the mistakes and oversights of this, and what an idea would this give
us of our All-wise Creator?

It is also said that all nations have some conceptions of a future
state, that the ancient Greeks and Romans believed in it, that no
nation has been found but have possessed some idea of a future state
of existence. But their belief arose more from the fact that they
wished it to be so than from any real ground of belief; for arguments
appear much more plausible when the mind wishes to be convinced. But
it is said that every nation, however circumstanced, possess some idea
of a future state. For this we may account by the fact that it was
handed down by tradition from the time of the flood. From all these
arguments, which, however plausible at first sight, are found to be
futile, may be argued the necessity of a revelation. Without it, the
destiny of the noblest of the works of God would have been left in
obscurity. Never till the blessed light of the Gospel dawned on the
borders of the pit, and the heralds of the Cross proclaimed "Peace on
earth and good will to men," was it that bewildered and misled man was
enabled to trace his celestial origin and glorious destiny.

The sun of the Gospel has dispelled the darkness that has rested on
objects beyond the tomb. In the Gospel man learned that when the dust
returned to dust the spirit fled to the God who gave it. He there
found that though man has lost the image of his divine Creator, he is
still destined, after this earthly house of his tabernacle is
dissolved, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth
not away, to a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Soon after the writing of this remarkable composition, Harriet's
child-life in Litchfield came to an end, for that same year she went