members of the _Danse Macabre_; carrying generally an inscription to this purport: Giunge la morte plena de egualeza, Sole ve voglio e non vostra richeza. Digna mi son de portar corona, E che signoresi ogni persona. The _Danse Macabre_ itself is a subject which is well nigh exhaustless. The secret of its immense popularity can be read in the lines just quoted: it proclaimed equality. "Nous mourrons tous," said the French preacher--then, catching the eye of the king, he politely substituted "_presque_ tous." Now there is no "presque" in the Dance of Death. Whether painted by Holbein's brush, or by that of any humble artist of the Italian valleys, the moral is the same: grand lady and milkmaid, monarch and herdsman, all have to go. Who shall fathom the grim comfort there was in this vivid, this highly intelligible showing forth of the indisputable fact? It was a foretaste of the declaration of the rights of man. Professor Pellegrini, who has added an instructive monograph to the literature of the _Danse Macabre_, mentions that on the way to the cemetery of Galliate a wall bears the guiding inscription: "Via al vero comunismo!" The old custom of way-side ossuaries contributed no doubt towards keeping strongly before the people the symbol and image of the great King. I have often reflected on the effect, certainly if unconsciously felt, of the constant and unveiled presence of the dead. I remember once passing one of the still standing chapels through the gratings of which may be seen neatly ranged rows of human bones, as I was descending late one night a mountain in Lombardy. The moon fell through the bars upon the village ancestors; one old man went by along the narrow way, and said gravely as he went the two words: "E tardi!" It was a scene which always comes back to me when I study the literature of the skeleton. SONGS FOR THE RITE OF MAY.