faded and fallen off, yet that as they had been changing
personalities without feeling it during the whole of their
leafhood, so they would on death continue to do this selfsame
thing by entering into new phases of life. True, death will
deprive them of conscious memory concerning their now current
life; but, though they die as leaves, they live in the tree whom
they have helped to vivify, and whose growth and continued well-
being is due solely to this life and death of its component
personalities.

We consider the cells which are born and die within us yearly to
have been sufficiently honoured [sic] in having contributed their
quotum to our life; why should we have such difficulty in seeing
that a healthy enjoyment and employment of our life will give us
a sufficient reward in that growth of God wherein we may live
more truly and effectually after death than we have lived when we
were conscious of existence? Is Handel dead when he influences
and sets in motion more human beings in three months now than
during the whole, probably, of the years in which he thought that
he was alive? What is being alive if the power to draw men for
many miles in order that they may put themselves en
rapport with him is not being so? True, Handel no longer
knows the power which he has over us, but this is a small matter;
he no longer animates six feet of flesh and blood, but he lives
in us as the dead leaf lives in the tree. He is with God, and God
knows him though he knows himself no more.

This should suffice, and I observe in practice does suffice, for
all reasonable persons. It may be said that one day the tree
itself must die, and the leaves no longer live therein; and so,