return;
He beareth you and with Himself recalls.
Laugh at the threats of sickness; scorn the blows
Of fate; despise the horrors of the tomb;
And fare ye where the risen Christ doth call."

61 The poet expresses as a duty owed to Christ Himself the heathen
obligation of casting three handfuls of earth upon a body discovered
dead.

69 For the incident referred to in these lines, see the Apocryphal
book of Tobias, cc. ii. and xi. Tobit, a pious Israelite captive
in Nineveh, was reduced to beggary as the result of his zeal in
burying those of his countrymen who had been killed and exposed by
royal command. He also lost his sight, which was eventually restored
by the application of the gall of a fish which attacked his son
Tobias, and was killed by him. The "fish" of the legend is probably
the crocodile, whose gall was credited with medicinal properties by
various Greek and Latin writers. Cf. Pliny, _N. H._ xxviii. 8: "They
say that nothing avails more against cataract than to anoint the eyes
with its gall mixed with honey."

113 Cf. Cyprian (_De Mortal._ 20): "We must not lament our brethren
whom the Lord's summons has freed from the world, for we know that
they are not lost, but gone before. We may not wear the black robes
of mourning while they have put on the white raiment of joy. Nor
may we grieve for those as lost whom we know to be living with God."

171 Cf. _Perist._ vii.:--

"_Nos pio fletu, date, perluamus
Marmorum sulcos._"

The early Christian epitaphs, of which many thousands exist, are
instinct with a faith which is in striking contrast to the unrelieved
gloom or sullen resignation of paganism. We may compare with the
common

AVE ATQVE VALE

"Hail and farewell"

or inscriptions like

INFANTI DVLCISSIMO QVEM DI IRATI AETERNO SOMNO DEDERUNT

"To a very sweet babe, whom the angry gods gave to unending
sleep."

the Christian

DVLCIS ET INNOCENS HIC DORMIT SEVERIANVS SOMNO PACIS CVIVS
SPIRITVS IN LVCE DOMINI SVSCEPTVS EST (A.D. 393)

"Here slumbers in the sleep of peace the sweet and innocent
Severianus, whose spirit is received in the light of the Lord"

or

NATVS EST LAVRENTIVS IN ETERNVM ANN. XX. DORMIT IN P