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CONTENTS

ONTENTS.

PAGE

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Shakespeare. 91

Clown's Rehearsal, Part II. (Midsummer Night's Dream)....

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GOOD SELECTIONS.

THE PEARL NAUTILUS.

Suggested by a view of a section of the Chambered Nautilus in one
Bridgewater Treatises.

HOLMES.

THERE is a ship of pearl which poets feign
Sails the unshadowed main,

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings

In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings,

And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair,

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl,

Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,

As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,

Before thee lies revealed,—

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed !

Year after year beheld the silent toil

That spread his lustrous coil;

Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,

Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old në

more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn!

While on mine ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice tha'

sings:

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,

As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

THE CHARCOALMAN.

TROWBRIDGE.

THOUGH rudely blows the wintry blast,
And sifting snows fall white and fast,
Mark Haley drives along the street,
Perched high upon his wagon seat;
His sombre face the storm defies,
And thus from morn till eve, he cries

"Charco'! charco'!"

While echo faint and far replies,

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"Hark, O! hark, O!"

Charo' !"—" Hark, O!”—Such cheery sounds Attend him on his daily rounds.

The dust begrimes his ancient hat;

His coat is darker far than that;

Tis odd to see his sooty form

All speckled with the feathery storm:

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