immortal souls, we shall never live again; but, like the green sea-weed,
when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more. Human beings,
on the contrary, have a soul which lives forever, lives after the body has
been turned to dust. It rises up through the clear, pure air beyond the
glittering stars. As we rise out of the water, and behold all the land of the
earth, so do they rise to unknown and glorious regions which we shall never
see.”
“Why have not we an immortal soul?” asked the little mermaid
mournfully; “I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to
live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing
the happiness of that glorious world above the stars.”
“You must not think of that,” said the old woman; “we feel ourselves to
be much happier and much better off than human beings.”
“So I shall die,” said the little mermaid, “and as the foam of the sea I
shall be driven about never again to hear the music of the waves, or to see
the pretty flowers nor the red sun. Is there anything I can do to win an
immortal soul?”
“No,” said the old woman, “unless a man were to love you so much that
you were more to him than his father or mother; and if all his thoughts and
all his love were fixed upon you, and the priest placed his right hand in
yours, and he promised to be true to you here and hereafter, then his soul
would glide into your body and you would obtain a share in the future
happiness of mankind. He would give a soul to you and retain his own as
well; but this can never happen. Your fish’s tail, which amongst us is
considered so beautiful, is thought on earth to be quite ugly; they do not
know any better, and they think it necessary to have two stout props, which
they call legs, in order to be handsome.”
Then the little mermaid sighed, and looked sorrowfully at her fish’s tail.
“Let us be happy,” said the old lady, “and dart and spring about during the
three hundred years that we have to live, which is really quite long enough;
