f a man and
the life of a butterfly; conceptions and aspirations so totally
disproportioned to the evanescence of his being! If, however, you
really think that the hopes of an immortality of virtuous happiness
will stand in the way of a sublime disinterestedness of spirituality,
you ought to recollect that any expectation of happiness, even for a
day, will, in its measure, have the same effect. So that the only way
in which you can accommodate so 'spiritual a piety,' and absolutely
insure yourself against 'spiritual bribery,' is to deprive yourself
of all possibility of being so misled. If your piety would be
absolutely sure that it loves God on these sublime terms, it should
take care to neutralize the happiness which that love brings with it;
so that, if God has not made you miserable, you should never fail, like
the ascetics, to make yourself so. I fear you never can be perfectly
'spiritual' till you have made yourself supremely wretched. But to quit
this point," I continued; "if immortality be a delusion, I fear we
say that it covers the divine administration with an penetrable
cloud,--one which we cannot hope will removed. The inequalities of
that administration not be redressed."

"But do you not recollect," replied Fellowes, reason Mr. Newman gives
for despising any such mitigation? Does he not say, that it is a
strange argument for a day of recompense, that man has unsatisfied
claims upon God? He says, 'Christians have added an argument of their
own for a future state, but, unfortunately, one that cannot bring
personal comfort or assurance. A future state (it seems) is requisite
to redress the inequalities of this life. And can I go to the Supreme
Judge, and tell Him that I deserve more happiness than He has granted
me in this life?' Do you not recollect this?--or has this sarcasm
escaped you?"

"It has not escaped me,--I remember it well; but it seems to have
escaped you, that it is a very transparent sophism. For what is it
but a pretence that the Christian in general is confident enough of
his virtue to think that he has not been sufficiently well treated,
and that his Creator and Judge cannot do less than make amends for
his injustice, by giving him compensation in another world?"

"And is not that the true statement of the case?"

"I imagine not; whether men be Christians or otherwise. The generality,
when they reason upon this subject, (you and I, for example, at this
very moment,) not at all consider