How to be Happy, The Torment of an Evil Conscience

4.  Hence, the conviction that the soul is immortal becomes another element of torment.

The thought of immortality incites the most gloomy sentiments in an individual having the preceding emotions.

He is aware that he approaches a circumstance in which he shall find himself totally helpless, and shall enter into a state of existence of which he is now totally ignorant.

And he cannot avoid the impression that he will be at the entire disposal of Him whose displeasure he now partly experiences.  

We may naturally suppose what the feelings are of a traveller who finds himself alone in the midst of an endless plain of a sandy desert, while suffering at the same time the scorching rays of a vertical sun.

Yet, this is only a feeble comparison to show the feelings of him who experiences the remorse and terrors of a guilty conscience while he mentally beholds before him boundless eternity.

The preceding observations are only a very partial description of the distress which many have experienced.  Let them, however, suffice to incite our minds in the search for some means of alleviation, whcih I will move on to discuss next.