Future Life. 483 
Not by man alone have these higher qualities been 
accorded to the brute. Women have praised the good within 
the lower animals, and been quite as willing to share with 
them the benefits of an immortal life. Eugenie de Guérin, a 
woman distinguished for her devotional piety, and an author 
of no mean repute, was, like the most of her sex, quite pas- 
sionately fond of pets. Hers wasa turtle-dove. Its voice was 
the first to greet her in the morning. There was a pleasure 
in its soft, gentle cooings, as they fell upon her ear, that sent 
a sweet consolation to her busy, thinking soul. But the 
time came at last when she must part with her treasure. 
The morn dawned bright, an August morning, and the bird 
was well and happy, but, with the falling of the shadows at 
even-tide, its little life went out. A bitter trial it was for the 
mistress, who loved with a perfect love her feathered friend. 
While wrestling with her intense sorrow, and after she had 
sincerely placed its mortal remains in a dainty cavity beneath 
the roses, it was that she wrote: “I have a tolerably strong 
belief in the souls of animals, and I should even like there to 
be a little paradise for the good and gentle, like turtle-doves, 
dogs and lambs. But what to do with wolves and other 
wicked animals? To damn them?—that embarrasses me.” 
Less devotional, perhaps, and looking rather to logic than 
to intuition, was the mind of Mrs. Somerville. With such 
a difference in constitution between the two women, we 
would naturally look forthe greatest divergence of opinion 
upon a matter of this kind, but, astonishing to relate, there 
is noticeable a marked unanimity. Speaking of death, and 
the accompanying change of environing objects, this gifted 
writer, in her eighty-ninth year, says in her “ Memoirs” :— 
“TJ shall regret the sky, the sea, with all their beautiful 
coloring ; the earth, with its verdure and flowers; but far 
more shall I grieve to leave animals that have followed our 
steps affectionately for years, without knowing for certainty 
their ultimate fate, though I firmly believe that the living 
principle is never extinguished. Since the atoms of matter 
