SOUNDINGS 



human beings who have lived upon the earth; but 

 is form, pattern, personality, separable from the 

 material that composes it? 



It may be cheerfully admitted that when we look 

 at the question in this light, we are whistling to 

 keep our courage up. What of it? The band plays to 

 keep the courage of the soldiers up when they go 

 into battle, and what are we but soldiers fighting 

 the good fight of truth against error, of courage 

 against fear, of the heroic against the pusillanimous? 

 The whole is greater than any of its parts. Nature is 

 more than man. We must learn to efface ourselves. 

 The soul knows no rewards or punishments. If it 

 be heroic to sacrifice life in this world, it may be 

 equally heroic to sacrifice life in any other world, so 

 that we prove ourselves worthy of the gods. 



XII. HEAVEN AND EARTH 



Truly things are not what they seem. When we 

 put heaven and earth far apart, we think as chil- 

 dren. Heaven and earth are pretty close together. 

 The shortest arm can reach from one to the other. 

 When we go to heaven we shall not have far to 

 travel, and I dare say the other place is quite as 

 near, and, if reports be true, the road is broader and 

 easier to travel. What children we are in such mat- 

 ters ! The wisest men have the language of ignorance 

 and superstition imposed upon them. How difficult 

 it is not to think of the heavens up there as a reality, 



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