Then the good man sighed, and turned away, For such depravity to pray, That had cast aside the heavenly worth For the transient and fleeting things of earth! And his church that night, to his content, Raised his salary fifty per cent.
Tread softly--bow the head; In reverent silence bow; No passing bell doth toll, Yet an immortal soul Is passing now.
Stranger! however great, With lowly reverence bow; There's one in that poor shed, One by that paltry bed, Greater than thou.
Beneath that beggar's roof, Lo! Death doth keep his state; Enter--no crowds attend; Enter--no guards defend This palace gate.
That pavement, damp and cold, No smiling courtiers tread; One silent woman stands, Lifting with meagre hands A dying head.
No mingling voices sound-- An infant wail alone: A sob suppressed--again That short, deep gasp, and then The parting groan.
Oh! change!--Oh! wondrous change!-- Burst are the prison bars-- This moment there, so low, So agonized, and now Beyond the stars!
Oh! change--stupendous change! There lies the soulless clod! The sun eternal breaks-- The new immortal wakes Wakes with his God!
No matter what horse-car, but it happened that I had to go a mile or two, and held up my cane to attract the attention of the driver or the conductor of one of them, which I did, after some difficulty. I am bound to say it was not on the Touchandgo road, for the officers employed there have an instinctive knowledge whether a man wishes to ride or not, and indeed often by the magic of the upraised finger they draw people in to ride who had hardly any previous intention of it. I have been attracted in this way, and found myself to my astonishment, seated in the car, confident that I had signified no disposition to do so. In this instance, however, I would ride, and got in.
There were the usual passengers in the car--the respectable people going out of town, who were reading the last editions of the papers, the women who had been shopping, the servant girls who had been in to visit their friends, feeling no interest in one another, and all absorbed in their own reflections, as I was. I was thinking seriously, when--my eye was attracted by some glittering object on the floor, beneath the opposite seat.