io6 S% O N E-H ENGE. 
If we fuppofe that the world was then as well peopled as it 
now is, and continued fo ; and that the prefent calculation 
reaches to four hundred millions : and if the lives of the hu- 
man fpecies, as is calculated and obferved, one with ano- 
ther, do not exceed feventeen years, then there has been an 
increafe of about fifty-two thoufand nine hundred and forty-one 
millions of fouls in the world of fpirits, in this period only, near 
one hundred and thirty-two times as many as are now alive on 
the face of the whole earth ! 
If you afk me what I would teach by this far-fetched re- 
flection ? I only learn, madam, to regard this world with the 
more indifference, as my life feems to be but for a moment ; and 
myself, in fo vafl: a multitude, as an atom. But as I believe 
the immortality of the foul, my being is of infinite importance, 
and I will prepare to join with millions of bleffed fpirits, in joy- 
ful praifes to him who gave me this being, and with it a capa- 
city of happinefs, not for two thoufand years, but to all eternity 1 
( a Eternity l — thou pleaftng^ dreadful thought l ) 
11 as a drop of water unto the fea, and a gravel ftone in com- 
u parifon of the fand, fo are a thoufand years to the days of 
u eternity !” Adieu. 
LETTER XXXVL 
To Airs. D**#. 
M A D A M, 
I T was late in the evening before we reached ambresbury, 
which made the reception we met with the more inconve- 
nient, There is fomething difagreeable at beft, in the firft mo- 
ments 
