Is there a life beyond the grave?
Ten thousand thousand times this question hath been
answered, yet answer there is none that satisfies the soul.
Never yet did man look into the cold face of one he loved
and not feel, creeping like a thousand-fanged adder into his
desolate heart, the awful fear that death's the end of all.
Never yet did mother stand by her first born's bier and say,
"Thank God for Death that bringeth to my beloved eternal
Life." Though Bibles were piled as high as Helicon and
every son of Adam a white-stoled priest, proclaiming the
grave the gate to glorious life, still would Doubt, twin
brother of Despair, linger ever at that dread portal, and
Love long to tear aside Futurity's awful veil--to see and
know, as only those can know who see, that Death is but
Life's messenger.
Oh Love! thou art at once the sweetest blossom that ever
perfumed the bowers of Paradise, and the most poignant
thorn that grows in the empoisoned shadows of everlasting
Pain! But for thee, mad sorceress, every individual life
were a microcosm, complete within itself. We would live
but our own life, suffer our own pangs, and dying, descend
without a sigh to ever dreamless sleep; but thy soft fingers
do sweep the human harpsichord, the ego doth "pass in
music out of sight"; the single note of life is blended with
others in holy diapason, sweeter than fabled song of Israfil.
But alas! the penalty of this terrestrial Paradise, this
blending of human hearts in heavenly harmony! The added
pleasures bring redoubled pains; of symphonies so sweet is
born the discord of Despair. Loving others more than
our proper selves, their wounds are deeper far than our
own hurts, and death to them is death and hell to us.
Of love was born the hope of immortality. We part to-night
from those so near and dear that they seem our better
selves, looking with longing eyes to the glad to morrow
when we shall meet again; but when comes the sleep of
Death, and Reason, that pitiless monarch of the Mind,
proclaims that all the to-morrows in Time's fecund womb
will come and go and bring them never back to our fond
embrace, the heart revolts and wars on Destiny.
Hope, dear daughter of the Gods, angel of Light, what
seraphic visions thou dost weave for us in thy celestial
loom! How beautiful and bright the star that blazes upon
thy ethereal brow; yet alas! how oft obscured by the deadly
vapors of Doubt and dark Despair.
Is thy enchanted world a world indeed, where Love is lord
and Death is driven forth? or dost thou seek to soothe us
with lying pictures of Paradise, such as the shipwrecked
mariner in tropic seas beholds beneath the sultry brine? Is
thy beacon in very truth a star; shining eternal in our
cimmerian sky, a guide infallible to life's worn voyager; or a
wandering fire such as the foolish follow,--a lying flame that
leads the trusting traveler to his loss?
Since man first placed his foot upon this earth he hath been
listening with greedy ear to thy sweet song; since Death
first did show his horrid front thou hast been whispering to
the stricken heart that Love could never die,--that there is
not, cannot be in nature a pang so cruel as Love's farewell
forever. Thou hast been the world's comforter in all ages
past; will faithful prove through the long ages yet to be.
Is there a life beyond the grave?
Aye, it must be so; but what that life will be it boots not to
inquire. Even a land of sand and thorns, with grinding
toil, yet everlasting life with those we love, were heaven
and heaven enough.
Perhaps--who knows?--the sweet blending of our lives with
other and dearer ones upon this earth is but an earnest of
what will be in the great hereafter; that when every spark of
that bright effulgence increate is released from its thrall of
clay, all Life, and Light and Love will forever blend in One;
that husband, wife and child, and each and all the human
heart holds dear will be resolved into one perfect Life, and
thus at once in God and self, emparadised in each other's
souls in Heaven as in the loving arms of each on earth, let
Eternity roll on!
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EVOLUTION OR REVOLUTION.