POEMS OF IMAGINATION AND FANCY 1. HYMN TO THE NIGHT. "NIGHT appears, and anxiety and wretchedness are suspended. To be comfortable, nothing is necessary but our beds; and when sleep closes our eye-lids, our wants are satisfied. Night equalizes the condition of the beggar and the monarch; both enjoy a blessing which no money can procure."-Sturm. "If we look at the stars, that host of white robed pilgrims who travel across the vault of the nightly sky, the imagination cannot conceive any thing quieter, calmer, or more unassuming. They are the exquisite and perfect emblems of loveliness and humility in high station." -Archdeacon Hare. I HEARD the trailing garments of the Night I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light I felt her presence, by its spell of might, The calm majestic presence of the Night, As of the one I love. I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight, That fill the haunted chambers of the Night, From the cool cisterns of the midnight air My spirit drank repose; The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,- O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care, Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer! The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair, LONGFELLOW. II. THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE GLOW-WORM. "THE nightingale haunts close shrubberies, copses, and dense coverts in low, humid situations, and, as it has been observed, more especially where the cowslip grows plentifully. To these favourite spots the males, which precede by about ten days the females, on their visit to our shores, immediately make their way, and begin their rich strains of invitation, striving as it would seem, to excel each other in the fulness of their notes and the luxuriance of their modulations. This bird, as its name implies, sings at night, and its strains, heard by calm moonlight, when all is silent around, are very pleasing; but it is not only at night that this songster pours out his melody; he sings also during the day, but his strain, mingled with the voices of other birds, is less effective, less captivating than when uttered during the moonlight hour, and listened to amidst the shadowy stillness of its embowered retreat." "In our country the glowworm, the wingless female of a beetle, Sampyris noctiluca, is well known; and in the southern parts of our island may be seen at night during the months of July and August, gemming the mossy couches with brilliant stars. The light proceeds from the abdomen; but though by far the most intense in the female, it is not altogether absent in the male, or even in the larvæ."-Pictorial Museum. THE STREET MUSICIAN; OR, POWER OF MUSIC. When, looking eagerly around, He spied far off, upon the ground, So, stooping down from hawthorn top, “Did you admire my lamp," quoth he, The songster heard this short oration, Hence jarring sectaries' may learn That brother should not war with brother, But sing and shine by sweet consent, Till life's poor transient night is spent ; Those Christians best deserve the name,2 211 CowPER. III. THE STREET-MUSICIAN; OR, THE POWER OF MUSIC. "ONE of the most pure and innocent pleasures which we can enjoy we owe to music. It possesses the power of charming our ears, southing our passions, affecting our hearts, and influencing our propensi ties. How often has music dissipated our gloom, quickened the vital spirits, and ennobled our sentiments! An art so pleasing and useful well deserves our attention; and calls upon us to employ it to the glory of our beneficent Creator."-Sturm. AN Orpheus! an Orpheus!—he works on the crowd, What an eager assembly! what an empire is this! That errand-bound 'prentice was passing in haste— The porter sits down on the weight which he bore ; That tall man, a giant in bulk and in height, Mark that cripple,—but little would tempt him to try Now, coaches and chariots! roar on like a stream; 1. Who was Orpheus? 2. What is meant by stops on the fret? WORDSWORTH. 3. Souls, what case? ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. 213 IV. ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. "FOR the first few years of our terrestrial apprenticeship, we have not much work to do; but, boarded and lodged gratis, are set down mostly to look about us over the workshop and see others work, till we have understood the work a little and can handle this or that."Carlyle. Derivations. Etymology. YE distant spires, ye antique towers! And ye that from the stately brow Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among, His silver-winding way. Ah, happy hills, ah, pleasing shade, 3 Where once my careless childhood strayed, A stranger yet to pain! I feel the gales that from ye blow A momentary bliss bestow, As waving fresh their gladsome wing, My weary soul they seem to soothe, To breathe a second spring. Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen The paths of pleasure trace, |