Colloquies on Society | Page 8

general a
reputation for sincerity, and of that also conclusive proof was given at
the same time. In serious truth, then, I am a disembodied spirit, and the
form in which I now manifest myself is subject to none of the accidents
of matter. You are still incredulous! Feel, then, and be convinced!
My incomprehensible guest extended his hand toward me as he spoke. I
held forth mine to accept it, not, indeed, believing him, and yet not
altogether without some apprehensive emotion, as if I were about to
receive an electrical shock. The effect was more startling than
electricity would have produced. His hand had neither weight nor
substance; my fingers, when they would have closed upon it, found
nothing that they could grasp: it was intangible, though it had all the
reality of form.
"In the name of God," I exclaimed, "who are you, and wherefore are
you come?"
"Be not alarmed," he replied. "Your reason, which has shown you the
possibility of such an appearance as you now witness, must have
convinced you also that it would never be permitted for an evil end.
Examine my features well, and see if you do not recognise them. Hans

Holbein was excellent at a likeness."
I had now for the first time in my life a distinct sense of that sort of
porcupinish motion over the whole scalp which is so frequently
described by the Latin poets. It was considerably allayed by the
benignity of his countenance and the manner of his speech, and after
looking him steadily in the face I ventured to say, for the likeness had
previously struck me, "Is it Sir Thomas More?"
"The same," he made answer, and lifting up his chin, displayed a circle
round the neck brighter in colour than the ruby. "The marks of
martyrdom," he continued, "are our insignia of honour. Fisher and I
have the purple collar, as Friar Forrest and Cranmer have the robe of
fire."
A mingled feeling of fear and veneration kept me silent, till I perceived
by his look that he expected and encouraged me to speak; and
collecting my spirits as well as I could, I asked him wherefore he had
thought proper to appear, and why to me rather than to any other
person?
He replied, "We reap as we have sown. Men bear with them from this
world into the intermediate state their habits of mind and stores of
knowledge, their dispositions and affections and desires; and these
become a part of our punishment, or of our reward, according to their
kind. Those persons, therefore, in whom the virtue of patriotism has
predominated continue to regard with interest their native land, unless
it be so utterly sunk in degradation that the moral relationship between
them is dissolved. Epaminondas can have no sympathy at this time with
Thebes, nor Cicero with Rome, nor Belisarius with the imperial city of
the East. But the worthies of England retain their affection for their
noble country, behold its advancement with joy, and when serious
danger appears to threaten the goodly structure of its institutions they
feel as much anxiety as is compatible with their state of beatitude.
Montesinos.--What, then, may doubt and anxiety consist with the
happiness of heaven?
Sir Thomas More.--Heaven and hell may be said to begin on your side
the grave. In the intermediate state conscience anticipates with unerring
certainty the result of judgment. We, therefore, who have done well can
have no fear for ourselves. But inasmuch as the world has any hold
upon our affections we are liable to that anxiety which is inseparable

from terrestrial hopes. And as parents who are in bliss regard still with
parental love the children whom they have left on earth, we, in like
manner, though with a feeling different in kind and inferior in degree,
look with apprehension upon the perils of our country.
"sub pectore forti Vivit adhuc patriae pietas; stimulatque sepultum
Libertatis amor: pondus mortale necari Si potuit, veteres animo post
funera vires Mansere, et prisci vivit non immemor aevi."
They are the words of old Mantuan.
Montesinos.--I am to understand, then, that you cannot see into the
ways of futurity?
Sir Thomas More.--Enlarged as our faculties are, you must not suppose
that we partake of prescience. For human actions are free, and we exist
in time. The future is to us therefore as uncertain as to you; except only
that having a clearer and more comprehensive knowledge of the past,
we are enabled to reason better from causes to consequences, and by
what has been to judge of what is likely to be. We have this advantage
also, that we are divested of all those passions which cloud the
intellects and warp the understandings of men. You are thinking, I
perceive, how much