88 DEATH-THE DYING DECEIT. Death is the crown of life; | What man so wise, what earthly wit so ware As to descry the crafty cunning train Death wounds to cure; we fall, we rise, we By which deceit doth mask in visor fair, Spring from our fetters, fasten in the skies. YOUNG. Of death and judgment, heaven and hell, Go and dig my grave to-day! Here where all things earthly end, Heavenward springing from the dust, "Child of God, fear not to die!" From the German of E. M. ARNDT. 'Tis a blessing to live, but a greater to die; And cast her colors dyed deep in grain, To seem like truth, whose shape she well can And fitting gestures to her purpose frame, Lie not but let thy heart be true to God, Dare to be true, nothing can need a lie; Falsehood puts on the face of simple truth, "MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES." O what a tangled web we weave, And the best of the world, is its path to the That love a lie, where truth would pay as sky. MITCHELL. [See also THE DEAD-THE GRAVE.] well, As if, to them, vice shone her own reward. YOUNG. Through these bright orbs' dark centers darts O mighty Spirit! Source whence all things a ray! Of nature universal threads the whole! YOUNG. Stupendous Architect! thou, thou art all! And finds herself but at the center still! of Hail, Source of being! Universal Soul hail! sprung! O glorious Majesty of perfect Light! Or mortal heart endured to meet thy sight? If they who sin have never known O how shall I, who am but sin and dust, O God! thou bottomless abyss! Which, like thee, no beginning knew; Ere glowed with stars th' ethereal blue. To thee I bend the knee; to thee my Greatness unspeakable is thine; thoughts Continual climb, who with a master hand, THOMSON. Greatness whose undiminished ray, JOHN WESLEY. Thou only God! there is no God beside! Being above all beings! mighty One, Exhaustless Treasure! Being limitless! Thy Christendom is singing night and day, are!" Grant us to echo on this song afar! From the German of J. FRANCK. [See also DIVINE LOVE-OMNIPOTENCE — PROVIDENCE.] DELAY-PROCRASTINATION. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow In delay, SHAKSPEARE. We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day. SHAKSPEARE. That comfort comes too late; 'Tis like a pardon after execution. SHAKSPEARE. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Whom none can comprehend and none ex- Omitted, all the voyage of their life plore! Who fill'st existence with Thyself alone; Embracing all, supporting, ruling o'er! SHAKSPEARE. Being whom we call God, and know no more! The means that Heaven yields must be em From the Russian of DERZHAVIN. Author of being, Source of light, Thy steadfast being still the same. braced, And not neglected; else if Heaven would, And we will not, Heaven's offer we refuse. SHAKSPEARE. Where is to-morrow? in another world. Our mountain-hopes, spin out eternal schemes. DELAY. 91 To-morrow The fatal mistress of the young, the lazy, DR. JOHNSON. Should fill the world with wretches unde- It is a period nowhere to be found Shun delays, they breed remorse; Tide and wind stay no man's pleasure; Sober speed is wisdom's leisure. 92 DELAY-THE DELUGE. Delay not, sinner, till the hour of pain Humanity's stern king, from head to foot. How canst thou pray when fevered arrows shoot Through this torn targe, while every bone doth ache, Hark! hark! the sea bird's cry! In clouds they overspread the lurid sky, Even when the waters waxed too fierce to Soon shall it be their only shore. And the scared mind raves up and down And then, no more! her cell, BYRON. Rests upon Ararat; but nought around BOWLES. Sunk beneath the wave, The guilty share a universal grave; One wilderness of waters rolls in view, THE DELUGE—THE RAINBOW. Methinks I see a distant vessel ride, died; All shall be void, And now, the thickening sky BYRON. Upward they toiled the mountain steep, Like a dark ceiling stood; down rushed the A few of the strongest stemmed the flood, rain Impetuous, and continued till the earth No more was seen. The floating vessel swam pomp, Deep under water rolled; sea covered sea, Till it covered the mountain top; And the dark wave swallowed them up. All met one common doom; W. S. STUDLEY. And stabled. Of mankind, so numerous late, |