, and arguing the eternity of our existence,
we have such words as 'decease,' which merely imports a _withdrawal_;
'demise,' implying also a laying down, a _removal_. By the way, it is
rather curious to observe the notions in the mind of mankind that have
given rise to the words expressing 'death.' Thus we have the Latin word
_mors_--allied, perhaps, to the Greek [Greek: moros] and [Greek:
moira],[1] from [Greek: meiromai]--to _portion out_, to _assign_. Even
this, however, there was a repulsion to using; and both the Greeks and
Romans were wont to slip clear of the employment of their [Greek:
thanatos], _mors_, etc., by such circumlocutions as _vitam suam mutare,
transire e seculo_; [Greek: koimesato chalkeon hypnon]--_he slept the
brazen sleep_ (Homer's Iliad, [Greek: Lamda], 241); [Greek: ton de
skotos oss' ekalypsen]--_and darkness covered his eyes_ (Iliad, [Greek:
Zeta], 11); or _he completeth the destiny of life_, etc. This reminds us
of the French aversion to uttering their _mort_. These expressions,
again, are suggestive of our 'fate,' with an application similar to the
Latin _fatum_, which, indeed, is none other than 'id quod _fatum est_ a
deis'--a God's word.