But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.
George Herbert, 1593–1632.
FROM THE “HOLY DYING.”
But as when the sun approaches toward the gates of the morning, he first opens a little eye of heaven, and sends away the spirits of darkness, and gives light to a cock, and calls up the lark to matins, and by-and-by gilds the fringes of a cloud, and peeps over the eastern hills, thrusting out his golden horns—like those which decked the brows of Moses, when he was forced to wear a vail, because himself had seen the face of God; and still, while a man tells the story, the sun gets up higher till he shows a fair face and full light, and then he shines one whole day, under a cloud often, and sometimes weeping great and little showers, and sets quickly: so is a man’s reason and his life.
Bishop Jeremy Taylor.
SIMILE.
As when the cheerful sun elamping wide,
Glads all the world with his uprising ray,
And woos the widowed earth afresh to pride,