there find a life awaiting us which will match with the piece we carry
from this one. It is a very grave thought--graver than any which we
shall consider on earth, if we are intelligent men--which the match
will be--whether it will be found in one of infinite misery or one of
infinite betterment. Here we have the power to say which it shall be.
It is a priceless power. Let us use it, not in fixing days for
reformation, not in lamenting over promises of reforms broken, and
fixing other days to come; but in living a newer life every day--As
we can make no bargain nor compromise about the time and place where
our life shall end, let us take the matter into our own hands and so
live that it will matter little when or where the end comes. So live
that when the summons come,

"Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."




OBSERVATIONS OF A RETIRED VETERAN VII


I sometimes come to the conclusion that it is in Winter that a
Philosopher has his several trials. That is, of course, a married
Philosopher. For of the other sort I take no account, seeing that with
their mode of life they have little need of Philosophy, unless, indeed,
it be esteemed so lowly a remedy as to be put at the beck and call of