And God has showered his blessings down
On wood and wild, in tower and town,
And all in peace and plenty dwell;
And so thank Heaven, and fare-ye-well.

ALWAYS LEARNING.

1.

WASTE not your precious hours in play,
Nought can recall life's morning;
The seed now sown will cheer your way,
The wise are always learning.

2.

Nor think when all school-days are o'er,
You've bid adieu to learning;'

Life's deepest lessons are in store,
The meek are always learning.

3.

When strong in hope, you first launch forth,

A name intent on earning,

Scorn not the voice of age or worth,

The great are always learning.

4.

When right and wrong within you strive,
And passions fierce contending,

Oh, then you'll know, how, while they live,
The good are always learning.

TO THE LILY OF THE VALLEY.

1.

FAIR flower, that lapt in lowly glade,
Dost hide beneath the greenwood shade,

Than whom the vernal gale

None fairer wakes on bank or spray,
Our England's lily of the May,
Our lily of the vale.

2.

Art thou that 'lily of the field,'
Which, when the Saviour sought to shield
The heart from blank despair,

He shewed to our mistrustful kind
An emblem to the thoughtful mind
Of God's paternal care?

3.

Not thus, I trow for brighter shine
To the warm skies of Palestine
Those children of the East.-
There, when mild autumn's early rain
Descends on parched Esdrela's plain,
And Tabor's oak-girt crest—

4.

More frequent than the host of night,
Those earth-born stars, as sages write,
Their brilliant disks unfold;
Fit symbol of imperial state.

Their sceptre-seeming forms elate,
And crowns of burnished gold.

E

5.

But not the less, sweet spring-tide's flower,
Dost thou display the Maker's power,
His skill and handiwork,

Our western valley's humbler child;
Where in green nook of woodland wild
Thy modest blossoms lurk.

6.

What though nor care nor art be thinc,
The loom to ply, the thread to twine;
Yet, born to bloom and fade,
Thee, too, a lovelier robe arrays,
Than e'er in Israel's brightest days
Her wealthiest king arrayed.

7.

Of thy twin leaves the embowered screen
Which wraps thee in thy shroud of green;
Thy Eden-breathing smell;
Thy arched and purple-vested stem,
Whence pendent many a pearly gem,
Displays a milk-white bell:

8.

Instinct with life thy fibrous root,

Which sends from earth the ascending shoot,

As rising from the dead,

And fills thy veins with verdant juice,

Charged thy fair blossoms to produce,

And berries scarlet red;

TO THE LILY OF THE VALLEY.

9.

The triple cell, the twofold seed,
A ceaseless treasure-house decreed,
Whence aye thy race may grow,
As from creation they have grown,

While spring shall weave her flowery crown,
Or vernal breezes blow:

10.

Who forms thee thus with unseen hand;
Who at creation gave command,

And willed thee thus to be,
And keeps thee still in being through
Age after age revolving, who

But the Great God is he?

11.

Omnipotent to work His will;
Wise, who contrives each part to fill
The post to each assigned;
Still provident, with sleepless care
To keep; to make the sweet and fair
For man's enjoyment, kind!

12.

'There is no God,' the senseless say:
O God, why cast'st thou us away?'
Of feeble faith and frail,

The mourner breathes his anxious thought--
By thee a better lesson taught,

Sweet lily of the vale.

67

13.

Yes! He who made and fosters thee,
In Reason's eye perforce must be
Of majesty divine;

Nor deems she that His guardian care
Will He in man's support forbear,
Who thus provides for thine.

THE SLUGGARD.

1.

'Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain, 'You have waked me too soon, I must slumber again.' As the door on its hinges, so he on his bed,

Turns his sides, and his shoulders, and his heavy head.

2.

'A little more sleep, and a little more slumber;'

Thus he wastes half his days and his hours without number:

And when he gets up, he sits folding his hands,
Or walks about sauntering, or trifling he stands.

3.

I passed by his garden, and saw the wild-brier,
The thorn and the thistle grow broader and higher :
The clothes that hang on him are turning to rags;
And his money still wastes, till he starves or he begs.