Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,

And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,

The mere effusion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,

For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age, But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,

Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,

To make thy riches pleasant.

That bears the name of life?

What's yet in this

Yet in this life

Lie hid more thousand deaths: yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

Measure for Measure, Act iii. Sc. 1, l. 5.

Duke Senior. Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy :

This wide and universal theatre

Presents more woeful pageants than the scene

Wherein we play in.

Jaques.

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

LIFE WORTHLESS WITHOUT THE HOPE OF IMMORTALITY. 207

And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7, 1. 136.

Christian Hope.

Religion e'en in death abides with men ;
Die they or live it does not pass away.1

SOPHOCLES, Philoctetes, 1. 1443.

Heavenly hope is all serene,

But earthly hope, how bright soe'er,
Still fluctuates o'er this changing scene,

As false and fleeting as 'tis fair.

REGINALD HEBER.

So part we sadly in this troublous world,

To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem.

Third Part of King Henry VI., Act v. Sc. 5, 1. 7.

Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it

To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou comest.

King Richard II., Act i. Sc. 3, 1. 286.

I have five hundred crowns,

The thrifty hire I saved under your father,

Which I did store to be my foster-nurse

1 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth

in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. - John xi. 25.

CHRISTIAN HOPE.

When service should in my old limbs lie lame
And unregarded age in corners thrown :
Take that, and He that doth the ravens feed,
Yea providently caters for the sparrow,1

Be comfort to my age!

209

As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 3, 1. 38.

God shall be my hope,

My stay, my guide and lantern to my feet.2

Second Part of King Henry VI., Act ii. Sc. 3, 1. 24.

Now have I done a good day's work :

You peers continue this united league :

I every day expect an embassage

From my Redeemer to redeem me hence;
And now in peace my soul shall part to heaven,
Since I have set my friends at peace on earth.

King Richard III., Act ii. Sc. 1, l. I.

Now, God be praised, that to believing souls
Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!

Second Part of King Henry VI., Act ii. Sc. 1, 1. 65.

1 Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. - Matt. vi. 26.

2 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.—Psalm cxix. 105.⚫

Heavenly Harmony in Immortal
Souls.

The immortal old man, chained methought eternally to earth, was unhappy at the sound of music which dilates the heart of man into its whole capacity for the infinite, and he cried aloud, “Away, away! thou speakest of things which throughout my endless life I have found not and shall not find." JEAN PAUL RICHTER.

LORENZO, JESSICA, PORTIA, AND NERISSA.

Lorenzo. How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here will we sit and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night

Become the touches of sweet harmony.

Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

Jessica. I am never merry when I hear sweet music.