Page:The Great Secret.djvu/158

142 of praise was not his conception of how he would enjoy the passing ages. He had been a practical sinner on earth, mourning the sins of selfishness, meanness and duplicity, with a heart filled with sympathy for his own kind, and a great love and tenderness for those animals who are given into man's charge, yet he did not like the idea of everlasting rest, varied with everlasting adulation.

"This is our present heaven of rest, our old, dear home, to which we gladly return when we are tired with our labours. We choose this as the gathering-place of our age, as children who are called from the home circle return during holiday time, and meet together to exchange thoughts and experiences. Were I content to sit down here and bask, then indeed my soul must have left me and my days of progression be at an end. True, we have our periods of rest and reunion here as they have in the flesh, when all is pleasure and happiness, but these are only intervals in a life of action and advance."

"I am glad to hear you say so, for this radiant scene, although so perfect, those sheltered groves would satiate me and render me wretched after many days."

"Eternity is not rest except to the weary, and spirits cannot be weary for ever. They may lie passive for a time when exhausted with their efforts, yet they leap up, active and restless, after a time and go on, on, winning fresh conquests, until the next period for rest comes, then they return to the original nest and lie for a time content. Come, I am proud of my home and the laws which governed it while it was above the sea. You have your histories; we have our living pictures to remind us of the past, and they satisfy