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countless spheres and endless combinations of thought, now retrenched
themselves behind this wall of flesh, eager to preserve its well-being
only. We were surely sufficiently degraded.
At first the increase of sickness in spring brought increase of toil to
such of us, who, as yet spared to life, bestowed our time and thoughts on
our fellow creatures. We nerved ourselves to the task: "in the midst of
despair we performed the tasks of hope." We went out with the resolution of
disputing with our foe. We aided the sick, and comforted the sorrowing;
turning from the multitudinous dead to the rare survivors, with an energy
of desire that bore the resemblance of power, we bade them--live. Plague
sat paramount the while, and laughed us to scorn.
Have any of you, my readers, observed the ruins of an anthill immediately
after its destruction? At first it appears entirely deserted of its former
inhabitants; in a little time you see an ant struggling through the
upturned mould; they reappear by twos and threes, running hither and
thither in search of their lost companions. Such were we upon earth,
wondering aghast at the effects of pestilence. Our empty habitations
remained, but the dwellers were gathered to the shades of the tomb.
As the rules of order and pressure of laws were lost, some began with
hesitation and wonder to transgress the accustomed uses of society. Palaces
were deserted, and the poor man dared at length, unreproved, intrude into
the splendid apartments, whose very furniture and decorations were an
unknown world to him. It was found, that, though at first the stop put to
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