Montesinos.--What, then, may doubt and anxiety consist with the
happiness of heaven?

Sir Thomas More.--Heaven and hell may be said to begin on your side
the grave. In the intermediate state conscience anticipates with
unerring certainty the result of judgment. We, therefore, who have
done well can have no fear for ourselves. But inasmuch as the world
has any hold upon our affections we are liable to that anxiety which
is inseparable from terrestrial hopes. And as parents who are in
bliss regard still with parental love the children whom they have
left on earth, we, in like manner, though with a feeling different
in kind and inferior in degree, look with apprehension upon the
perils of our country.


"sub pectore forti
Vivit adhuc patriae pietas; stimulatque sepultum
Libertatis amor: pondus mortale necari
Si potuit, veteres animo post funera vires
Mansere, et prisci vivit non immemor aevi."


They are the words of old Mantuan.

Montesinos.--I am to understand, then, that you cannot see into the
ways of futurity?

Sir Thomas More.--Enlarged as our faculties are, you must not
suppose that we partake of prescience. For human actions are free,