"
"Nonsense, cousin, nonsense; I am orthodox, you know, and a good girl
and love to go to church, especially when I have a becoming new dress."
"Here are the bones of our ancestors, if they were once animated with
souls; and I guess they were, particularly the old man, for I have
heard many stories from old Toney, that convince me that he was a
pretty hard one. How do we know that their spirits are not here by us
now? Why is it deemed that there shall be no communication between the
living and the dead? O! how I want to ask all about the spirit-land.
Wake up and reclothe thy bones and become again animated dust, and tell
me thou, my great progenitor, the mysteries of the grave, of heaven and
hell. How quiet is the grave? No response, and it is impious to ask
what I have. O! what is life which animates and harmonizes the elements
of this mysterious creation, man! Life how imperious, and yet how kind;
it unites and controls these antagonistic elements, and they do not
quarrel on his watch. Mingling and communing they go on through time,
regardless of the invitation of those from which they came to return.
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