brother; thou wert one of his sustaining elements. His remains are now dispersed, receive thy share of him who has now taken an everlasting flight! Death. DCLXII. Ecclesiasticus. Ab. O Death! how bitter is the thought of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, unto the Apoc. man that hath nothing to vex him, and hath prosperity in all things; yea, unto him that is yet able to enjoy his food. O Death! acceptable is thy sentence unto the needy, and unto him whose strength faileth, that is now in the last age, and troubled in all things; to him that despaireth, and hath lost patience. Fear not the sentence of death: remember them that have been before thee and that shall come after thee; for this is the law of God over all flesh. There is no inquisition in the grave. Have regard to thy name; for that shall remain with thee beyond a thousand treasures of gold. A good life hath but few days; but a good name endureth for ever. DCLXIII. Death. Hindu (Emerson.) An Indian prince, Tisso, one day riding in the forest, saw a herd of elk sporting. 'See how happy,' he said, Story. 'these browsing elk are! Why should not priests, lodged and fed comfortably in the temples, also amuse themselves?' Returning home, he imparted this reflection to the king. The king on the next day conferred the sovereignty on him, saying, 'Prince, admin Burmese. Persian. ister this empire for seven days; at the termination of that period I shall put thee to death.' At the end of the seventh day the king inquired, 'From what cause hast thou become so emaciated?' He answered, 'From the horror of death.' The monarch rejoined, 'Live, my child, and be wise. Thou hast ceased to take recreation, saying to thyself, In seven days I shall be put to death. These priests in the temple incessantly meditate on death; how can they enter into healthful diversions?' Virtues Immortal. DCLXIV. The brilliant chariots of kings are destroyed; the body also approaches destruction; but the virtues of good people never approach destruction. Thus do the good say to the good. Permanence. DCLXV. With victorious skill and irresistible arrow I vanquished the world. Strongholds fell where I raised my hand; where I moved, the lines of battle gave way. All this availed little. Swift death came, saying, 'Permanence and power belong alone to God.' DCLXVI. Hindu. Gita. comp. The Unknown Future. Death is certain to all things which are subject to Bhagavat. birth, and regeneration to all things which are mortal. Wherefore it doth not behove thee to grieve about that which is inevitable. The former state of beings is unknown, the middle state is evident, and their future state is not to be discovered. Why then shouldst thou trouble thyself about such things as these? Some regard the soul as a wonder, while some speak, and others hear of it with astonishment; but no one knoweth it, although he may have heard it described. Just to thy wish the door of heaven is found open before thee. Be free from duplicity, and stand firm in the path of truth; be free from care and trouble, and turn thy mind to things which are spiritual. Let the motive be in the deed, and not in the event. Be not one whose motive for action is the hope of reward. Let not thy life be spent in inaction. Depend upon application, perform thy duty, abandon all thought of the consequence, and make the event equal, whether it terminate in good or evil. Seek an asylum then in wisdom alone; for the miserable and unhappy are so on account of the event of things. Progress. DCLXVII. It needs not that I swear by the sunset redness, And by the moon when at her full, That from state to state shall ye be surely carried onward! Koran, 8. 84, DCLXVIII. Life and Death. On parent knees a naked, new-born child Thou then mayest smile, while all around thee weep. Arabian. Persian. 11th cent. Heaven and Hell. In mosque and school, in church and synagogue, they have a horror of hell, and a seeking of paradise; but the seed of this anxiety has never germinated in the heart that has penetrated the secret of the Most High. If the revolutions of the universe have brought thee no joy, why count whether there be seven heavens or eight? Each heart that God hath illumined with the light of affection—be it found in mosque or in synagogue-if its name be written in the Book of Love, is set free from anxieties about hell, and from longings for paradise. Hell is but a spark of the useless troubles which we have given ourselves; paradise only an instant of the repose which we have sometimes enjoyed on earth. Cause and Effect. DCLXXI. Singhalese. As surely as the pebble cast heavenward abides not there, but returns to the earth; so, proportionate to thy Buddha. deed, good or ill, will the desire of thy heart be meted out to thee in whatever form or world thou shalt enter. Self-judgment. DCLXXII. Take care that your final account shall be settled Turkish. (D'Herb.) before death. Undergo here your indictment and Lamai. DCLXXIII. A Bad Conscience. Persian. (Palmer MS.) Between two physicians, in consequence of their living together, a few words of altercation took place. Nizami. It is not right for two to be spoken of as one; both Ab. cannot reap the same crop. Who ever saw a place for two swords in one sheath? The desire came to those two sages that one of the two should have the house to himself. When anger caught the waist of revenge, it set about devising a plan to settle the matter. They would drink two draughts of their own making, so as |