Consolations of Religion to the Poor. PERCIVAL.
THERE is a mourner, and her heart is broken; She is a widow; she is old and poor;
Her only hope is in that sacred token
Of peaceful happiness when life is o'er ;
She asks nor wealth nor pleasure, begs no more Than Heaven's delightful volume, and the sight Of her Redeemer. Sceptics, would you pour Your blasting vials on her head, and blight
Sharon's sweet rose, that blooms and charms her being's night? She lives in her affections; for the grave
Has closed upon her husband, children; all
Her hopes are with the arm she trusts will save Her treasured jewels; though her views are small, Though she has never mounted high, to fall And writhe in her debasement, yet the spring Of her meek, tender feelings, cannot pall Her unperverted palate, but will bring A joy without regret, a bliss that has no sting. Even as a fountain, whose unsullied wave Wells in the pathless valley, flowing o'er With silent waters, kissing, as they lave, The pebbles with light rippling, and the shore Of matted grass and flowers,-so softly pour The breathings of her bosom, when she prays, Low-bowed, before her Maker; then no more She muses on the griefs of former days;
Her full heart melts, and flows in Heaven's dissolving rays. And faith can see a new world, and the eyes Of saints look pity on her: Death will come-- A few short moments over, and the prize Of peace eternal waits her, and the tomb Becomes her fondest pillow; all its gloom Is scattered. What a meeting there will be To her and all she loved here! and the bloom Of new life from those cheeks shall never flee: Theirs is the health which lasts through all eternity.
Extract from the Airs of Palestine.-PIERPONT. WHERE lies our path ?-Though many a vista call, We may admire, but cannot tread them all.
Where lies our path?-A poet, and inquire
What hills, what vales, what streams become the lyre ? See, there Parnassus lifts his head of snow; See at his foot the cool Cephissus flow; There Ossa rises; there Olympus towers;
Between them, Tempe breathes in beds of flowers, Forever verdant; and there Peneus glides Through laurels, whispering on his shady sides. Your theme is Music;-Yonder rolls the wave, Where dolphins snatched Arion from his grave, Enchanted by his lyre :-Citharon's shade Is yonder seen, where first Amphion played Those potent airs, that, from the yielding earth, Charmed stones around him, and gave cities birth. And fast by Hamus, Thracian Hebrus creeps O'er golden sands, and still for Orpheus weeps, Whose gory head, borne by the stream along, Was still melodious, and expired in song. There Nereids sing, and Triton winds his shell; There be thy path-for there the muses dwell. No, no-a lonelier, lovelier path be mine; Greece and her charms I leave for Palestine. There purer streams through happier valleys flow, And sweeter flowers on holier mountains blow. I love to breathe where Gilead sheds her balm; I love to walk on Jordan's banks of palm;
I love to wet my foot in Hermon's dews;
I love the promptings of Isaiah's muse :
In Carmel's holy grots I'll court repose,
And deck my mossy couch with Sharon's deathless rose. Here arching vines their leafy banner spread, Shake their green shields, and purple odors shed,
At once repelling Syria's burning ray,
And breathing freshness on the sultry day.
Here the wild bee suspends her murmuring wing, Pants on the rock, or sips the silver spring; And here,- -as musing en my theme divine,— I gather flowers to bloom along my line, And hang my garlands in festoons around,
Inwreathed with clusters, and with tendrils bound; And fondly, warmly, humbly hope the Power, That gave perfumes and beauty to the flower, Drew living water from this rocky shrine, Purpled the clustering honors of the vine, And led me, lost in devious mazes, hither,
To weave a garland, will not let it wither;
Wond'ring, I listen to the strain sublime,
That flows, all freshly, down the stream of time, Wafted in grand simplicity along,
The undying breath, the very soul of song.
On the Death of Mr. Woodward, at Edinburgh.— BRAINARD.
"The spider's most attenuated thread Is cord, is cable, to man's tender tie
On earthly bliss; it breaks at every breeze."
ANOTHER! 'tis a sad word to the heart, That one by one has lost its hold on life, From all it loved or valued, forced to part
In detail. Feeling dies not by the knife That cuts at once and kills: its tortured strife Is with distilled affliction, drop by drop Oozing its bitterness. Our world is rife
With grief and sorrow: all that we would prop,
Or would be propped with, falls; when shall the ruin stop
The sea has one, and Palestine has one,
And Scotland has the last. The snooded maid Shall gaze in wonder on the stranger's stone, And wipe the dust off with her tartan plaidAnd from the lonely tomb where thou art laid, Turn to some other monument-nor know
Whose grave she passes, or whose name she read; Whose loved and honored relics lie below;
Whose is immortal joy, and whose is mortal wo.
There is a world of bliss hereafter-else
Why are the bad above, the good beneath The green grass of the grave? The Mower fells Flowers and briers alike. But man shall breathe (When he his desolating blade shall sheathe, And rest him from his work) in a pure sky,
Above the smoke of burning worlds;-and Death
On scorched pinions with the dead shall lie,
When Time, with all his years and centuries, has passed by.
From "The Minstrel Girl."-JAMES G. WHITTIER.
AGAIN 'twas evening.-Agnes knelt, Pale, passionless,-a sainted one: On wasted cheek and pale brow dwelt The last beams of the setting sun. Alone-the damp and cloistered wall Was round her like a sepulchre; And at the vesper's mournful call Was bending every worshipper. She knelt-her knee upon the stone Her thin hand veiled her tearful eye, As it were sin to gaze upon
The changes of the changeful sky. It seemed as if a sudden thought
Of her enthusiast moments came
With the bland eve-and she had sought To stifle in her heart the flame
Of its awakened memory:
She felt she might not cherish, then, The raptures of a spirit, free
And passior.ate as hers had been, When its sole worship was, to look With a delighted eye abroad; And read, as from an open book, The written languages of God.
How changed she kneels!-the vile, gray hood, Where spring-flowers twined with raven hair; And where the jewelled silk hath flowed, Coarse veil and gloomy scapulaire.
And wherefore thus ? Was hers a soul, Which, all unfit for Nature's gladness, Could grasp the bigot's poisoned bowl,
And drain with joy its draught of madness? Read ye the secret, who have nursed In your own hearts intenser feelings, Which stole upon ye, at the first, Like bland and musical revealings From some untrodden Paradise, Until your very soul was theirs; And from their maddening ecstasies
Ye woke to mournfulness and prayers.
But she is sometimes happy now- And yet her happiness is not
Such as the buoyant heart may know- And it is blended with her lot To chasten every smile with tears,
And look on life with tempered gladness, That, undebased by human fears,
Her hope can smile on Memory's sadness, Like sunshine on the falling rain,
Or as the moonlight on the cloud;- Nor would she mingle once again With life's unsympathising crowd;- But, yielding up to earnest prayer Life's dark and mournful residue, She waiteth for her summons where The pure in heart their faith renew.
The Torn Hat.-N. P. WILLIS.
THERE'S Something in a noble boy, A brave, free-hearted, careless one, With his unchecked, unbidden joy,
His dread of books and love of fun, And in his clear and ready smile, Unshaded by a thought of guile, And unrepressed by sadness- Which brings me to my childhood back, As if I trod its very track,
And felt its very gladness.
And yet it is not in his play,
When every trace of thought is lost, And not when you would call him gay, That his bright presence thrills me most. His shout may ring upon the hill,
His voice be echoed in the hall, His merry laugh like music trill, And I in sadness hear it all—
For, like the wrinkles on my brow, I scarcely notice such things now- But when, amid the earnest game, He stops, as if he music heard,
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