Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/473

life instead of being conquered by it; a victory so rare as to be almost unique, especially among poets in these latter days. When the end comes, which must come, he can well say with his friend Landor, that "indomitable old Roman":—

"I strove with none, for none was worth my strife;
 Nature I loved, and next to Nature, Art:
I warmed both hands before the fire of Life;
 It fails, and I am ready to depart!"

And further, in the consummation of the faith of a lifetime, sing to the world:—

"Must in death your daylight finish?
 My sun sets to rise again."

And to his Belovèd gone before:—

"O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
And with God be the rest!"