The Blindmans World | Page 6

for me to say that a fear
which affects only the more ignorant on Earth is not known at all to us,
and would be counted blasphemous. Moreover, as I have said, our
foresight is limited to our lives on this planet. Any speculation beyond
them would be purely conjectural, and our minds are repelled by the
slightest taint of uncertainty. To us the conjectural and the unthinkable
may be called almost the same."
"But even if you do not fear death for itself," I said, "you have hearts to
break. Is there no pain when the ties of love are sundered?"
"Love and death are not foes on our planet," was the reply. "There are
no tears by the bedsides of our dying. The same beneficent law which
makes it so easy for us to give up life forbids us to mourn the friends
we leave, or them to mourn us. With you, it is the intercourse you have
had with friends that is the source of your tenderness for them. With us,
it is the anticipation of the intercourse we shall enjoy which is the
foundation of fondness. As our friends vanish from our future with the
approach of their death, the effect on our thoughts and affections is as it
would be with you if you forgot them by lapse of time. As our dying
friends grow more and more indifferent to us, we, by operation of the
same law of our nature, become indifferent to them, till at the last we
are scarcely more than kindly and sympathetic watchers about the beds
of those who regard us equally without keen emotions. So at last God
gently unwinds instead of breaking the bands that bind our hearts
together, and makes death as painless to the surviving as to the dying.
Relations meant to produce our happiness are not the means also of
torturing us, as with you. Love means joy, and that alone, to us, instead
of blessing our lives for a while only to desolate them later on,
compelling us to pay with a distinct and separate pang for every thrill
of tenderness, exacting a tear for every smile."
"There are other partings than those of death. Are these, too, without
sorrow for you?" I asked.

"Assuredly," was the reply. "Can you not see that so it must needs be
with beings freed by foresight from the disease of memory? All the
sorrow of parting, as of dying, comes with you from the backward
vision which precludes you from beholding your happiness till it is past.
Suppose your life destined to be blessed by a happy friendship. If you
could know it beforehand, it would be a joyous expectation,
brightening the intervening years and cheering you as you traversed
desolate periods. But no; not till you meet the one who is to be your
friend do you know of him. Nor do you guess even then what he is to
be to you, that you may embrace him at first sight. Your meeting is
cold and indifferent. It is long before the fire is fairly kindled between
you, and then it is already time for parting. Now, indeed, the fire burns
well, but henceforth it must consume your heart. Not till they are dead
or gone do you fully realize how dear your friends were and how sweet
was their companionship. But we--we see our friends afar off coming
to meet us, smiling already in our eyes, years before our ways meet.
We greet them at first meeting, not coldly, not uncertainly, but with
exultant kisses, in an ecstasy of joy. They enter at once into the full
possession of hearts long warmed and lighted for them. We meet with
that delirium of tenderness with which you part. And when to us at last
the time of parting comes, it only means that we are to contribute to
each other's happiness no longer. We are not doomed, like you, in
parting, to take away with us the delight we brought our friends,
leaving the ache of bereavement in its place, so that their last state is
worse than their first. Parting here is like meeting with you, calm and
unimpassioned. The joys of anticipation and possession are the only
food of love with us, and therefore Love always wears a smiling face.
With you he feeds on dead joys, past happiness, which are likewise the
sustenance of sorrow. No wonder love and sorrow are so much alike on
Earth. It is a common saying among us that, were it not for the
spectacle of the Earth, the rest of the worlds would be unable to
appreciate the goodness of God to them; and who can say that this is
not the reason the piteous sight is set