What is once
in the world is here forever. No particle of the watch can by any
possibility be lost. And what is true of the watch is true of things
far higher, of persons even. When persons decay and die, may not their
destruction be only in outward seeming? We cannot imagine absolute
cessation. As well imagine an absolute beginning. There is no loss.
Everything abides. Only to our apprehension do destructive changes
occur. We are all familiar with consolation of this sort, and how
inwardly unsatisfactory it is! For while it is true that no particle
of the watch is destroyed, it is precisely those particles which were
in our minds of little consequence. Almost equally well they might
have been of gold, silver, or steel. The precious part of the, watch
was the organization of its particles, and that is gone. The face and
form of my friend can indeed be blotted out in no single item. But I
care nothing for its material items, The totality may be wrecked, and
it is that totality to which my affections cling. And so it is in the
world around--material remains, organic wholeness goes. It is almost a
sarcasm of nature that she counts our precious things so cheap, while
the bricks and mortar of which these are made--matters on which no
human affection can fasten--she holds for everlasting.
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