Page:Ethel Churchill 1.pdf/317

Rh through every aim of our being,—the disappointment and the endurance are but sent to raise those hopes above, which else might cling too fondly to their fruition below. Sooner or later dawns upon us the conviction, that the gifts we hold most glorious were given for a higher object than personal enjoyment, or the praise which is of man. We learn to look at the future result, to acknowledge our moral responsibility, and to hope that our thoughts, destined to become part of the human mind, will worthily fulfil the lofty duty assigned to their exercise. I agree with Sir Jasper in looking forward with a desire that would fain "take the wings of the morning, and flee away, and be at rest." Worn, weary, and discouraged, the image of death seems like a pleasant sleep—solemn, but soothing; when all that now makes the fevered heart beat with unquiet pain will be no more. But I, also, gaze beyond, in all the earnest humility of hope. I believe that the mind is imperishable; and is also the worthiest