APRIL DAYS 49 



means, not by the horrors of the coffin. The dead 

 should not be buried, but, by means of fire, be dis- 

 solved and purified, and thus be yielded to Nature. 

 The " viewless winds " should be the last resting- 

 place for human dust, the wide vault of the sky its 

 final sepulchre, despite the art that would delay 

 the last change of condition, sealing down in 

 metal that which must be distributed over the 

 surface of the earth, and carried far into space. 



It is not unpleasant to know that when this dis- 

 solution shall be complete what is now ourselves 

 will enter into the constitution of the beautiful 

 things on the earth. Thus shall the aching heart 

 and weary limbs feed the passionless endurance of 

 an oak ; a lovely face shall live again in the match- 

 less colouring of some flower, sought by toiling 

 insects and dainty butterflies. Such changes are 

 now occurring. Our very breath passes to ex- 

 pectant leaves that hunger for its load of carbonic 

 acid. A sigh becomes the song of a bird, or the 

 hum of insect wings. It is, of course, impossible 

 that we can ever experience a consciousness 

 extended proportionately with our physical dis- 

 tribution ; but, were it possible, what consolations 

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