And slumber settled on the deep, Thou that didst bow the billow's pride, So speak to passion's raging tide, MRS. HEMANS. 17. THE MEETING OF THE WATERS. HERE is not in the wide world a valley so sweet THER As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet: Yet, it was not that Nature had shed o'er the scene Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best; Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease, And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace! T. MOORE. 18. THE COMMON LOT. NCE in the flight of ages past, ONCE There lived a man; -and WHO WAS HE? Unknown the region of his birth, The land in which he died unknown, That joy and grief, and hope and fear, The bounding pulse, the languid limb, He suffer'd, but his pangs are o'er; Enjoy'd, but his delights are fled; his friends are now no more; He loved, but whom he loved, the grave Hath lost in its unconscious womb: He saw whatever thou hast seen ; The rolling seasons, day and night, Sun, moon, and stars, the earth and main, To him exist in vain. The clouds and sunbeams, o'er his eye Have left in yonder silent sky No vestige where they flew. The annals of the human race, Their ruins, since the world began, Of HIM afford no other trace Than this,-THERE LIVED A MAN! JAMES MONTGOMERY. 19. FATHER WILLIAM. “γου are old, Father William," the young man cried, "The few locks which are left you are gray; You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man; Now tell me the reason, I pray?" "In the days of my youth," Father William replied, "I remember'd that youth would fly fast, And abused not my health and my vigour at first, That I never might need them at last." "You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "And pleasures with youth pass away, And yet you lament not the days that are gone; "In the days of my youth," Father William replied, "I remember'd that youth could not last; I thought of the future, whatever I did, That I never might grieve for the past.” "You are old, Father William," the young man cried, "And life must be hastening away: You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death; Now tell me the reason, I pray ?" "I am cheerful, young man," Father William replied, "Let the cause thy attention engage; In the days of my youth I remember'd my God; 20. EARLY PIETY. BY cool Siloam the How sweet the lily grows! How sweet the breath beneath the hill Of Sharon's dewy rose ! SOUTHEY. Lo! such the child whose early feet Whose secret heart, with influence sweet, By cool Siloam's shady rill The rose that blooms beneath the hill Must shortly fade away. And soon, too soon, the wintry hour Of man's maturer age Will shake the soul with sorrow's power, O Thou, whose infant feet were found Whose years, with changeless virtue crown'd, Dependent on Thy bounteous breath, In childhood, manhood, age, and death, BISHOP HEBER DID 21. CHARITY. A PARAPHRASE ON 1 COR. xiii. ID sweeter sounds adorn my flowing tongue, Than ever man pronounced, or angel sung; Had I all knowledge, human and divine, That thought can reach, or science can define; |