And I read the moral—­A brave endeavor
    To do thy duty, whate’er its worth,
  Is better than life with love forever,
    And love is the sweetest thing on earth.
Sir Hugo’s Choice.  J.J.  ROCHE.

DYING.

  The slender debt to nature’s quickly paid,
  Discharged, perchance, with greater ease than made.
Emblems, Bk.  II.13.  F. QUARLES.

  The sense of death is most in apprehension;
  And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
  In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
  As when a giant dies.
Measure for Measure, Act iii.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

  She thought our good-night kiss was given,
    And like a lily her life did close;
    Angels uncurtained that repose,
  And the next waking dawned in heaven.
Ballad of Babe Christabel.  G. MASSEY.

  So fades a summer cloud away;
    So sinks the gale when storms are o’er;
  So gently shuts the eye of day;
    So dies a wave along the shore.
The Death of the Virtuous.  MRS. BARBAULD.

  Of no distemper, of no blast he died,
  But fell like autumn fruit that mellowed long;
  Even wondered at, because he dropt no sooner. 
  Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years;
  Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more: 
  Till, like a clock worn out with eating time,
  The wheels of weary life at last stood still.
OEdipus, Act iv.  Sc. 1.  J. DRYDEN.

EASTER.

“Christ the Lord is risen to-day,” Sons of men and angels say.  Raise your joys and triumphs high; Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply. “Christ the Lord is risen to-day.”  C. WESLEY.

  Yes, He is risen who is the First and Last;
    Who was and is; who liveth and was dead;
  Beyond the reach of death He now has passed,
    Of the one glorious Church the glorious Head.
He is Risen.  H. BONAR.

  Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
  Death is strong, but Life is stronger;
  Stronger than the dark, the light;
  Stronger than the wrong, the right;
  Faith and Hope triumphant say
  Christ will rise on Easter Day.
An Easter Carol.  PH.  BROOKS.

  Rise, heart! thy Lord is risen.  Sing His praise
    Without delays
  Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
    With Him mayst rise—­
  That as His death calcined thee to dust,
  His life may make thee gold, and much more just.
Easter.  G. HERBERT.

  Spring bursts to-day,
  For Christ is risen and all the earth’s at play.
An Easter Carol.  C.G.  ROSSETTI.

ECCLESIASTICISM.

  With crosses, relics, crucifixes,
  Beads, pictures, rosaries, and pixes;
  The tools of working out salvation
  By mere mechanic operation.
Hudibras, Pt.  III.  Canto I.  S. BUTLER.