“Wait a bit. Each of these existences has its birth and death, and should be judged apart from the others; each is pronounced upon in succession by one’s familiar spirit and its minutes pigeon-holed and docketed above there. When the chain of evidence, for or against, is complete, up these links are gathered in a heap and weighed in both sides of the balance.”
“It sounds more plausible than it is, I think,” said I, with frank discourtesy. “The acts of one day may influence those of the next—or interminably.”
“That’s your lookout; but they needn’t necessarily. With each new birth comes a new capacity for looking at things in their right proportions.”
“How far do you push your theory?”
“As far as you like. I’d have, all the world over, a daily revival of systems.”
“Government—law?”
“Certainly. Of everything.”
“Then justice, injustice, vindictiveness, must all revive, too.”
“No. They’re recalled; they don’t revive.”
“But must a criminal, for instance, be allowed to escape because they have failed to catch him the day he did the deed?”