I859-] 



BE RE A FEME NTS. 



227 



to you, without your knowing it. The loss is only in the out- 

 ward ministrations. The little presents I had destined for her 

 on my return must be given to others. The daily, hourly minis- 

 trations of your love must be expended on others : they will not, 

 I know, return chilled and useless to your own bosoms. It may be 

 that there are many who will benefit in this world for the loss of 

 that one.* ... I have ceased to believe in the old Protestant 

 doctrine of an absolute separation between this and the next 

 state. I believe that there we go on as here, only with changed 

 media of operation, and in more close communion with each 

 other and with the angels : that the little ones are being taught, 

 and the older ones doing all sorts of useful works to each other, 

 and to us in the body. I always look forward to finding em- 

 ployment there as a teacher of children ; why else have I been 

 given such an intense love of children, and the gift of teaching?" 

 He had been listening to that exquisite Kyrie (Haydn's 2nd) 

 which his sister used to sing, and thought of the changes since 

 they had lived together. She was now richer in objects of 

 love; "the other half of that old household has been going 

 to and fro on the earth, ofttimes with heart filled to gushing, 

 pent up in its own loneliness, like the Gatineau hemmed in 

 by desolate mountains before it bursts its rocky chasm : . . . 

 what would he not have given for one child, even if that 

 one were taken from him straight to the unseen world ! What 

 a blessing to feel such an interest there! I write not these 

 things in complaint : my only complaint is with my own cold 

 heart, that will not be happy as it ought to be ; for the Lord 

 has given me ten thousand times more than I deserve. I 

 write in hopes only to show by contrast how rich you are. 

 And yet nature will have her tears and sobs. Well, let them 

 roll, so long as the voice of faith and submissive trust underlies 

 them all. The rainstorms are as needed for the ground as 

 the bright sunshine. The rain, without man's labours, makes 

 swamps and breeds sickness : with labour, it bears crops. Let 



* R. and S. Gaskell built a school-room, near their residence at Penketh, 

 in remembrance of her ; and though they have long left the neighbourhood^ 

 they still maintain the school there. 



