r behind
it all. And yet--and yet, in all these tens of thousands of years, with
all the millions upon millions of souls that have come and gone, we know
absolutely nothing of the hereafter. That's what beats me. No true or
certain message has ever yet come from the dead to tell us what happens
when the last plunge is made. Chaldeans, Egyptians, Assyrians, Romans,
Greeks, Buddhists, Confucians, Hebrews, Christians, all have tried their
level best to get at the secret; none--no, not one--have solved it.
They all have their theories, of course. I suppose they always will.
But to any real solution of the great secret, to the real truth, we are
no nearer than we were ten thousand years ago. The wisest of them all
are dumb and mute, and, I suppose, always will be. Look at the
Spiritualists. What do they tell us? A lot of piffling rubbish--
knockings, rappings, and contemptible nonsense of that sort--but of
serious truth, of what we want to know, not one little bit.

"Religions, and creeds, and beliefs never help us to pierce the big veil
yonder. Ethics are all right enough; but even ethics can't solve that
immense mystery. One can only long and wonder, and wonder and long
again. Don't laugh, old chap. I don't often inflict you with this sort
of thing; but out here in the desert, face to face with Nature, with
time to think, one can't help puzzling over this world-worn problem.
One finds so much wrong in what one hears in the world. You know that
as well as I. Why, look at the dream of universal peace--swords turned
into ploughshares, lions and lambs lying down together, and all that
sort of thing. What rot it is! One comes out here in the veldt and
looks at Nature, and one finds _everywhere_ the most ghastly war, and
murder, and suffering incessantly around one. Birds, beasts, insects,
reptiles, fish--all hard at it. You can never have peace in this world.
Battle, and murder, and sudden death will, I believe, last as long as
the earth lasts. You may have epochs of civilisation and calm, but only
for a time. Nature tells us that plainly, and you can't get away from
Nature."

"I'm not laughing, Bill," returned his comrade. "Sometimes, but not
very often, I have the same thoughts. Everybody, I suppose, has at
times. Your puzzle has puzzled the world always, and always will. And
the more one gets away from the din and struggle of the beastly towns,
the bigger seems the mystery of life and the beyond. B