something there which cannot possibly be injured, and which indeed
is rather freed from the body of our humiliation. It is but an
incident, after all, in a much longer and more momentous voyage. It
means only the closing of one chapter of experience and the
beginning of another. The base element in it is the fear which
dreads the opening of the door, and the quitting of what is
familiar. And I feel assured of this, that the one universal and
inevitable experience, known to us as death, must in reality be a
very simple and even a natural affair, and that when we can look
back upon it, it will seem to us amazing that we can ever have
regarded it as so momentous and appalling a thing.






III

THE DARKEST DOUBT





Now we can make no real advance in the things of the spirit until we
have seen what lies on the other side of fear; fear cannot help us
to grow, at best it can only teach us to be prudent; it does not of
itself destroy the desire to offend--only shame can do that; if our
wish to be different comes merely from our being afraid to