At a blow, annihilate some distant tribe, now alive and jocund--and what would we reck?
Curiosity apart, do we really care whether the people in Bellatrix are immortal or no?
"'Though they smite us, let us not turn away from these things, if they be really thus.
"'There was a time, when near Cassiopeia, a star of the first magnitude, most lustrous in the North, grew lurid as a fire, then dim as ashes, and went out.

Now, its place is a blank.

A vast world, with all its continents, say the astronomers, blazing over the heads of our fathers; while in Mardi were merry-makings, and maidens given in marriage.

Who now thinks of that burning sphere?
How few are aware that ever it was?
"'These things are so.
"'Fellow-men! we must go, and obtain a glimpse of what we are from the Belts of Jupiter and the Moons of Saturn, ere we see ourselves aright.
The universe can wax old without us; though by Oro's grace we may live to behold a wrinkle in the sky.

Eternity is not ours by right; and, alone, unrequited sufferings here, form no title thereto, unless resurrections are reserved for maltreated brutes.