But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amid the war of elements,
The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds!
--_Cato's Soliloquy_

[Illustration: JOSEPH ADDISON]


Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.

Expression is necessary to life. The spirit grows through exercise of its
faculties, just as a muscle grows strong through use. Life is expression
and repression is stagnation--death.

Yet there is right expression and wrong expression. If a man allows his
life to run riot, and only the animal side of his nature is allowed to
express itself, he is repressing his highest and best, and therefore those
qualities, not used, atrophy and die.

Sensuality, gluttony and the life of license repress the life of the
spirit, and the soul never blossoms; and this is what it is to lose one's
soul. All adown the centuries thinking men have noted these truths, and
again and again we find individuals forsaking, in horror, the life of the
senses and devoting themselves to the life of the spirit.