ts, as ourselves. Like us, he sees in his visions the fading
forms of landscapes which are perhaps connected with some of his most
grateful recollections, and what other conclusion can he possibly derive
from these unreal pictures than that they are the foreshadowings of
another land beyond that in which his lot is cast. Like us, he is
revisited at intervals by the resemblances of those whom he has loved or
hated while they were alive, nor can he ever be so brutalized as not to
discern in such manifestations suggestions which to him are
incontrovertible proofs of the existence and immortality of the soul.
Even in the most refined social conditions we are never able to shake
off the impressions of these occurrences, and are perpetually drawing
from them the same conclusions that our uncivilized ancestors did. Our
more elevated condition of life in no respect relieves us from the
inevitable consequences of our own organization, any more than it
relieves us from infirmities and disease. In these respects, all over
the globe we are on an equality. Savage or civilized, we carry within us
a mechanism intended to present to us mementoes of the most solemn facts
with which we can be concerned, and the voice of history tells us that
it has ever been true to its design. It wants only moments of repose or
sickness, when the influence of external things is diminished, to come
into full play, and these are precisely the moments when we are best
prepared for the truths it is going to suggest. Such a mechanism is in
keeping with the manner in which the course of nature is fulfilled, and
bears in its very style the impress of invariability of action. It is no
respecter of persons. It neither permits the haughtiest to be free from
its monitions, nor leaves the humblest without the consolation of a
knowledge of another life. Liable to no mischances, open to no
opportunities of being tampered with by the designing or interested,
requiring no extraneous human agency for its effect, but always present
with each man wherever he may go, it marvellously extracts from vestiges
of the impressions of the past overwhelming proofs of the reality of the
future, and gathering its power from what would seem to be a most
unlikely source, it insensibly leads us, no matter who or where we may
be, to a profound belief in the immortal and imperishable, from phantoms
that have scarcely made their appearance before they are ready to vanish
away."

[Sidenote: