bserve how he had mellowed
with time. The irritabilities of his earlier days had been wholly
overcome; his reluctance to mingle with men was quite gone; and old
age, which makes so many of us exacting and crabbed, if not morose,
imparted to him additional gentleness and sweetness. He had learned
to live more and more in the happiness of others, and was rewarded
for his unconscious devotion by new streams of happiness constantly
opening in his bosom."

He even learned to take good-naturedly what had annoyed him a good deal
in an earlier time, namely, the results of his fame. He writes thus to a
friend in extreme old age:--

"Is there a penny-post, do you think, in the world to come? Do
people there write for autographs to those who have gained a little
notoriety? Do women there send letters asking for money? Do boys
persecute literary men with requests for a course of reading? Are
there offices in that sphere which are coveted, and to obtain which
men are pestered to write letters of recommendation? If anything of
this kind takes place in the spirit-world it may, perhaps, be of a
purgatorial nature, or perhaps be the fate of the incorrigible
sinner. Here on earth this discipline never ends; and if it exists
at all in the other world, it is of a kind which will, of course,
never cease. On this account I am inclined to believe that the
punishment for sin may be of endless duration; for here the
annoyances and miseries which I have mentioned only cease with
death, and in the other world, where there is no death, they will,
of course, never come to an end."

To another correspondent he writes:--

"How is it in the world to come? Will patience have had her perfect
work in this sphere, or is the virtue to be exercised there, until
we shall have acquired an evenness of temper which no possible
provocation can disturb? Are the bores to be all penned in a corner
by themselves, or are they to be let loose to educate the saints to
the sublimest degree of patience of which our nature is capable?
These are deep questions. I do not remember that you have given any
special attention to the use of bores in the moral government of
the world in your book on 'The Problem of Human Destiny.' I admit
their utility as a class: they serve a most excellent purpose; but
whether we