THE CHAIN OF UNIVERSES 155 



wounds are healed and the tears are dried, and 

 the battle is renewed. Man emerges from each 

 successive conflict stronger, saner, and better, more 

 assured of ultimate victory, fitter to reap the fruits 

 of it. The individual suffers, and dies a million 

 deaths, but his misery is but a drop in the ocean 

 of his happiness. His pain is never infinite. Like 

 all bodily sensations, it has its maximum, beyond 

 which no power can intensify it. Death itself is 

 peaceful, painless, free from all fear. The fear 

 passes away when it is no longer useful as a stimulus 

 to activity. The barriers of the human world fall 

 away. The " game " is played to the last. Once 

 more the individual is withdrawn towards that 

 centre of sentient life where all souls are one with 

 the great Over-soul. What his future fate may be 

 we need not now inquire. Should it ever become 

 necessary to enter upon and pursue such inquiry, 

 we may be sure that a full acquaintance with the 

 laws of our present visible universe will form the 

 best preparation for it. And these laws we shall 

 apply with the greater confidence when we know 

 that they suffice to interpret not only our own 

 univtT.se. hut tin- two other worlds just discernible 

 on the horizon of our present faculties. 



