I love to view these things with curious eyes

And moralize!

And in the wisdom of the Holly Tree
Can emblems see

Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme,
Such as may profit in the after-time.

So, tho' abroad perchance I might appear
Harsh and austere,

To those who on my leisure would intrude
Reserved and rude,

Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be
Like the high leaves upon the Holly Tree.

And should my youth, as youth is apt I know,

Some harshness show,

All vain asperities I day by day

Would wear away,

Till the smooth temper of my age should be
Like the high leaves upon the Holly Tree.

And as when all the summer trees are seen So bright and green,

The Holly leaves their fadeless hues display Less bright than they,

But when the bare and wintry woods we see What then so chearful as the Holly Tree?

So serious should my youth appear among
The thoughtless throng,

So would I seem amid the young and

More grave than they,

That in my age as chearful I might be
As the green winter of the Holly Tree.

gay

English Eclogues.

The LAST of the FAMILY.

JAMES.

What Gregory! you are come I see to join us

On this sad business.

GREGORY.

Aye, James, I am come,

But with a heavy heart, God knows it, man!
Where shall we meet the corpse?

JAMES.

Some hour from hence;

By noon, and near about the elms, I take it..
This is not as it should be, Gregory,

Old men to follow young ones to the grave!
This morning when I heard the bell strike out,
I thought that I had never heard it toll
So dismally before.