It would take away, too, from that loneliness and destitution which we
are apt to feel more and more as we get on in our pilgrimage through
the wilderness of this world, and find that those who set forward with
us, lovingly and cheerily, on the journey, have, one by one, dropped
away from our side. Place the superstition in this light, and I
confess I should like to be a believer in it. I see nothing in it that
is incompatible with the tender and merciful nature of our religion,
nor revolting to the wishes and affections of the heart.
There are departed beings that I have loved as I never again shall
love in this world;--that have loved me as I never again shall be
loved! If such beings do ever retain in their blessed spheres the
attachments which they felt on earth--if they take an interest in the
poor concerns of transient mortality, and are permitted to hold
communion with those whom they have loved on earth, I feel as if now,
at this deep hour of night, in this silence and solitude, I could
receive their visitation with the most solemn, but unalloyed delight.
In truth, such visitations would be too happy for this world; they
would be incompatible with the nature of this imperfect state of
being.
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