Essays on Life 



with it but not sooner. It is enough that 

 they should live within us and move us for 

 many ages as they have and will. Such 

 immortality, therefore, as some men and 

 women are born to, achieve, or have thrust 

 upon them, is a practical if not a technical 

 immortality, and he who would have more let 

 him have nothing. 



I see I have drifted into speaking rather of 

 how to make the best of death than of life, 

 but who can speak of life without his thoughts 

 turning instantly to that which is beyond 

 it ? He or she who has made the best of the 

 life after death has made the best of the life 

 before it ; who cares one straw for any such 

 chances and changes as will commonly be- 

 fall him here if he is upheld by the full and 

 certain hope of everlasting life in the affec- 

 tions of those that shall come after ? If the 

 life after death is happy in the hearts of 

 others, it matters little how unhappy was the 

 life before it. 



And now I leave my subject, not without 

 misgiving that I shall have disappointed you. 

 But for the great attention which is being 



