All incentive to good conduct, he had then
alleged, was found to be at once removed from those who doubted the
fidelity of these pictures.
This at least was what he had then said, but I hardly think he would have
said it at the time of which I am now writing. As he continued to sit in
the Musical Bank, he took from his valise the pamphlet on "The Physics of
Vicarious Existence," by Dr. Gurgoyle, which he had bought on the
preceding evening, doubtless being led to choose this particular work by
the tenor of the old lady's epitaph.
The second title he found to run, "Being Strictures on Certain Heresies
concerning a Future State that have been Engrafted on the Sunchild's
Teaching."
My father shuddered as he read this title. "How long," he said to
himself, "will it be before they are at one another's throats?"
On reading the pamphlet, he found it added little to what the epitaph had
already conveyed; but it interested him, as showing that, however
cataclysmic a change of national opinions may appear to be, people will
find means of bringing the new into more or less conformity with the old.
Here it is a mere truism to say that many continue to live a vicarious
life long after they have ceased to be aware of living. This view is as
old as the _non omnis moriar_ of Horace, and we may be sure some
thousands of years older.
Pages:
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137