If she were here on earth the thought of so soon leaving her
behind would sadden me as much as the hope of meeting her now gladdens
me."
Miss Ludington neither talked herself nor permitted others to talk in a
melancholy tone of the probable nearness of her end. "Death may seem
dreadful," she said to Ida one day, "to the foolish people who fancy that
an individual dies but once, forgetting that their present selves are but
the last of many selves already dead. The death which may now be near me
is no sadder, no more important, than the deaths of my past selves, and
no different, save in the single respect that this time no later self
will follow me. This house of our individuality, which has sheltered us
in turn, having become incapable of being repaired for the use of
subsequent tenants, is to be pulled down. That is all."
Another time she said, "It is very strange to see people who dread death
always looking for it instead of backward. In their fear of dying once
they quite forget that they have died already many times. It is the most
foolish of all things to imagine that by prolonging the career of the
individual, death is kept at bay.
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