X.    PAYING  THE  DEBT

In  my  youth  I  often  heard  the  old  people  speak  of
death  as  "paying  the  debt  of  Nature"  —  "He  has
paid  the  debt."  Life  puts  us  in  debt  to  Nature  —
the  earth,  the  air,  the  water  —  for  the  elements  of
our  bodies  and  the  powers  of  our  minds,  and  the
time  inevitably  comes  when  we  must  settle  the  ac-
count. That  we  are  going  to  have  something  left
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SOUNDINGS

over  —  that  we  have  only  to  pay  the  debt  of  the
body,  and  not  of  the  mind  —  is  one  of  the  dreams
that  it  is  hard  for  most  persons  to  give  up.  Will  not
then  the  universal  mind  that  pervades  Nature  claim
its  own  also?  Can  you  and  I  hope  to  remain  de-
tached from  it  forever?  Is  that  a  consummation
devoutly  to  be  wished?

Be  assured  that  no  particle  of  soul  or  body  can  be
lost.  But  processes  may  cease;  the  flame  of  the  lamp
may  go  out,  and  the  sum  total  of  force  and  matter
remain  the  same.  When  a  blade  of  grass  dies,  a  proc-
ess has  ended,  and  as  mysterious  a  process  as  went  on
in  Csesar's  brain  and  body.  And  when  all  life  on  the
earth  and  in  our  universe  ceases,  if  it  ever  does,  the
problem  would  remain  just  as  puzzling,  if  we  can
fancy  ourselves  still  here  to  puzzle  over  it.  We  are
links  in  an  endless  cycle  of  change  in  which  we
cannot  separate  the  material  from  what  we  call  the
spiritual.
