146 REWARDS and PUNISHMENTS. 
rious, beyond the bounds prefcribed by religion. I do not 
mean, however, to condemn your enquiries \ I fhould think 
myfelf happy, if I could give you any fatisfa&ion. My belief 
is, that we fhall enjoy a foretaste of the felicity of blelTed 
fpirits, or fuffer fome degree of the miferies of the damned, 
immediately after death. I have no notion of exigence with- 
out confcioufnefs ; or of confcioufnefs without pain or plea- 
fure ; more than I have of being mortal, and immortal, at 
the fame time: but to what degree our confcioufnefs after 
death will rife, heaven only knows. Were there no confciouf- 
nefs, we might fay, with hamlet, 
<£ 75? die> — to Jleep , — no more.” 
but, with him, we mud: add, 
<c To die , — to Jleep ; — to Jleep , perchance to dreatn ! 
“ Ay e, there s the rub ; for in that feep of death , 
u What dreams may come , when we have Jhujfled off 
1 i This mortal coil 1 ” — 
Our habit of thinking, be it good or evil, I believe, will re- 
main with us : and I have generally obferved, that as we live, 
we die. It is not uncommon to miftake a desire, or inten- 
tion, to devote ourfelves entirely to the practice of virtue, 
for that real change which fuch devotion of ourfelves implies: 
but remember, that unlefs we fix clear and determinate points, 
in which we fuppofe virtue confifls ; and obferve them when 
fixed, in refolving to be virtuous, we really refolve on we 
know not what. 
Since 
