THE IMMORTALITY Ol' THE HUMAN SPIRIT. 67 



season passes away : a new period arrives, when the mind no longer 

 revels in imagination, but becomes thoughtful, enquiring, earnest, 

 practical ; the age of vigorous acquirements and active duty has 

 arrived. Another period comes ; the mind becomes tenacious, grasp- 

 ing, takes firm and rigorous hold of what it has found to be truth, 

 and knows to be good. Another period arrives — the period of wis- 

 dom ; the mind is then either cautious or acutely discerning. Every 

 sentiment it utters is then sterling — its every drop is gold ; it generally 

 becomes pious and adoring, and seems then fitted for a new and 

 better state of existence than that of earth. The inference we would 

 draw from this part of the subject is this: If the mind grew simply 

 by addition, either an increase in the intensity of powers first deve- 

 loped, or by new additions consequent upon the increase of its stores 

 of knowledge, we ought to infer that these must have limitation, and 

 conseqnently that this being, though distinguished greatly by its 

 longevity, might not yet be eternal. But when we see one state of 

 being rising out of another, phase after phase, and trace this to the 

 very end of life, we may infer, and justly, that such a state of being, 

 having in itself no destructive qualities, is destined to endure. 



" The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 

 Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years : 

 Bat thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, 

 Unhurt amidst the war of elements, 

 The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds." 



This spirit, then, has a home — a haven of rest; it pants to be 

 there, like the captive who gazes through his prison bars towards 

 his native valley ; it feels it has a home. He can see no other than 

 the outskirts of the blue horizon ; but he knows there is beyond a 

 valley where is hid his father's house ; it may be an humble cot, 

 but it is his ; that there he last received a father's blessmg — there 

 listened to a mother's voice — there heard the cheerful laugh of his 

 sisters* girlhood. It is graven on his heart; eternity cannot erase 

 it. Nor can it be erased from his spirit that his home is the skies, 

 and that his destiny is immortal. 



T. T. L. 



