John Marlow wrote:
> I don't want to achieve immortality through a reasonably good
> imitation; I want to achieve it through not dying. jm
John, this meme was used by Woody Allen in The Sleeper in
the 1970s, but both of you were scooped by 155 years in Charlotte
Bronte's Jane Eyre, 1846. In chapter IV, the fire-and-brimstone
minister is interrogating the child Jane Eyre thus:
"No sight so sad as that of a naughty child," he began, "especially a naughty
little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?"
"They go to hell," was my ready and orthodox answer.
"And what is hell? Can you tell me that?"
"A pit full of fire."
"And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?"
"No, sir."
"What must you do to avoid it?"
I deliberated a moment; my answer, when it did come, was objectionable: "I must
keep in good health, and not die."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:46 MDT