Christianity alone deprives old age of its bitterness, making it the gate of heaven. Our bodies will fade and grow weak and shapeless, just when we shall not want them, being ready and in close expectation of that resurrection of the flesh which is the great promise of Christianity (no miserable fancies about |pure souls| escaped from matter, but) -- of bodies, our bodies, beloved, beautiful, ministers to us in all our joys, sufferers with us in all our sorrows -- yea, our very own selves raised up again to live and love in a manner inconceivable from its perfection.

MS. 1842.

. . . No! I can wait:
Another body! -- Ah, new limbs are ready,
Free, pure, instinct with soul through every nerve, Kept for us in the treasuries of God!

Santa Maura. 1852.