FRANCES POWER COBBE.
From “Life of Frances Power Cobbe.” By Herself.
THE PEAK IN DARIEN,
WITH SOME OTHER INQUIRIES TOUCHING CONCERNS OF THE SOUL AND THE BODY.
AN OCTAVE OF ESSAYS
BY
FRANCES POWER COBBE.
“Das Leben ist der Güter höchstes nicht;
Der Uebel grösstes aber ist die Schuld.”
Die Braut von Messina.
BOSTON:
GEO. H. ELLIS, 141 FRANKLIN STREET.
LONDON: WILLIAMS & NORGATE.
1882.
PREFACE.
My last little book, Lectures on the Duties of Women, wasaddressed principally to the young of my own sex. The present volume isintended for my contemporaries who are daily brought face to face withsome of the darker problems of the time, or are led by their advancingyears to ponder ever more earnestly on the mystery of the greattransition. In these various papers,—some new, some already publishedin different periodicals,—I have striven to meet fairly the questionswhether the denial of God and immortality be indeed (as Agnosticsand Comtists are wont to boast) a “magnanimous” creed, whether lifebe truly (as Leopardi and Schopenhauer and hundreds of their Englishdisciples din daily in our ears) a burden and a curse, and whether (asmuch recent legislation and newspaper literature would seem to teach)bodily health be after all the summum bonum for which personalfreedom, courage, humanity, and purity ought all to be sacrificed?
To these discussions, I have added one on the “Fitness of Women forthe Ministry of Religion,”—a subject, I believe, destined soon toacquire importance,—with two or three less serious papers on othermatters touching moral questions; and, in conclusion, I have returnedto a speculation concerning the immediate entry into the life afterdeath which I find has possessed interest for many readers. That “Peakin Darien,” which we must all ascend in our turn,—the apex of twoworlds, whence the soul may possibly descry the horizonless Pacific ofeternity,—is the turning-point of human hope. And it appears to meinfinitely strange that so little attention has been paid to the caseswherein indications seem to have been given of the perception by thedying of blessed presences revealed to them even as the veil of fleshhas dropped away. Were I permitted to record with names and referenceshalf the instances of this occurrence which have been narrated to me,this short essay might have been swelled to a volume. It is my wish,however, that it should serve to suggest observation and provoke theinterchange of experiences, rather than be considered as pretending todecide affirmatively the question wherewith it deals.
Perhaps it may be as well to forestall any misapprehension by statingplainly that I utterly disbelieve, and even regard with intensedislike, all so-called “Spiritualist” manifestations and attempts torecall the dead; and that I have never found any sufficient testimonyfor stories of ghosts or apparitions of the departed beheld by men andwomen still in the midst of life. Only at the very moment when we arepassing into their arms does it seem to me that the law of our beingmay permit us to recognize once more