“And you really believe that, Hagar? I mean your theory of transmigration?” “Believe—believe,” said she, musing; “no, it does not amount to belief, and yet it is _more_. It is not a belief, a creed; it is a feeling, an impression, and a very strong conviction. To me, spiritual intuitions are more convincing than rational deductions. Heart convictions stronger than brain convictions.” “Alas! Hagar, the neglect of your infancy will never, _never_ be made up to you. Poor girl, your mind strays off into the wildest vagaries. Hagar, you should read your Bible more.” “I do read my Bible,” said Hagar, “but no _commentaries_ on it; the Bible itself is my commentary on nature; it interprets myself and the universe to me.” “You find nothing like what you fancy in the Bible.” “I find nothing that contradicts it there.” “I must get Mr. Buncombe to talk to you, Hagar.” Hagar smiled derisively. “Yes, I _will_, and I can talk to you myself; ‘There is an appointed time for man to die, and _after death the judgment_;’ mind, it does not say, after death a transmigration.” “No,” said Hagar, “it says, ‘after death—_the judgment_’—that very judgment may remand the soul back to earth for another probation!” “You horrify me, you positively do horrify me, Hagar!” “You horrify _me_, when you tell me that for the sins, or errors, or _mistakes_ even, of some sixteen or sixty years, my soul must wail in perdition, through the countless ages of eternity—no, no!—no, no! My Father!” said the wild girl, kindling into enthusiasm, “Thou never did’st create a soul to let it drop into the abyss—_lost_! It may take a long time to teach—a long time to redeem that soul—to perfect that soul—many times may it be remanded back to the clay—many weary pilgrimages may it make on earth, but the work will never be abandoned; the work will be accomplished. Christ did not live, and teach, and suffer, and die in vain—His lesson will be learned at last.” “My poor Hagar,” said Emily, fervently, “may you yet learn _His_ lesson! He who came to light up that darkness of the grave which the eye of man could not penetrate—to substitute for the thousand wild fancies, such as yours, of Heathenism, the holy Truth of God—He, whom you so rashly invoke, has said—do you not remember it, Hagar?— “‘And he shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. “‘Then shall the King say unto them on the right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. “‘Then shall He also say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. “‘_And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal!_’