Our Destiny

19. Our Destiny.

It cannot be that earth is man's only abiding place. It cannot be that our life is a bubble, cast up by the ocean of eternity, to float a moment upon its waves, and sink into nothingness. Else why is it that the high and glorious aspirations, which leap like angels from the temple of our hearts, are for ever wandering about unsatisfied? "Why is it that the stars, which hold their festival around the midnight throne, are set above the grasp of our limited faculties, for ever mocking us with their unapproachable glory ? And, finally, why is it that bright forms of human beauty are represented to our view, and then taken from us; leaving the ten thousand streams of our affection to flow back in an Alpine torrent upon our hearts ? Surely we are born for a higher destiny than that of earth. There is a realm where the rainbow never fades,—where the stars will spread out before us like islands that slumber on the ocean, and where the beautiful beings which here pass before us like shadows, will stay in our presence for ever.

Sir Lytton Bulwer, England, 1S05-1S73.