But as such dews are dried up quite,
When Phoebus shows his face,

So are such fancies put to flight
When God doth guide by grace.

The little birds which sing so sweet
Are like the angels' voice,
Which render God His praises meet
And teach us to rejoice:

And as they more esteem that mirth
Than dread the night's annoy,

So much we deem our days on earth
But hell to heavenly joy.

Unto which joys for to attain,
God grant us all His grace,
And send us, after worldly pain,
In heaven to have a place,
Where we may still enjoy that light

Which never shall decay:

Lord, for Thy mercy, lend us might

To see that joyful day.

GOOD NIGHT.

WHEN thou hast spent the ling'ring day

In pleasure and delight,

Or after toil and weary way

Dost seek to rest at night,

Unto thy pains or pleasures past
Add this one labour yet:

Ere sleep close up thine eye too fast,
Do not thy God forget.

L

But search within thy secret thought
What deeds did thee befall;
And if thou find amiss in aught,
To God for mercy call.

Yea, though thou nothing find amiss.
Which thou canst call to mind,
Yet evermore remember this,

There is the more behind.

And think, how well so e'er it be
That thou hast spent the day,
It came of God, and not of thee,
So to direct thy way.

Thus if thou try thy daily deeds,

And pleasure in this pain,

Thy life shall cleanse thy corn from weeds,
And thine shall be the gain.

SIR NICHOLAS BRETON.

DATE UNCERTAIN.

Of the history of Sir Nicholas Breton little is known beyond the fact that he formed one in that crowd of poets who made the era of Queen Elizabeth so illustrious in our literature. During his life, and for some time subsequently, his poems enjoyed great popularity, though they are now almost forgotten. His compositions are most of them religious in their character. From the melancholy tone which pervades them,

he seems to have had a life of disappointment and sorrow.

FROM "THE SOUL'S HARMONY."

LORD, when I think how I offend Thy will,
And know what good is in obedience to it,
And see my hurt, and yet continue still

In doing ill, and cannot leave to do it;

And then again do feel that bitter smart,

That inward breeds of pleasure's after-pain,
When scarce the thought is entered in my heart
But it is gone and sin gets in again;

And when again the act of sin is past,
And that Thy grace doth call me back again,
Then in my tears I run to Thee as fast,
And of my sins and of myself complain;

What can I do but cry, Sweet Jesus, save me?
For I am nothing but what Thou wilt have me.

THE SOUL'S LONGINGS.

O GRACIOUS God, and Lord of mercy's might,
Why do I live amid this world of woe?
When every day doth seem to me as night,
While sorrows seek my spirit's overthrow.

I hear Thy word, and would obey Thy will,
But want the power that might perform my due;
I know the good, and fain would leave the ill,
And fear the sorrow that doth sin ensue.

And yet I fall into that depth of sin

That makes me fear the judgment of Thy wrath, Until Thy grace doth all my help begin

To know what comfort faith in mercy hath.

O Blessed Light that shows in mercy's eye!
While faith doth live, that love can never die.

FAREWELL TO THE WORLD.

Go; bid the world, with all its trash, farewell!
And tell the earth it shall be all but dust.
These wicked wares that worldlings buy and sell,
The moth will eat or else the canker rust:
All flesh is grass, and to the grave it must.
This sink of sin is but the way to hell;

Leave it I say, and bid the world farewell.

Account of pomp but as a shadowed power,

And think of friends but as the summer flies; Esteem of beauty as a fading flower,

And lovers' fancies but as fabled lies: Know that on earth there is no paradise. Who sees not heaven is surely spirit-blind, And like a body that doth lack a mind.

Then let us lie as dead, till there we live,
Where only love doth live for ever blest,
And only love the only life doth give

That brings the soul into eternal rest:
Let us this wicked, wretched world detest,
Where graceless hearts in hellish sins persever,1
And fly to heaven, to live in grace for ever.

1 Persevere.

E