"True," I replied, "and that reminds me that I think you hardly did justice to his view when you were quoting him a little while ago. It is true that he does, as you said, accept all facts, good and bad, and even appears at times to obliterate the distinction between them. But also, whether consistently or no, he regards them all as phases of a process, good only because of what they promise to be. So that his view really requires a belief in immortality to justify it; and to him such belief is as natural and simple as to Wilson it is absurd. There is a passage somewhere, I remember—perhaps you can quote it—it begins, 'Is it wonderful that I should be immortal?'"
"Yes," he said, "I remember":
"Is it wonderful that I should be immortal? as every one is immortal;
"I know it is wonderful—but my eyesight is equally wonderful, and how I was conceived in my mother's womb is equally wonderful,
"And passed from a babe, in the creeping trance of a couple of summers and winters to articulate and walk. All this is equally wonderful.
"And that my soul embraces you this hour, and we affect each other without ever seeing each other, and never perhaps to see each other, is every bit as wonderful.
"And that I can think such thoughts as these is just as wonderful,
"And that I can remind you, and you think them and know them to be true, is just as wonderful.
"And that the moon spins round the earth, and on with the earth, is equally wonderful,
"And that they balance themselves with the sun and stars is equally wonderful."