The noble man is only God's image.

He is not dead who departs from life with a high and noble fame; but he is dead, even while living, whose brow is branded with infamy.

With horror he perceived that, by uniting himself as he had with the dead, he had cut himself off from the living. Stripped of all earthly hope, bereft of every consolation, he was rendered as poor as mortal can possiblybe on this side of the grave.