_Life_ (Vol. vii., pp. 429. 608.).--Compare with the lines quoted by your
correspondents those of Moore, entitled "My Birthday," the four following
especially:
"Vain was the man, and false as vain,
Who said[9], 'Were he ordain'd to run
His long career of life again,
He would do all that he had done.'"
Many a man would gladly live his life over again, were he allowed to bring
to bear on his {44} second life the _experience_ he had acquired in that
past. For in the grave there is no room, either for _ambition_ or
_repentance_; and the degree of our happiness or misery for eternity is
proportioned to the state of preparation or unpreparation in which we leave
_this world_. Instead of many a man, I might have said most good men; and
of the others, all who have not passed the rubicon of hope and grace. The
vista of the past, however, appears a long and dreary retrospect, and _any_
future is hailed as a relief: yet on second and deeper thought, we would
mount again the rugged hill of life, and try for a brighter prospect, a
higher eminence.