256 SALMONIA. 



siderthe results of reason as capable of being 

 compared with those of faith. R^eason is 

 often a dead weight in life, destroying feeling, 

 and substituting, for principle, calculation and 

 caution ; and, in the hour of death, it often 

 produces fear or despondency, and is rather 

 a bitter drauo^ht than nectar or ambrosia in 

 the last meal of life. 



Hal. — I agree w^ith Poietes. The higher 

 and more intense the feehng, under which 

 death takes place, the happier it may be 

 esteemed ; and I think even Physicus will be 

 of our opinion, when I recollect the conclu- 

 sion of a conversation in Scotland. The im- 

 mortal being never can quit life with so much 

 pleasure as with the feeling of immortality se- 

 cure, and the vision of celestial glory filling 

 the mind, affected by no other passion than 

 the pure and intense love of God. 



