Whereon some one made these lines
on him:--
"Thou hast seen hell and heaven? Why not? since heaven and hell
Within the struggling soul of every mortal dwell."
Think of that!--thou--and thou--and thou!--for in thee, at this
moment, is either heaven or hell: and which of them? Ask thyself--
ask thyself, friend. If thou art not in heaven in this life, thou
wilt never be in heaven in the life to come. At death, says the
wise man, each thing returns into its own element, into the ground
of its life; the light into the light, and the darkness into the
darkness. As the tree falls so it lies. My friends, who call
yourselves enlightened Christian folk, do you suppose that you can
lead a mean, worldly, covetous, spiteful life here, and then the
moment your soul leaves the body that you are to be changed into the
very opposite character, into angels and saints, as fairy tales tell
of beasts changed into men? If a beast can be changed into a man,
then death can change the sinner into a saint,--but not else. If a
beast would enjoy being a man, then a sinner would enjoy being in
heaven, but not else. A sinful, worldly man enjoy being in heaven?
Does a fish enjoy being on dry land? The sinner would long to be
back in this world again.
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