From many stars this light.comes unto me;

But he instilled it first into my heart,

Who was chief singer * unto the Chief Captain,
Hope they in thee, in the high Theody

He says, all those who recognise thy name it

And who does not if he my faith possesses P
Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling

In the Epistle, so that I am full,

And upon others rain again your rain."I
While I was speaking, in the living bosom

Of that effulgence quivered a sharp flash,

Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning.
Then breathed : “ The love wherewith I am inflamed

Towards the virtue still, which followed me

Unto the palm and issue of the field,
Wills that I whisper thee, thou take delight

In her; and grateful to me is thy saying,
Whatever things Hope promises to thee.'
And I: “The ancient Scriptures and the new

$The mark establish, and this shows it me,

Of all the souls whom God has made His friends,
Isaiah saith, that each one garmented

In his own land shall be with twofold garments,ll
And his own land is this delicious life.
Thy brother, too, far more explicitly,
There where he treateth of the robes of white,

This revelation manifests to us."
And first, and near the ending of these words,

Sperent in te from over us was heard,

To which responsive answered all the carols.**
Thereafterward among them gleamed a light, tt

So that, if Cancer such a crystal had,

Winter would have a month of one sole day.ii
And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance

A joyous maiden, only to do honour

To the new bride, and not from any failing, $$
So saw I the illuminated splendour

||||Approach the two, who in a wheel revolved,

* The Psalmist David.
+ The Book of Psalms or songs of God :-
“And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee."

Psalm ix. 10.
* Your rain ; that is, of David and yourself.
g " The mark of the high calling and election sure."

The twofold garments are the glorified spirit and the glorified body.

St. John in the Apocalypse, vii. 9: “A great multitude, which no man could number : ... clothed with wbite robes."

** Dances and songs commingled; the circling choirs, the celestial choristers. tt St. John the Evangelist.

It In winter the constellation Cancer rises at sunset; and if it bad one star as bright as this, it would turn night into day.

$$ Such as vanity, ostentation, or the like,
HN St. Peter and St. James are joined by St. John.

As was beseeming to their ardent love.
It joined itself there in the song and music;

And fixed on them my Lady kept her look,

Even as a bride, silent and motionless.
“ This is the one who lay upon the breast

* Of Him our Pelican; and this is he

To the great office + from the cross elected."
My Lady thus; but therefore none the more

Removed her sight from its fixed contemplation,

Before or afterward, these words of hers.
Even as a man who gazes, and endeavours

To see the eclipsing of the sun a little,

And who, by seeing, sightless doth become,
So I became before that latest fire, i

While it was said, “ Why dost thou daze thyself

To see a thing which here has no existence ?
Earth upon earth my body is, and shall be
With all the others there, until our number

|| With the eternal proposition tallies;
With the two garments in the blessed cloister

**Are the two lights alone that have ascended:

And this shalt thou take back into your world."H
And at this utterance the flaming circle
Grew quiet, with the dulcet intermingling

Of sound that by the trinalfi breath was made,
As to escape from danger or fatigue

The oars that erst were in the water beaten

Are all suspended at a whistle's sound.
Ah, how much in my mind was I disturbed,

When I turned round to look on Beatrice,

At not beholding her, although I was
Close at her side and in the Happy World.

* Christ.

+ Then saith He to that disciple, “Behold thy mother! and from that hour that disciple took her unto his own house." St. John, xix. 27.

St. John. “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?' | Till the predestined number of the elect is complete.

The two garments: the glorified spirit, and the glorified body. ** The two lights: Christ and the Virgin Mary. tt Carry back these tidings. 11 The sacred trio of St. Peter, St. James, and St. John.

THE NATURE OF LOVE.

FROM THE ITALIAN.

To noble heart Love doth for shelter fly,
As seeks the bird the forest's leafy shade;
Love was not felt till noble heart beat high,
Nor before love the noble heart was made.
Soon as the sun's broad flame
Was formed, so soon the clear light filled the air ;
Yet was not till he came:
So love springs up in noble breasts, and there
Has its appointed space,
As heat in the bright flame finds its allotted place.

Kindles in noble heart the fire of love,
As hidden virtue in the precious stone:
This virtue comes not from the stars above,
Till round it the ennobling sun has shone;
But when his powerful blaze
Has drawn forth what was vile, the stars impart
Strange virtue in their rays:
And thus when Nature doth create the heart
Noble and pure and high,
Like virtue from the star, love comes from woman's eye.

TO ITALY.

FROM FILICAJA.
ITALY! Italy! thou who ’rt doomed to wear

The fatal gift of beauty, and possess
The dower funest * of infinite wretchedness,
Written upon thy forehead by despair;
Ah! would that thou wert stronger, or less fair,

That they might fear thee more, or love thee less,
Who in the splendour of thy loveliness

Seem wasting, yet to mortal combat dare !
Then from the Alps I should not see descending

Such torrents of armed men, nor Gallic horde

Drinking the wave of Po, distained with gore, Nor should I see thee girded with a sword

Not thine, and with the stranger's arm contending, Victor or vanquished, slave for evermore. * Fatal.

TRANSLATIONS FROM THE FRENCH.

SPRING.

FROM CHARLES, DUKE OF ORLEANS.

XV. CENTURY. GENTLE Spring !-in sunshine clad,

Well dost thou thy power display! For Winter maketh the light heart sad,

And thou,—thou makest the sad heart gay. He sees thee, and calls to his gloomy train, The sleet, and the snow, and the wind, and the rain, And they shrink away, and they flee in fear,

When thy merry step draws near.

Winter giveth the fields and the trees, so old,

Their beards of icicles and snow;
And the rain, it raineth so fast and cold,

We must cower over the embers low;
And, snugly housed from the wind and weatner,
Mope like birds that are changing feather.
But the storm retires, and the sky grows clear,

When thy merry step draws near.

Winter maketh the sun in the gloomy sky

Wrap him round with a mantle of cloud;
But, Heaven be praised, thy step is nigh;

Thou tearest away the mournful shroud,
And the earth looks bright, and Winter surly,
Who has toiled for nouht both late and early,
Is banihed afar by the new-born year,
When thy merry step draws near.

THE CHILD ASLEEP.

SWEET babe! true portrait of thy father's face,

Sleep on the bosom, that thy lips have pressed! Sleep, little one; and closely, gently place

Thy drowsy eyelid on thy mother's breast.