a crime,
A crime of reason, if it costs us pain
Unpaid."

If there is no immortality for man--

"Sense! take the rein; blind Passion, drive us on;
And Ignorance! befriend us on our way. . .
Yes; give the pulse full empire; live the Brute,
Since as the brute we die. The sum of man,
Of godlike man, to revel and to rot."

* * * * *

"If this life's gain invites him to the deed,
Why not his country sold, his father slain?"

* * * * *

"Ambition, avarice, by the wise disdain'd,
Is perfect wisdom, while mankind are fools,
And think a turf or tombstone covers all."

* * * * *

"Die for thy country, thou romantic fool!
Seize, seize the plank thyself, and let her sink."

* * * * *

"As in the dying parent dies the child,
Virtue with Immortality expires.
Who tells me he denies his soul immortal,
_Whate'er his boost_, _has told me he's a knave_.
_His duty 'tis to love himself alone_.
_Nor care though mankind perish if he smiles_."

We can imagine the man who "denies his soul immortal," replying, "It is
quite possible that _you_ would be a knave, and love yourself alone, if
it were not for your belief in immortality; but you are not to force upon
me what would result from your own utter want of moral emotion. I am
just and honest, not because I expect to live in another world, but
because, having felt the pain of injustice and dishonesty toward myself,
I have a fellow-feeling with other men, who would suffer the same pain if
I were unjust or dishonest toward them. Why should I give my neighbor
short weight in this world, because there is not another world in which I
should have nothing to weigh out to him? I am honest, because I don't
like to inflict evil on others in this life, not because I'm afraid of
evil to myself in another. The fact is, I do _not_ love myself alone,
whatever logical necessity there may be for that in your mind. I have a
tender love for my wife, and children, and friends, and through that love
I sympathize with like affections in other men. It is a pang to me to
witness the sufferings of a fellow-being, and I feel his suffering the
more acutely because he is _mortal_--because his life is so short, and I
would have it, if possible, filled with happiness and not misery.
Thr