Rest Denied the Guilty Conscience.

He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun.

MILTON, Comus, l. 381.

KING HENRY THE FOURTH IN HIS PALACE.

H

OW many thousands of my poorest subjects

Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep,

Nature's soft nurse how have I frighted thee,

That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down

And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,

Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee

And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,

Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,

Under the canopies of costly state,

And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?

O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile

In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common 'larum-bell?

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast

Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains.
In cradle of the rude imperious surge

And in the visitation of the winds,

Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them
With deafening clamour in the slippery clouds,
That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Second Part of King Henry IV., Act iii. Sc. 1, l. 4.

O, it is monstrous, monstrous !

Methought the billows spoke and told me of it;
The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper : it did bass my trespass.

The Tempest, Act iii. Sc. 3, 1. 95.

Encouragements to Hope.

Be of good cheer, O lady: dangers oft,

Though blowing dreams by night, are lulled by day.1

SOPHOCLES, Fragments, 1. 63.

Death which is the end of our life, is the enlargement of our spirits from hope to certainty, from uncertain fears to certain expectations, from the death of the body to the life of the soul.

JEREMY TAYLOR.

BE cheerful: wipe thine eyes :

Some falls are means the happier to arise.2

Cymbeline, Act iv. Sc. 2, 1. 402.

Before the curing of a strong disease,

Even in the instant of repair and health,
The fit is strongest; evils that take leave,

On their departure most of all show evil.

King John, Act iii. Sc. 4, 1. 112.

1 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. - Psalm xxx. 5.

2 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. - Psalm xxxvii. 23, 24.

When fortune means to men most good,

She looks upon them with a threatening eye.

King John, Act iii. Sc. 4, l. 119.

Even through the hollow eyes of death

I spy life peering; but I dare not say

How near the tidings of our comfort is.

King Richard II., Act ii. Sc. I, 1. 270.

What! we have many goodly days to see:
The liquid drops of tears that you have shed
Shall come again, transform'ḍ to orient pearl,
Advantaging their loan with interest

Of ten times double gain of happiness.

King Richard III., Act iv. Sc. 4, 1. 320.

The Guilt and Folly of Suicide.

The term of life is limited

Ne may a man prolong, nor shorten it :

The souldier may not move from watchfull sted,
Nor leave his stand untill his captaine bed.
Who life did limit by almightie doome.
(Quoth he) knows best the termes established;
And he that points the centonell his roome,

Doth license him depart at sound of morning droome.
EDMUND SPENSER, The Faerie Queen.

because it is honorable to do so, or beBut to die, and thus avoid poverty or

Courage chooses and bears up cause it is disgraceful not to do so. love, or any thing painful, is not the part of a brave man, but rather of a coward; for it is cowardice to avoid trouble; and the suicide does not undergo death because it is honorable, but in order to avoid evil.

ARISTOTLE, Ethics, Book iii. ch. 7, 11.

What man soe'er, in troubles waxing wroth,

Will use a cure that's worse than the disease.

SOPHOCLES, Fragments, 1. 514.

THAT this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!