every
one mockingly laid bare his fellow's shame.

"And what was the animal in me?" inquired the disembodied Soul; and the
Angel of Death pointed to a haughty form, around whose head shone a
bright, widespread glory of rainbow-colored rays, but at whose heart
might be seen lurking, half-hidden, the feet of the peacock; the glory
was, in fact, merely the peacock's gaudy tail.

And as they passed on, large, foul-looking birds shrieked out from the
boughs of the trees; with clear, intelligible, though harsh, human
voices they shrieked, "Thou that walkest with Death, dost remember me?"
All the evil thoughts and desires that had nestled within him from his
birth until his death now called after him, "Rememberest thou me?"

And the Soul shuddered, recognizing the voices; it could not deny
knowledge of the evil thoughts and desires that were now rising up in
witness against it.

"In our flesh, in our evil nature, dwelleth no good thing," cried the
Soul; "but, at least, thoughts never with me ripened into actions; the
world has not seen the evil fruit." And the Soul hurried on to get free
from the accusing voices; but the great black fowls swept in circles
round, and screamed out their scandalous words louder and louder, as
though they would be heard all over the world. And the Soul fled from
them like the hunted stag, and at every step stumbled against sharp
flint stones that lay in the path. "How came these sharp stones here?
They look like mere withered leaves lying on the ground."

"Every stone is for some incautious word thou hast spoken, which lay as
a stumbling-block in thy neighbor's path, which wounded thy neighbor's
heart far more sorely and deeply than these sharp flints now wound thy
feet."

"Alas! I never once thought of that," sighed the Soul.

And those words of the gospel rang through the air, "Judge not, that ye
be not judged."

"We have all sinned," said the Soul, recovering from its momentary
self-abasement. "I have kept the Law and the Gospel, I have done what I
could, I am not as others are!"

And in his dream this man now stood at the gates of heaven, and the
Angel who guarded the entrance inquired, "Who art thou? Tell me thy
faith, and show it to me in thy works."

"I have faithfully kept the Commandments, I have humbled myself in the
eyes of the world, I have preserved myself free from the pollution of
intercourse with sinners, I have hated and persecuted evil, and those
who practice it, an