THE scene is desolate and bleak;
Dim clouds, presaging tempest, streak
The waning fields of air;
In sombre shade the valleys lie,

And January breezes sigh

Through leafless forests bare; The rank grass rustles by the stone, With danky lichens overgrown.

The drooping cattle cower below, While on the beech's topmost bough The croaking raven sits;

The tumult of the torrent's roar,

That, rain-swoln, rushes to the shore,

Is heard and lost by fits

Now with a voice o'erpowering all,
Now sinking in a dying fall!

How vanishes our time away!

'Tis like the circuit of a day

Since last, with devious feet,

This lone, sequester'd path I trod;
The blooming wild-flowers gemm'd the sod,
And made the breezes sweet!

The hues of earth, the tints of sky,
Were rapture to the heart and eye!

I listen'd to the linnet's song;
I heard the lyric lark prolong
Her heart-exulting note,

When, far removed from mortal sight,
She, soaring to the source of light,

Her way through cloudland sought;

And from etherial depths above,

Seem'd hymning earth with strains of love!

The wild rose, arch'd in artless bower,
The purpling thyme, the heather flower,
The whin in golden bloom,
Smiled forth upon the shining day,
As if they joy'd in their array

Of beauty and perfume;

And from the heart of every grove,

Was heard the cushat's coo of love!

And now I listen to the breeze,

That whistles through the leafless trees,

And to the pattering rain;

Down roars the stream with foamy surge, And from the marsh the curlew's dirge

Comes wailing o'er the plain:

R

Well may such alter'd scene impart

A moral to the thinking heart!

In youth, ah! little do we think
How near the torrent's crumbling brink
The flowers of pleasure grow;
How fickle Fortune's gale; how far
From gleam of Duty's guiding star,
Life's bark may sail below;
What chance and change man's fate
Betwixt the cradle and the grave!

may

Change is impress'd on all we see-
The budding, blooming, blighted tree;
The brightening, waning sky;

The sun that rises but to set;
Health with its glowing coronet-
Disease with sunken eye;

And childhood passing, stage by stage,
Through manhood to decrepid age!

What read we thence?

That not for us

In vain Creation preacheth thus,

By growth and by decay!

That man should lift his mental eye
Beyond earth's frail mortality,

And in the endless day

Of heaven behold a light display'd,
To which our sunshine is like shade!

brave

TO MR

(Original.)

DURING HIS WIFE'S ILLNESS.

EMMELINE DRUMMOND.

HOPE on! belovèd friend, hope on!

For there is One above

Who knows each grief, who counts each tear,
Whose character is love.

Hope on! although to prove your faith,
This trial still is given,

It is to raise your thoughts on high,

To centre them in heaven.

Hope on! for many faithful friends,

Before the throne of grace,

Daily for your dear suffering one
Entreat the Father's face.

She still is kept in perfect peace,
Her mind is stay'd on God;
Her confidence is firmly fix'd
On His unfailing word.

So may you

bend

your will to His,

Though still the rod may smite, And wait to know the reason why,

Till faith is lost in sight.

Hope on! He yet may raise her up; Trust in His gracious will;—

Whether this be for life or death,