So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, Thou must,
The youth replies, I can.
Voluntaries. R.W. EMERSON.
Not once or twice in our rough island story,
The path of duty was the way to glory.
Ode: Death of the Duke of Wellington. A. TENNYSON.
When I'm not thanked at all, I'm thanked enough:
I've done my duty, and I've done no more.
Tom Thumb. H. FIELDING.
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.