The slender debt to nature's quickly paid,
Discharged, perchance, with greater ease than made.
_Emblems, Bk. II_.13. F. QUARLES.
The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.
_Measure for Measure, Act iii. Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
She thought our good-night kiss was given,
And like a lily her life did close;
Angels uncurtained that repose,
And the next waking dawned in heaven.
_Ballad of Babe Christabel_. G. MASSEY.
So fades a summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o'er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies a wave along the shore.
_The Death of the Virtuous_. MRS. BARBAULD.
Of no distemper, of no blast he died,
But fell like autumn fruit that mellowed long;
Even wondered at, because he dropt no sooner.
Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years;
Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more:
Till, like a clock worn out with eating time,
The wheels of weary life at last stood still.
_OEdipus, Act iv. Sc. 1_. J. DRYDEN.