"I think it is that," said Mrs. Evelyn "I think that is the principal thing."
"Is there not, besides, an undefined fear of what lies beyond an uneasy misgiving, that there may be issues which the spirit is not prepared to meet?"
"I suppose there is," said Mrs. Evelyn "but, Sir "
"Why, that is the very thing," said Mr. Stackpole "that is the mischief of education I was speaking of men are brought up to it."
"You cannot dispose of it so, Sir, for this feeling is quite as universal as the other, and so strong, that men have not only been willing to render life miserable, but even to endure death itself, with all the aggravation of torture, to smooth their way in that unknown region beyond."
"It is one of the maladies of human nature," said Mr. Stackpole, "that it remains for the progress of enlightened reason to dispel."
"What is the cure for the malady?" said Mr. Carleton, quietly.
"Why, Sir, the looking upon death as a necessary step in the course of our existence, which simply introduces us from a lower to a higher sphere from a comparatively narrow to a wider and nobler range of feeling and intellect."
"Ay, but how shall we be sure that it is so?"
"Why, Mr. Carleton, Sir," said Mrs. Evelyn, "do you doubt that? Do you suppose it possible, for a moment, that a benevolent being would make creatures to be anything but happy?"