Contend for mastery, and the very sense
Of life is rapture—should we pass, I say,
At once from such excitements to the void
And silent gloom of that which doth await us—
Were it not dreadful?
Eri. Banish such dark thoughts!
They ill beseem the hour.
Vit. There is no hour
Of this mysterious world, in joy or woe,
But they beseem it well! Why, what a slight