With here and there a pearl, an emerald-stone,
A golden clasp, clasping a shred of gold.
All else had perished-save a wedding ring
And a small seal, her mother's legacy,
Engraven with a name, the name of both -
"Ginevra."

-There then had she found a grave!
Within that chest had she concealed herself,
Fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy,
When a spring-lock, that lay in ambush there,
Fastened her down forever!

LESSON CXXXVIII.

A Belief in the Superintendence of Providence the only ade quate Support under Affliction. WORDSWORTH.

ONE adequate support

For the calamities of mortal life
Exists, one only; an assured belief
That the procession of our fate, howe'er
Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being
Of infinite benevolence and power,
Whose everlasting purposes embrace
All accidents, converting them to good.

The darts of anguish fix not, where the scat
Of suffering hath been thoroughly fortified,
By acquiescence in the will supreme,
For time and for eternity;- by faith,
Faith absolute in God, including hope,
And the defence that lies in boundless love
Of his perfections; with habitual dread
Of aught unworthily conceived, endured

Impatiently, ill-done, or left undone,

To the dishonor of his holy name.

Soul of our souls, and Safeguard of the world,

Sustain

thou only canst - the sick of heart;

Restore their languid spirits, and recall

Their lost affections unto thee and thine!

How beautiful this dome of sky,

And the vast hills in fluctuation fixed

At thy command, how awful! Shall the soul,
Human and rational, report of thee

Even less than these?-Be mute who will, who can
Yet will I praise thee with impassioned voice:
My lips, that may forget thee in the crowd,
Cannot forget thee here,—where thou hast built,
For thy own glory, in the wilderness !

Me didst thou constitute a priest of thine,
In such a temple as we now behold,

Reared for thy presence: therefore am I bound
To worship, here, and everywhere, — as one
Not doomed to ignorance, though forced to tread,
From childhood up, the ways of poverty;
From unreflecting ignorance preserved,

And from debasement rescued. By thy grace
The particle divine remained unquenched;
And, mid the wild weeds of a rugged soil,
Thy bounty caused to flourish deathless flowers,
From paradise transplanted. Wintry age
Impends: the frost will gather round my heart:
And, if they wither, I am worse than dead!
Come Labor, when the worn-out frame requires
Perpetual sabbath : come disease, and want,

And sad exclusion through decay of sense:

But leave me unabated trust in thee

And let thy favor, to the end of life,

Inspire me with ability to seek

Repose and hope among eternal things,-
Father of heaven and earth! and I am rich,
And will possess my portion in content!

And what are things eternal?

- Powers depart,

Possessions vanish, and opinions change,

And passions hold a fluctuating seat:

But, by the storms of circumstance unshaken,

And subject neither to eclipse nor wane,

Duty exists-immutably survives!

What more that may not perish ?—Thou, dread Source,

Prime, self-existing cause and end of all,

That, in the scale of being fill their place,

Above our human region or below,

Set and sustained; thou, who didst wrap the cloud
Of infancy around us, that thyself,

Therein, with our simplicity a while

Might'st hold, on earth, communion undisturbed-
Who from the anarchy of dreaming sleep,
Or from its death-like void, with punctual care,
And touch as gentle as the morning light,
Restor'st us, daily, to the powers of sense,
And Reason's steadfast rule-Thou, thou alone
Art everlasting!

LESSON CXXXIX.
Judgment.-MARY HOWITT.

THE VOICE OF THE WORLD.

NAME her not, the guilty one!
Virtue turns aside for shame
At the mention of her name •
Very evilly hath she done'

Pity is on her misspent ;
She was born of guilty kin,

Her life's course hath guilty been⚫
Unto school she never went,

And whate'er she learned was sin:
Let her die!

She was nurtured for her fate;
Beautiful she was, and vain;
Like a child of sinful Cain
She was born a reprobate!
Lives like hers the world defile;
Plead not for her, let her die,
As the child of infamy!
Ignorant and poor and vile,
Plague-spot to the public eye,
Let her die!

THE HEART OF THE OUTCAST.

I am young, alas! so young,
And the world has been my foe;
And by hardship, wrong, and woe
Hath my bleeding heart been stung!
There was none, O God! to teach me
What was wrong and what was right;
I have sinned before thy sight;

Let my cry of anguish reach thee,
Piercing through the glooms of night,
God of love!

Man is cruel, and doth smother

Tender mercy in his breast;

Lays fresh burdens on the oppressed;

Pities not an erring brother;

Pities not the stormy throes

Of the soul despair hath riven,

Nor the brain to madness driven !

How frightful the grave! how deserted and drear'

With the howls of the storm-wind

the creaks of the bier,

And the white bones all clattering together!

Second Voice.

How peaceful the grave! its quiet how deep:
Its zephyrs breathe calmly, and soft is its sleep,
And flowerets perfume it with ether.

First Voice.

There riots the blood-crested worm on the dead

And the yellow skull serves the foul toad for a bed,
And snakes in its nettle-weeds hiss.