At an earlier date he spoke more confidently. On his
father's death (_Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 65) he wrote:--
Man follows man. His life is as a tale that has been told:
yet under time does there not lie eternity? ... Perhaps my
father, all that essentially was my father, is even now near
me, with me. Both he and I are with God. Perhaps, if it so
please God, we shall in some higher state of being meet one
another, recognise one another. ... The possibility, nay (in
some way) the certainty, of perennial existence daily grows
plainer to me.
On the death of Mrs. Welsh he wrote to his wife: "We shall yet go to her.
God is great. God is good": and earlier, in 1835-1836, to Emerson on the
loss of his brother:--
"What a thin film it is that divides the living and the dead.
Your brother is in very deed and truth with God, where both
you and I are.... Perhaps we shall all meet YONDER, and
the tears be wiped from all eyes. One thing is no perhaps:
surely we shall all meet, if it be the will of the Maker of
us. If it be not His will, then is it not better so?"
After his wife's death, naturally, the question of Immortality came
uppermost in his mind; but his conclusions are, like those of Burns,
never dogmatic:--
The truth about the matter is absolutely hidden from us.
"In my Father's house are many mansions.
Pages:
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296