124 CONCLUSION. 



despondency might await us, but go boldly on 

 through the portal, and calmly consider what 

 deduction we may draw, by the simple light of 

 reason, from this undeniable truth. We see 

 that every thing around us here, when it has 

 accomplished the end of its being, is not anni- 

 hilated, but only transformed into some other 

 state, in which it still continues to work out the 

 will of Him who created it : every material 

 thing perfectly fulfils its destined purpose ; but 

 Man has that within which assures him that 

 here he neither is nor does all that the soul 

 could be and perform, were it disencumbered of 

 the body in its present grosser state. Has he 

 not then the strongest reason to confide in Him 

 who gave that body for good purposes here, 

 that He will at its dissolution, still make it sub- 

 servient to his wise intentions, and after he se- 

 parates it from its present union with the soul, 

 will assuredly place his rational creature in a 

 condition to be and to do all for which that 

 creature was made ? Man would then no longer 

 be the exception to the rest of sentient beings ; 

 their wishes and desires are so arranged, that 

 the means of their gratification are within their 

 reach on earth ; we, on the contrary, feel aspi- 

 rations which never can be fully gratified here, 



