ALTHOUGH the poetry of Lamb is greatly above mediocrity, he is better known by a beautiful collection of sketches, under the signature of Elia, his Tales from Shakspeare, and other prose works, teeming with profound philosophy and criticism expressed in the happiest diction. He was born in London, on the 10th of February, 1775, and was educated in Christ's Hospital, after which he received a small appointment in the India House, where he rose by regular gradation during thirty years of service, when he was pensioned off with a comfort. able annuity. During this long period, however, his heart was in literature, and he published numerous essays, tales, and dissertations, and associated with several of the most distinguished authors of the day. He died on the 27th of December, 1834. DIALOGUE BETWEEN A MOTHER AND CHILD. CHILD. "O lady, lay your costly robes aside, MOTHER. Wherefore to-day art singing in mine ear CHILD. O, mother, lay your costly robes aside, MOTHER. I pray thee, pretty one, now hold thy tongue, CHILD. One father fondled me upon his knee. THE SABBATH BELLS. The cheerful sabbath bells, wherever heard, Whom thoughts abstruse or high have chanced to lure Forth from the walks of men, revolving oft, And oft again, hard matter, which eludes And baffles his pursuit-thought-sick and tired Him, thus engaged, the sabbath bells salute VERSES FOR AN ALBUM. Fresh clad from Heaven in robes of white, Thou wert, my soul, an Album bright, A spotless leaf; but thought, and care, And Time, with heaviest hand of all, And Error, gilding worst designs, And Vice hath left his ugly blot— And fruitless late Remorse doth trace, Disjointed members-sense unknit- My scalded eyes no longer brook Go-shut the leaves-and clasp the book! THE CHRISTENING, Array'd-a half-angelic sight- Which must assoil the soul within Whose virtues, rightly understood, Are, as Bethesda's waters, good. Strange words-the World, the Flesh, the Devil Poor babe, what can it know of evil? But we must silently adore Mysterious truths, and not explore. Enough for him, in after times, When he shall read these artless rhymes, If looking back upon this day With easy conscience he can say, "I have in part redeem'd the pledge Of my baptismal privilege; And more and more will strive to flee All that my sponsors kind renounced for me." SONNET. We were two pretty babes, the youngest she, Defiling with the world my virgin heart- LINES SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE OF TWO FEMALES BY LEONARDO DA VINCI The lady Blanch, regardless of all her lovers' fears, To the Urs'line convent hastens, and long the Abbess hears. "O Blanch, my child, repent ye of the courtly life ye lead. Blanch look'd on a rose-bud and little seem'd to heed. She look'd on the rose-bud, she look'd round, and thought On all her heart had whisper'd, and all the Nun had taught. "I am worshipped by lovers, and brightly shines my fame, All Christendom resoundeth the noble Blanch's name. Nor shall I quickly wither like the rose-bud from the tree, My queen-like graces shining when my beauty 's gone from me. But when the sculptured marble is raised o'er my head, And the matchless Blanch lies lifeless among the noble dead, This saintly lady Abbess hath made me justly fear, It would nothing well avail me that I were worshipp'd here." ON THE PICTURES OF SALOME. When painters would by art express Beauty in unloveliness, Thee, Herodias' daughter, thee, They fittest subject take to be. They give thy form and features grace; But ever in thy beauteous face They show a steadfast cruel gaze, From Salome. QUEEN ORIANA'S DREAM. On a bank with roses shaded, Yields but feeble smell or none; And two more did music keep, To the mighty Tamerlane, A Thus far, in magnific strain, young poet soothed his vein, |