Death—and After? by Annie Wood Besant
page 82 of 93 (88%)
page 82 of 93 (88%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
seeking to elude fate, selfishly loosens the silver string and breaks
the golden bowl, finds himself terribly alive and awake, instinct with all the evil cravings and desires that embittered his world-life, without a body in which to gratify these, and capable of only such partial alleviation as is possible by more or less vicarious gratification, and this only at the cost of the ultimate complete rupture with his sixth and seventh principles, and consequent ultimate annihilation after, alas! prolonged periods of suffering. Let it not be supposed that there is no hope for this class--the sane deliberate suicide. If, bearing steadfastly his cross, he suffers patiently his punishment, striving against carnal appetites still alive in him, in all their intensity, though, of course, each in proportion to the degree to which it had been indulged in earth-life. If, we say, he bears this humbly, never allowing himself to be tempted here or there into unlawful gratifications of unholy desires, then when his fated death-hour strikes, his four higher principles reunite, and, in the final separation that then ensues, it may well be that all may be well with him, and that he passes on to the gestation period and its subsequent developments. * * * * * FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: Book ii., from lines 666-789. The whole passage bristles with horrors.] [Footnote 2: xii. 85. Trans., of Burnell and Hopkins.] |
|