At length arrived at the point in the circle where the mind has fulfilled
the aim of its being, an internal, unaccountable mechanism has, at the
same time, made the body incapable of being any longer its instrument.
All care for the well-being of the bodily state seems to reach but to
this epoch. It appears to me that, in the formation of our physical
nature, wisdom has shown such parsimony, that notwithstanding constant
compensations, decline must always keep in the ascendancy, so that
freedom misuses the mechanism, and death is germinated in life as out of
its seed. Matter dissolves again into its last elements, which travel
through the kingdom of nature in other forms and relations, to serve
other purposes. The mind continues to practise its thinking powers in
other circles, and to observe the universe from other sides.

We may truly say that it has not by any means exhausted this actual
sphere, that it might have left this sphere itself more perfect; but do
we know that this sphere is lost to it? We lay many a book aside which
we do not understand, but perhaps in a few years we shall understand it
better.