VALPARAISO. 145 
and its unchecked powers. Oh! what, when the busy longing after 
immortality is gratified, can have power to bring the spirit down to 
earth ? Not, surely, a lingering fondness for its ancient dwelling ; — 
no, it must be love, which feels like an immortal sentiment for some 
kindred and congenial spirit that could prompt us to hover near till 
that spirit joined us in our flight to eternity. I firmly believe that 
no communication can take place between those once gone, and the 
habitants of earth. But will not the happier friend be conscious of 
the feelings and regrets of those he has left ; may he not watch over 
them and welcome them at last to his own state? There is nothing 
contrary to reason in such a belief; and I think revelation encourages 
it. And surely it is one means of reconciliation, — one source of 
comfort to those who have closed the dying eyes of all that was best 
and dearest. 
It was twilight long before I reached home, and the evening had 
become chill and gloomy ; and I sat down in my solitary cottage, and 
thought of the hopes and wishes with which I had left England, and 
almost doubted whether I, too, had not passed the bounds of life: 
but such abstractions can' never happily last long. The ordinary 
current of existence rolls not so smoothly, but that at every turn 
some inequality awakens consciousness; and I roused myself to my 
daily task of study, and of writing down the occurrences of the day. 
I have often thought a collection of faithful journals might furnish 
better food to a moral philosopher for his speculations, than all the 
formal disquisitions that ever were written. There are days of hurry 
and happy occupation, that leave also a hurry of spirits, that per- 
mits but the shortest and most concise entries; others there are, 
where idleness and the self-importance we all feel, more or less, in 
writing a journal, swell the pages with laborious trifling ; and some, 
again, where a few short sentences tell of a state of mind that it 
requires courage indeed to exhibit to another eye. A copied journal 
‘is less characteristic: it. may be equally true, it may give a better, 
because a more rational and careful account of countries visited ; 
and the copying it, may awaken associations and lead the writer to 
U 
