238 HEAVENLY ILLUSIONS. 



the slave girl whispered the gospel in the ears of her 

 mistress as she built up the mass of towered hair ; 

 there stood men in cloak and beard at street corners, 

 who, when the people, according to the manners of the 

 day, invited them to speak, preached not the doctrines 

 of the Painted Porch, but the words of a new and strange 

 philosophy; the young wife threw her arms round her 

 husband's neck and made him agree to be baptised, 

 that their souls might not be parted after death. 

 How awful were the threats of the Heavenly despot ; 

 how sweet were the promises of a life beyond the 

 grave. The man who strove to obey the law which 

 was written on his heart, yet often fell for want of 

 support, was now promised a rich reward if he would 

 persevere. The disconsolate woman, whose age of 

 beauty and triumph had passed away, was taught that 

 if she became a Christian her body in all the splendour 

 of its youth would rise again. The poor slave, who 

 sickened from weariness of a life in which there was 

 for him no hope, received the assurance of another 

 life in which he would find luxury and pleasure when 

 death released him from his woe. Ah, sweet fallacious 

 hopes of a barbarous and poetic age ! Illusion still 

 cherished, for mankind is yet in its romantic youth ! 

 How easy it would be to endure without repining the 

 toils and troubles of this miserable life if indeed we 

 could believe that, when its brief period was past, we 

 should be united to those whom we have loved, to 

 those whom death has snatched away, or whom fate 

 has parted from us by barriers cold and deep and 

 hopeless as the grave. If we could believe this, the 

 shortness of life would comfort us — how quickly the 

 time flies by ! — and we should welcome death. But 

 we do nut believe it, and so we cling to our tortured 



