THE FUTURE LIFE.
[To 71311 EDITOR OF TER "SPROTATOR:] Sin,—Indulging in the pernicious habit of reading in bed, I last night perused with profound interest Mr. Greg's letter in your current number, your own remarks thereupon, and also Mr. Greg's generous defence of his old schoolfellow, Harriet Marti- neau, in the Nineteenth Century. As my eyes closed on the last paragraph of this article, I seemed to behold a vision, which I shall take leave to describe to you.
Dives had just eaten a particularly plentiful dinner, and was standing at the door of a pretty cottage in Ambleside. Lazarus, looking up at him, said pitifully, " I perish with hunger." Thereupon Dives observed with great serenity, " Lazarus, I have had an excellent dinner. There is not a crumb left. But I I am quite content, and you ought to be the same."
Poor Lazarus, however, instead of seeming satisfied, wailed yet more sadly, "But I hunger, Dives ! I hunger for the bread of life ! I hunger for human love, of which I had only begun to taste, when it was snatched away. I hunger for justice, of which such scant measure has been dealt me, and to millions like me. I hunger for truth, I hunger for beauty, I hunger for righteous- ness; I hunger for a love holy, divine, and perfect, which alone can satisfy my soul. I hunger, Dives I I hunger, and you tell me there is not a crumb left of the rich feast of existence, and bid me be content. It is a cruel mockery."
Then Dives answered yet more placidly, "I never dream of wishing anything were otherwise than it is. I am frankly satis- fied to have done with life, I have had a noble share of it, and I desire no more ; I utterly disbelieve in a future life."*
At that moment my respected friend Mr. Greg passed by, and heard what Dives was saying ; on which, to my great surprise, he made the following observation ;—‘, This is, unquestionably, the harder—may it not also be the higher ?—form of pious resignation. the last achievement of the ripened mind."
As for Lazarus, on catching Mr. Greg's remark, he turned himself painfully on the ground, and groaned :—" I never heard before of anybody being 'piously resigned' to the woes and wants of other people. La Rochefoucauld was right, I suppose, to say, 'Nous avons tons assez de force pour supporter les maux d'autrui;' but for my part, I should not precisely call Dives's satisfaction in his noble share' of the feast, while I am doomed to perish starving, by quite so fine a name as pious resignation.' Pray, Mr. Greg, with your large humanity, take my cure into considera- tion, before you credit Dives with anything better than stupendous egotism."
Startled by the vehemence of poor Lazarus, I awoke.—I am,
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