Le Sorcier me demanda si en vérité i'aymois l'autre vie que ie luy auois figuré remplie de tous biens, ayant répondu que ie l'aymois en effect; & moy, dit-il, ie la haï: car il faut mourir pour y aller, & c'est dequoy ie n'ay point d'enuie, que si i'auois la pensée & la creance que cette vie est miserable, & que l'autre est pleine de delices, ie me tuërois moy-mesme pour me deliurer de l'vne, & ioüir de l'autre: Ie luy repars que Dieu nous defendoit de nous tuer, ny de tuer autruy; & que si nous nous faisions mourir nous descendrions dans la vie de malheur, pour auoir contreuenu à ses cormmandemens: Hé bien, dit il, ne te tuë point toy-mesme, mais moy ie te tuëray pour te faire plaisir, afin que tu ailles au Ciel, & que tu ioüisse des plaisirs que tu dis: Ie me sousris, luy repliquant que ie ne pouuois pas consentir qu'on m'ostast la vie sans pecher: Ie vois bien, me fit-il, en se moquant [286] que tu n'as pas encore enuie de mourir non plus que moy, non pas repliquay-ie en cooperant à ma mort. The Sorcerer asked me if I really did love the other life, that I had described as so full of all blessings; having replied that I did, indeed, love it, "And I," said he, "I hate it, for to go there one must die, and that is something I have no desire to do; and yet if I thought and believed that this life was miserable, and that the other was full of delights, I would kill myself, to be freed from the one and to enjoy the other." I answered that God forbade us to kill ourselves, or to kill any one else, and if we destroyed ourselves we would go down into a life of misery, for having acted contrary to his commands. "Oh well," said he, "thou needst not kill thyself; but I will kill thee, to please thee, that thou mayest go to Heaven, and enjoy the pleasures that thou tellest about." I smiled, and replied to him that I could not without sin agree to have my life taken. "I see plainly," said he, sneeringly, [286] "that thou hast not yet the desire to die any more than I have." "None," said I, "to bring about my own death."