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a better mind.

Thou hast shed tears: it is enough. We have given what we ought to grief; now let us do what is becoming. - Hindu (Ramayana).

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Why lookest thou so dull upon thy friends, thou to whom thy friends were so dear? Thy face seems to smile on us in the bosom of death, as if thou wert alive. We see thy glory still, like sunset on a mountain's head. Hindu.

He who in the morning has seen the right way, may in the evening die without regret. Confucius.

It is right, my friends, that we should consider this: that if the soul is immortal, it requires our care not only for the present time, which we call life, but for all time. He, then, is truly wise, who considers most about his soul; who having adorned his soul, not with a foreign, but with its own proper ornament, - temperance, justice, fortitude, freedom, and truth,-thus waits for his passage to the world of the departed, as one who is ready to go whenever destiny shall summon him.

If death be the journey to another place, and there all the dead are, what good can be greater than this? Be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth,that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. - Plato.

The body is a prison, from which the soul must be released before it can arrive at the knowledge of things real and immutable.

The soul of each of us is an immortal spirit, and goes to other immortals to give an account of its actions. When thou shalt have laid aside thy body, thou shalt

rise, freed from mortality, and become an inhabitant of the kindly skies.

My body must descend to the place ordained, but my soul will not descend: being a thing immortal, it will ascend on high, where it will enter a heavenly abode. Death does not differ at all from life.

Every soul is immortal; for whatever is continually moved is immortal. Every body which is moved from without is soulless, but that which is moved from within, that is, of itself, possesses a soul, since this is the very nature of soul. But if this be the case, that there is nothing else which moves itself except soul, — soul must necessarily be (both uncreate and immortal. — Plato.

and)

All that God works is effortless and calm:

Seated on loftiest throne,

Thence, though we know not how,

He works his perfect will.

— Eschylus (The Suppliants).

It is shame

For any man to wish for length of life,

Who, wrapt in troubles, knows no change for good.
For what delight brings day still following day,
Or bringing on, or putting off our death?

I would not rate that man as worth regard
Whose fervor glows on vain and empty hopes:
But either noble life or noble death

Becomes the gently born. - Sophocles (Ajax).

An immortal man established in righteousness is a Greek. noble hymn of God.

Who knows whether to live is not death, and to die, life? Euripides.

I believe Nature, knowing the confusion and shortness of our life, hath industriously concealed the end of it from us, this making for our advantage; for if we were sensible of it beforehand, some would pine away with untimely sorrow, and would die before their death came.

Every one should meditate seriously with himself, that it is not the longest life which is the best, but that which is the most virtuous.

But such exclamations as this, "The young man ought not to be taken off so abruptly in the vigor of his years," are very frivolous, and proceed from a great weakness of mind; for who is it that can say what a thing ought to be?

And who knows but that the Deity, with a fatherly providence and out of tenderness to mankind, foreseeing what would happen, hath taken some purposely out of this life by an untimely death? So we should think that nothing has befallen them which they should have sought to shun,—“For naught that cometh by necessity is hard.". Plutarch.

What then do you wish to be doing when you are found by death? I, for my part, would wish to be found doing something which belongs to a man, beneficent, suitable to the general interest, noble. But if I cannot be found doing things so great, I would be found doing at least that which I cannot be hindered from doing, that which is permitted me to do: correcting myself, laboring at tranquillity of mind, rendering to the relations of life their due.

If death surprises me when I am busy about these things, it is enough for me if I can stretch out my hands to God and say: The means which I have received from thee for seeing thy administration of the world,

and following it, I have not neglected; I have not dishonored thee by my acts. * * That thou hast

given me life, I thank thee for what thou hast given: so long as I have used the things which are thine I am content; take them back and place them wherever thou mayest choose; for thine were all things, thou gavest them to me.

I think that what God chooses is better than what I choose; I will attach myself as minister and follower to him. Epictetus.

When I consider the faculties with which the human soul is endowed, * * * * I feel a conscious conviction that this active, comprehensive principle cannot possibly be of a mortal nature. And as this unceasing activity of the soul derives its energy from its own intrinsic and essential powers, without receiving it from any foreign or external impulse, it necessarily follows that its activity must continue forever.

I consider this world as a place which Nature never intended for my permanent abode; and I look on my departure from it, not as being driven from my habitation, but simply as leaving an inn. - Cicero.

That which we call death is but a pause or suspension, and in truth a progress to life only our thoughts look downward upon the body, and not forward upon things to come. It is the care of a wise and good man to look to his manners and actions; and rather how well he lives than how long. To die sooner or later is not the business, but to die well or ill; for death brings us to immortality.

Why was such a one taken away in the prime of his years? Life is to be measured by action, not by time. A man may die old at thirty, and young at fourscore. Nay, the one lives after death; and the other perished before he died. The fear of death is a continual slavery, as the contempt of it is certain liberty. - Seneca.

The

Day and night show unto us the resurrection. night falleth asleep and the day ariseth; the day departeth and night cometh on. Let us mark how and in what manner the sowing taketh place. The sower casteth into the earth each of the seeds and these decay: then out of their decay the might of the Master's providence raiseth them up and they bear fruit.— Clement of Rome.

Vines hold not their clusters all the year; now are they fruitful, and now they shed their leaves like tears. Like the sun, the pure are clouded. On them the envious crowd may hurl its hate; but it is as sparks falling on the clear stream - the sparks perish, the water goes shining on. Fear not the dark, friend; perchance the Water of Life may be found in the dark abyss of sorrow. - Persian (Saadi).

We saw him in the garden, the pleasant garden,

With his companions and his children, the children he loved.

His children and his servants blessed him.

His home was the shelter of happiness.

Peace be upon him.

We saw him giving food to the hungry,

And clothing to the naked.

We saw him give help and succor to the aged,
And good counsel to the young.

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