Jun 20, 2005 20:49
Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs. We are, and must be, one and all, burdened with faults in this world: but the time will soon come when we shall put them off in putting off our corruptible bodies; when debasement and sin will fall from us with this cumbrous ugly flesh and face, and only the spark of the spirit will remain, the impalpable principle of light and thought, pure as when it left God to inspire my creature: where it came from we will return. perhaps again to be communicated to some being higher than man? -perhaps to pass through gradations of glory, from the human soul to brighten to the seraph! Surely it will never be suffered to degenerate from man to fiend? No. I cannot believe that. I hold another dream, which I seldom mention, but in which I delight, and I cling: for it extends hope to all: it makes eternity a rest-a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss. Besides, I can so clearly distinguish between the criminal and the crime-I can so wholeheartedly forgive the first while I abhor the last. Revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disguts me, injustice never crushes me too low- i live clam, looking forward to the end.