I ask not a life for the dear ones, All radiant, as others have done, I would pray God to guard them from evil, But a sinner must pray for himself. The twig is so easily bended, I have banished the rule and the rod; I have taught them the goodness of knowledge, They have taught me the goodness of God. My heart is a dungeon of darkness, Where I shut them from breaking a rule; My frown is sufficient correction, My love is the law of the school. I shall leave the cld house in the autumn, That meet me each morn at the door! I shall miss them at morn and at eve, Charles Dickinson CLARENCE'S DREAM. Clarence. Оn, I have passed a miserable night, So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams, That, as I am a Christian faithful man, I would not spend another such a night, Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days, So full of dismal terror was the time! Methought that I had broken from the tower, And was embarked to cross to Burgundy, And in my company my brother Gloster, Who from my cabin tempted me to walk Upon the hatches. Thence we looked toward England. During the wars of York and Lancaster, That had befallen us. As we passed along Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling, Oh Heaven! Methought what pain it was to drown' All scattered in the bottom of the sea. Some lay in dead men's skulls and in those holes Clar. Methought I had; and often did I strive Brak. Awaked you not with this sore agony?. Oh, then began the tempest to my soul! I passed, methought, the melancholy flood, The first that there did greet my stranger soul SEIZE on him, furies! take him to your torments!" Shakspeare. THE DEATH OF HAMILTON. A SHORT time since, and he, who is the occasion of our sorrows, was the ornament of his country. He stood on an eminence, and glory covered him. From that emi nence he has fallen suddenly, forever fallen. His intercourse with the living world is now ended; and those who would hereafter find him, must seek him in the grave. There, cold and lifeless, is the heart which just now was the seat of friendship; there, dim and sightless, is the eye, whose radiant and enlivening orb beamed with intelligence; and there, closed forever, are those lips, on whose persuasive accents we have so often, and so lately hung with transport. From the darkness which rests upon his tomb there proceeds, methinks, a light, in which it is clearly seen, that those gaudy objects which men pursue are only phantoms. In this light how dimly shines the splendor of victory-how humble appears the majesty of grandeur! The bubble, which seemed to have so much solidity, has burst; and we again see, that all below the sun is vanity. True, the funeral eulogy has been pronounced, the sad and solemn procession has moved, the badge of mourning has already been decreed, and presently the sculptured marble will lift up its front, proud to perpetuate the name of Hamilton, and rehearse to the passing traveller his virtues, just tributes of respect, and to the living useful;— but to him, moldering in his narrow and humble habitation, what are they? How vain! how unavailing! now. Approach, and behold, while I lift from his sepulchre its covering! Ye admirers of his greatness-ye emulous of his talents and his fame-approach, and behold him How pale! how silent! No martial bands admire the adroitness of his movements; no fascinating throng weep, and melt, and tremble at his eloquence! Amazing change! A shroud, a coffin, a narrow, subterraneous cabin-this is all that now remains of Hamilton! And is this all that remains of him? During a life so transitory, what lasting monument, then, can our fondest hopes erect! My brethren, we stand on the borders of an awful gulf, which is swallowing up all things human. And is there, amidst this universal wreck, nothing stable, nothing abiding, nothing immortal, on which poor, frail, dying man can fasten? Ask, the hero, ask the statesman, whose wisdom you have been accustomed to revere, and he will tell you. He will tell you, did I say? He has already told you, from his death-bed; and his illumined spirit, still whispers from the heavens, with well-known eloquence, the solemn admonition :-"Mortals hastening to the tomb, and once the companions of my pilgrimage, take warning and avoid my errors; cultivate the virtues I have recommended; choose the Saviour I have chosen; live disinterestedly; live for immortality; and would you rescue any thing from final dissolution, lay it up in God." Dr. Nett. A SWELLS SOLILOQUY ON THE WAR. I DON'T appwove this hawid waw ; Those dweadful bannahs hawt my eyes; Of cawce, the twoilet has its chawms; In cullaws so extwemely loud? And then the ladies-pwecious deals!- To heaw the chawming cweatures talk, I called at Mrs. Gween's last night, Of cwace I wose and sought the daw, Vanity Fair. MINISTERING ANGELS, MOTHER, has the dove that nestled, And in darkness gone to rest? It looks up from every flower. And when Night's dark shadows fleeing, Maiden, has thy noble brother, On whose manly form thine eye Loved full oft in pride to linger, On whose heart thou could'st rely, Though all other hearts deceived thee, All proved hollow, earth grew drear, Whose protection, ever o'er thee, Hid thee from the cold world's sneer,Has he left thee here to struggle, All unaided on thy way? Nay, he still can guide and guard thee, Lover, is the light extinguished All its sunshine could impart? |