And,
accordingly, I laid by my natural diffidence and scepticism for a
while, to take up that dogmatical way of his, which, as I said, is so
much his character as to make him that individual poet. As for his
opinions concerning the mortality of the soul, they are so absurd,
that I cannot if I would, believe them. I think a future state
demonstrable even by natural arguments; at least, to take away
rewards and punishments, is only a pleasing prospect to a man who
resolves before hand not to live morally. But, on the other side, the
thought of being nothing after death is a burden insupportable to a
virtuous man, even though a heathen. We naturally aim at happiness,
and cannot bear to have it confined to the shortness of our present
being; especially when we consider that virtue is generally unhappy
in this world, and vice fortunate; so that it is hope of futurity
alone, that makes this life tolerable in expectation of a better. Who
would not commit all the excesses to which he is prompted by his
natural inclinations, if he may do them with security while he is
alive, and be incapable of punishment after he is dead? If he be
cunning and secret enough to avoid the laws, there is no band of
morality to restrain him; for fame and reputation are weak ties; many
men have not the least sense of them. Powerful men are only awed by
them, as they conduce to their interest, and that not always, when a
passion is predominant; and no man will be contained within the
bounds of duty when he may safely transgress them. These are my
thoughts abstractedly, and without entering into the notions of our
Christian faith, which is the proper business of divines.

"But there are other arguments in this poem (which I have turned into
English) not belonging to the mortality of the soul, which are strong
enough to a reasonable man, to make him less in love with life, and
consequently in less apprehension of death. Such are the natural
satiety proceeding from a perpetual enjoyment of the same things; the
inconveniences of old age, which make him incapable of corporeal
pleasures, the decay of understanding and memory, which render him
contemptible, and useless to others. These, and many other reasons,
so pathetically urged, so beautifully expressed, so adorned with
examples, an