Well may this body poorer, feebler grow!

It is undressing for its last sweet bed;

But why should the soul, which death shall never know,

Authority, and power, and memory shed?

It is that love with absolute faith would wed:

God takes the inmost garments off his child

To have him in his arms, naked and undefiled.

Thou art my knowledge and my memory,

No less than my real, deeper life, my love.

George MacDonald (1824-1905), 1905.