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Page 43
He closed his eyes, and a smile played over his features.
I found it very difficult to say anything in answer to this monologue;
but I asked my companion whether he did not think that some clearer
revelation might be made, after the bodily death, to those who for some
human frailty were unable to receive it.
"An intelligent question," said my companion, "but I am obliged to
answer in the negative. Of course the case is different for those who
have accepted the truth loyally, even if their record is stained by the
foulest and most detestable of crimes. It is the moral and intellectual
adhesion that matters; that once secured, conduct is comparatively
unimportant, if the soul duly recurs to the medicine of penitence and
contrition so mercifully provided. I have the utmost indulgence for
every form of human frailty. I may say that I never shrank from contact
with the grossest and vilest forms of continuous wrong-doing, so long as
I was assured that the true doctrines were unhesitatingly and
submissively accepted. A soul which admits the supremacy of authority
can go astray like a sheep that is lost, but as long as it recognises
its fold and the authority of the divine law, it can be sought and
found.
"The little window of which I spoke has given me indubitable testimony
of this. There was a man I knew in the flesh, who was regarded as a
monster of cruelty and selfishness. He ill-treated his wife and misused
his children; his life was spent in gross debauchery, and his conduct on
several occasions outstepped the sanctions of legality. He was a forger
and an embezzler. I do not attempt to palliate his faults, and there
will be a heavy reckoning to pay. But he made his submission at the
last, after a long and prostrating illness; and I have ocular
demonstration of the fact that, after a mercifully brief period of
suffering, he is numbered among the blest. That is a sustaining
thought."
He then with much courtesy invited me to partake of some refreshment,
which I gratefully declined. Once or twice he rose, and opening the
little cupboard door, which revealed nothing but a white wall, he drank
in encouragement from some hidden sight. He then invited me to kneel
with him, and prayed fervently and with some emotion that light might be
vouchsafed to souls on earth who were in darkness. Just as he concluded,
Amroth appeared with our conductor. The latter made a courteous inquiry
after my host's health and comfort. "I am perfectly happy here," he
said, "perfectly happy. The attentions I receive are indeed more than I
deserve; and I am specially grateful to my kind visitor, whose
indulgence I must beg for my somewhat prolonged statement--but when one
has a cause much at heart," he added with a smile, "some prolixity is
easily excused."
As we re-entered the corridor, our conductor asked me if I would care to
pay any more visits. "The case you have seen," he said, "is an extremely
typical and interesting one."
"Have you any hope," said Amroth, "of recovery?"
"Of course, of course," said our conductor with a smile. "Nothing is
hopeless here; our cures are complete and even rapid; but this is a
particularly obstinate one!"
"Well," said Amroth, "would you like to see more?"
"No," I said, "I have seen enough. I cannot now bear any more."
Our conductor smiled indulgently.
"Yes," he said, "it is bewildering at first; but one sees wonderful
things here! This is our library," he added, leading us to a great airy
room, full of books and reading-desks, where a large number of inmates
were sitting reading and writing. They glanced up at us with friendly
and contented smiles. A little further on we came to another cell,
before which our conductor stopped, and looked at me. "I should like,"
he said, "if you are not too tired, just to take you in here; there is
a patient, who is very near recovery indeed, in here, and it would do
him good to have a little talk with a stranger."
I bowed, and we went in. A man was sitting in a chair with his head in
his hands. An attendant was sitting near the window reading a book. The
patient, at our entry, removed his hands from his face and looked up,
half impatiently, with an air of great suffering, and then slowly rose.
"How are you feeling, dear sir?" said our conductor quietly.
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