4. Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround, So suns are born, so worlds spring forth from thee; And as the spangles in the sunny rays Shine round the silver snow, the pageantry Of heaven's bright army glitters in thy praise. 5. A million torches, lighted by thy hand, Wander unwearied through the blue abyss; Suns lighting systems with their joyous beams? 6. Yes! as a drop of water in the sea, All this magnificence in thee is lost; What are ten thousand worlds compared to thee? In all the glory of sublimest thought, Is but an atom in the balance, weighed Against thy greatness, is a cipher brought 7. Naught! But the effluence of thy light divine, As shines the sunbeam in a drop of dew. 33 I am,117 O God, and surely thou must be! 8. Thou art! directing, guiding all. Thou art! On the last verge of mortal being stand, Close to the realms where angels have their birth, Just on the boundary of the spirit-land! EXPRESSION IN READING. 9. The chain of being is complete in me; In me is matter's last gradation lost; And the next step is spirit, Deity! I can command the lightning, and am dust! Whence came I here, and how? so marvellously 10. Creator, yes! thy wisdom and thy word Created me! thou Source of life and good! Its heavenly flight beyond this little sphere, 11. O thoughts ineffable! O visions blest! Though worthless our conceptions all of thee, God! thus alone my lowly thoughts can soar; DERZHAVIN, TRANSLATED BY BOWRING. LXVII.-EXPRESSION IN READING. 1. 'Tis not enough the voice be sound and clear,- 2. That voice all modes of passion can express Who lays an equal emphasis 118 on all. 3. Some o'er the tongue the labored measures roll 155 All affectation but creates disgust, And even in speaking we may seem too just. 4. In vain for them the pleasing measure flows, 5. Some plăcid natures fill the allotted scene 6. More nature oft, and finer strokes, are shown 7. He who in earnest studies o'er his part LLOYD. LXVIII. THE RETURN OF THE DOVE. 1. THERE was hope in the Ark at the dawning of day, 2 When Peace has departed the care-stricken breast, And the feet of the weary one languish for rest, When the world is a wide-spreading ocean of grief, How blest the return of the Bird and the Leaf! THE COMPLAINT OF A STOMACH. Reliance on God is the Dove to our Ark, 157 MACKAY. LXIX. THE COMPLAINT OF A STOMACH. 1. BEING allowed for once to speak, I would fain take the opportunity to set forth how ill, in all respects, we stomachs are used. From the beginning to the end of life, we are either afflicted with too little or too much, or not the right thing, or things which are horribly disagreeable to us; or are otherwise thrown into a state of discomfort. I do not think it proper to take up a moment in bewailing the Too Little, for that is an evil which is never the fault 121 of our masters, but rather the result of their misfortunes; and indeed we would sometimes feel as if it were a relief from other kinds of distress, if we were put upon short allowance for a few days. But we conceive ourselves to have matter for a true bill against mankind in respect of the Too Much, which is always a voluntarily-incurred evil. 2. What a pity that in the progress of discovery we cannot establish some means of a good understanding between mankind and their stomachs! for really the effects of their non-acquaintance are most vexatious. Human beings seem to be, to this day, completely in the dark as to what they ought to take at any time, and err almost as often from ignorance as from depraved appetite. Sometimes, for instance, when we of the inner house are rather weakly, they will send us down an article that we only could deal with when in a state of robust health. Sometimes, when we would require mild semi-farinaceous or vegetable diet, they will persist in all the most stimulating and irritating of viands. If 3. What sputtering we poor stomachs have when mistakes of that kind occur! What remarks we indulge in, regarding our masters! "What's this, now?" will a stomach-genius say; 'ah, detestable stuff! What a ridiculous fellow that man is! Will he never learn? Just the very thing I did not want. he would only send down a bowl of fresh leek soup, or barley broth, there would be some sense in it:" and so on. If we had only been allowed to give the slightest hint now and then, like faithful servants as we are, from how many miseries might we have saved both our masters and ourselves! 4. I have been a stomach for about forty years, during all of which time I have endeavored to do my duty faithfully and punc tually. My master, however, is so reckless, that I would defy any stomach of ordinary ability and capacity to get along pleasantly with him. The fact is, like almost all other men, he, in his eating and drinking, considers his own pleasure only, and never once reflects on the poor wretch who has to be responsible for the disposal of every thing down stairs. Scarcely on any day does he fail to exceed the strict rule of temperance; nay, there is scarcely a single meal which is altogether what it ought to be, either in its constituents or its general amount. My life is therefore one of continual worry and fret; I am never off the drudge from morning till night, and have not a moment in the four-and-twenty hours that I can safely call my own. 5. My greatest trial takes place in the evening, when my master has dined. If you only saw what a mess this said dinner is, soup, fish, flesh, fowl, ham, curry, rice, potatoes, table-beer, sherry, tart, pudding, cheese, bread, all mixed up together. I am accustomed to the thing, so don't feel much shocked; but my master himself would faint at the sight. The slave of duty in all circumstances, I call in my friend Gastric Juice, and to it we set, with as much good-will as if we had the most agreeable task in the world before us. But, unluckily, my master has an impression very firmly fixed upon him that our business is apt to be vastly promoted by an hour or two's drinking; so he continues at table amongst his friends, and pours me down some bottle and a half of wine, perhaps of various sorts, that bothers Gastric Juice and me to a degree which no one can have any conception of. 6. In fact, this said wine undoes our work almost as fast as we do it, besides blinding and poisoning us poor genii into the bargain. On many occasions I am obliged to give up my task for the time altogether; for while this vīnous shower is going on I would defy the most vigorous stomach in the world to make any advance in its business worth speaking of. Sometimes things go to a much greater length than at others; and my master will paralyze us in this manner for hours, — not always, indeed, with wine, but occasionally with punch, one ingredient of which—the lemon is particularly odious to us ministers of the interior. All this time I can hear him jollifying away at a great rate, drinking healths to his neighbors, and ruining his own. 7. I am a lover of early hours as are my brethren generally. To this we are very much disposed by the extremely hard work which we usually undergo during the day. About ten o'clock, having, perhaps, at that time, got all our labors past, and feeling fatigued and exhausted, we like to sink into repose, not to be again disturbed till next morning at breakfast-time. Well, how it may be with others I can't tell; but so it is, that |