to the rank of a dogma. All life seemed to him sorrow. "Birth is sorrow, old age is sorrow, disease is sorrow, union with one whom we do not love is sorrow, separation from one whom we do love is sorrow; in short, our

five bonds with the things of the earth are sorrow." * that

Homer makes Apollo say

To combat for mankind,

Ill suits the wisdom of celestial mind:

For what is man? Calamitous by birth,
They owe their life and nourishment to earth;
Like yearly leaves, that now with beauty crowned,
Smile on the sun; now wither on the ground.
To their own hands commit the frantic scene,
Nor mix immortals in a cause so mean.

Victor Hugo took a most melancholy view of life:

Hélas! naître pour vivre en désirant la mort!
Grandir en regrettant l'enfance où le cœur dort,
Vieillir en regrettant la jeunesse ravie,

Mourir en regrettant la vieillesse et la vie!**

And yet many of those who grumble at the world complain very inconsistently also of being obliged to leave it. They torment themselves with the haunting certainty that

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,

And all that beauty, all that wealth ere gave

* Pope's Homer,

** Les Feuilles d'Automne,

Await alike the inevitable hour,—

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.*

They explain this, however, by the excuse that
Death in itself is nothing; but we fear

To be we know not what, we know not where.**

In fact it is not so much the advancing glacier of inevitable death that is feared, as what comes after: The dread of something after death,

That undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.***

No doubt the views of death are very different. “It is," said Seneca, "the wish of some, the relief of many, the end of all." Many dread the actual pain; but death is often easy, especially in old age:

So softly death succeeded life in her,

She did but dream of Heaven, and she was there.†

The Jewish sages † regarded the deaths of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, and of them alone, “as but a kiss.” Does it, however, apply to them only?

Others console themselves with the faith that

* Gray.

» Dryden.

** Dryden.

*** Shakespeare.

†† Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed.

There is no death! what seems so is transition.

This life of mortal breath

Is but a suburb of the life Elysian,

Whose portal we call death.*

"When Socrates was put upon his trial, he reminded the Court, in the course of his celebrated defence, how he had braved the popular fury by refusing to concur in the judicial murder of the Ten Generals; and how, at the peril of his life, he had silently disobeyed the unjust behests of the Thirty Tyrants. Macaulay pronounced that portion of the speech to be as interesting and striking a passage as he had ever heard or read. When Socrates expressed a serene conviction that to die was to gain, even if death were nothing more than untroubled and dreamless sleep, 'Milton,' said Macaulay, 'thought otherwise:

an

Sad cure! For who would lose

Though full of pain, this intellectual being;

These thoughts that wander through eternity?

I once thought with Milton; but every day brings me nearer and nearer to the doctrine here laid down by Socrates.'

* Longfellow.

** The Marginal Notes of Lord Macaulay, by Sir G. O. Trevelyan.

I any case, when death comes we must meet it in the spirit of Socrates, who in his glorious Apologia did not speak as a man condemned to death, but as one about to ascend into heaven.

The two views of man-(1) that he is little lower than the angels; (2) that he is little higher than the beasts that perish are not contradictory and inconsistent statements. They are two alternatives. The choice is

put before everyone on entering life. Everyone as he chooses may be noble and good, or vile and contemptible. We are men, and masters of our fate. We can make ourselves weak, wicked, and miserable; or strong, good, trustworthy, and happy. A glorious privilege, but also a tremendous responsibility for each one of us. We may raise our soul into the Holy of Holies, or debase it to the nethermost Hell. If man is contemptible, this is as he has made himself: not as he might have been, not as he was meant to be.

When they start in life, children are "little lower than the angels." In the words of Sir Thomas Browne: "There is surely a piece of divinity in us; something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun." Well, then, has it been said, not only that

we should love, but that we should honour all men, at any rate all men who do not dishonour themselves.

Children, indeed, while young are very much in the power of those with whom they live, and all those who are thrown with them, especially parents and teachers, have a great responsibility. The mind of a child is a virgin page, on which we can write almost what we like; but when we have once written, the ink is almost indelible. The example we set is almost as important as, if not more important than, the lesson we

teach.

We all owe much not only to our parents and teachers, but to the ages which have gone before.

Les

"Toute la vie de Jésus-Christ est pour nous. Martyrs ont suffert pour nous. L'Église a combattu pour nous contre les hérésies, nous en lisons l'histoire comme si nous n'y avions point de part.

tout cela s'est fait pour nous." *

Cependant

Man is indeed a marvellous mixture of the animal

* "The whole life (and he might have added the death) of Jesus was for us. The martyrs suffered for us. The Church has fought for us against heresies, we read history as if we had no part in it. And yet all this was done for us" (Nicole, Essais de Morale).