That sobbed religiously in yearning song,

That watched to ease the burden of the world,
Laboriously tracing what must be,

And what may yet be better,-saw within
A worthier image for the sanctuary,
And shaped it forth before the multitude,
Divinely human, raising worship so

To higher reverence more mixed with love,-
That better self shall live till human Time
Shall fold its eyelids, and the human sky
Be gathered like a scroll within the tomb
Unread forever.

This is life to come,

Which martyred men have made more glorious
For us who strive to follow. May I reach
That purest heaven, be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony,
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion ever more intense.
So shall I join the choir invisible
Whose music is the gladness of the world.

George Eliot (1819-1880]

LAST LINES

No coward soul is mine,

No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:

I see Heaven's glories shine,

And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.

O God within my breast, Almighty, ever-present Deity! Life-that in me has rest,

As I-undying Life-have power in Thee!

Vain are the thousand creeds

That move men's hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,

Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,

u art may never be destroyed. Emily Bronte [1818-1848]

LAUS MORTIS

I fear Death,

nd in exchange takes breath?

Spring

e soil each buried thing;

nd and brief

s the branches frees the leaf;

ormy hours

fleece of snow to save the flowers.

ll things,

eet, Death gives us wings!

t thrust,

-d, armed with valiant trust,

Dreading no unseen knife,

Across Death's threshold step from life to life!

O all ye frightened folk,

Whether ye wear a crown or bear a yoke,

Laid in one equal bed,

When once your coverlet of grass is spread,

What daybreak need you fear?

The Love will rule you there which guides you here!

Where Life, the Sower, stands, Scattering the ages from his swinging hand

Thou waitest, Reaper lone,

Until the multitudinous grain hath grown

Scythe-bearer, when thy blade Harvests my flesh, let me be unafraid!

God's husbandman thou art!— In His unwithering sheaves, O bind my heart! Frederic Lawrence Knowles [1869-1905]

"WHEN I HAVE FEARS"

WHEN I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pilèd books, in charact'ry
Hold like rich garners the full-ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starred face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the fairy power
Of unreflecting love!-then on the shore

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
John Keats [1795-1821]

hristian to His Soul 3269

AST SONNET

uld I were steadfast as thou arthdor hung aloft the night,

ith eternal lids apart,
tient, sleepless Eremite,
ers at their priest-like task
round earth's human shores,
e new soft-fallen mask

he mountains and the moors-
adfast, still unchangeable,
my fair love's ripening breast,
its soft fall and swell,
in a sweet unrest,

hear her tender-taken breath,

ver or else swoon to death.

John Keats [1795-1821]

CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL

nimula, vagula, blandula, ospes Comesque Corporis, uæ nunc abibis in loca, allidula, rigida, nudula? ec, ut soles, dabis joca.

ADRIANI MORIENTIS, AD ANIMAM SUAM

ark of heavenly flame,

quit this mortal frame!

g, hoping, lingering, flying,

in, the bliss of dying! Nature, cease thy strife, languish into life.

ey whisper; angels say,

irit, come away! this absorbs me quite, y senses, shuts my sight, y spirits, draws my breath? ■y soul, can this be death?

recedes; it disappears!

ens on my eyes; my ears

With sounds seraphic ring!

Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave! where is thy victory?

O Death! where is thy sting?

Alexander Pope [1688-1744]

"BEYOND THE SMILING AND THE WEEPING"

BEYOND the smiling and the weeping

I shall be soon;

Beyond the waking and the sleeping,
Beyond the sowing and the reaping,

I shall be soon.

Love, rest, and home!

Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the blooming and the fading
I shall be soon;

Beyond the shining and the shading,
Beyond the hoping and the dreading,
I shall be soon.

Beyond the rising and the setting
I shall be soon;

Beyond the calming and the fretting,
Beyond remembering and forgetting,
I shall be soon.

Beyond the gathering and the strowing
I shall be soon;

Beyond the ebbing and the flowing,
Beyond the coming and the going,
I shall be soon.

Beyond the parting and the meeting
I shall be soon;

Beyond the farewell and the greeting,
Beyond this pulse's fever beating,
I shall be soon.