If
they have a rich title, they try to ornament it still further; if they
have refined gold, they try to gild it; if they have a lily, they try to
paint it into still purer color.

Therefore, to be possessed with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

_William Shakespeare._

A PRETTY GOOD WORLD

The world has its faults, but few of us would give it up till we have
to.

Pretty good world if you take it all round--
Pretty good world, good people!
Better be on than under the ground--
Pretty good world, good people!
Better be here where the skies are as blue
As the eyes of your sweetheart a-smilin' at you--
Better than lyin' 'neath daisies and dew--
Pretty good world, good people!

Pretty good world with its hopes and its fears--
Pretty good world, good people!
Sun twinkles bright through the rain of its tears--
Pretty good world, good people!
Better be here, in the pathway you know--
Where the thorn's in the garden where sweet roses grow,
Than to rest where you feel not the fall o' the snow--
Pretty good world, good people!

Pretty good world! Let us sing it that way--
Pretty good world, good people!
Make up your mind that you're in it to stay--
At least for a season, good people!
Pretty good world, with its dark and its bright--
Pretty good world, with its love and its light;
Sing it that way till you whisper, "Good-night!"--
Pretty good world, good people!

_Frank L. Stanton._

From "The Atlanta Constitution."

ODE TO DUTY

In the first stanza the poet hails duty as coming from God. It is a
light to guide us and a rod to check. To obey it does not lead to
victory; to obey it _is_ victory--is to live by a high, noble law. In
the second stanza he admits that some people do right without driving
themselves to it--do it by instinct and "the genial sense of youth." In
stanza 3 he looks forward to a time when all people will be thus
blessed, but he thinks that as yet it is unsafe for most of us to lose
touch completely with stern, commanding duty. In stanzas 4 and 5 he
states that he himself has been too impatient of control, has wearied
himself b