THE

WHEAT-SHEAF.

Education.

BY CHARLES MACKAY.

I HAVE a wondrous house to build,
A dwelling humble, yet divine,
A lowly cottage to be filled

With all the jewels of the mine.
How shall I build it strong and fair?
This noble house, this lodging rare ?

So small and modest, yet so great!
How shall I fill its chambers bare

With use, with ornament, with state?

My God hath given the stone and clay:
'Tis I must fashion them aright-
'Tis I must mould them day by day,

And make my labour my delight.
This cot, this palace, this fair home,
This pleasure house, this holy dome,
Must be in all proportions fit,
That heavenly messengers may come
To lodge with him who tenants it.

14

EDUCATION.

No fairy bower this house must be,
To totter at each gale that starts,
But of substantial masonry,

Symmetrical in all its parts-
Fit in its strength to stand sublime
For seventy years of mortal time,
Defiant of the storm and rain,
And well attemper'd to the clime,

In every cranny, nook and pane.

I'll build it so, that if the blast

Around it whistle loud and long,
The tempest when its rage hath passed,
Shall leave its rafters doubly strong.

I'll build it so that travellers by
Shall view it with admiring eye,

For its commodiousness and grace:
Firm on the ground, straight to the sky,
A meek but goodly dwelling place.

Thus noble in its outward form,

Within I'll build it clear and white,Not cheerless cold, but happy warm, And ever open to the light:

No tortuous passage or stair,

No chamber foul, or dungeon lair,

No gloomy attic shall there be,

But wide apartments ordered fair,
And redolent of purity.

With three compartments furnished well,
The house shall be a home complete,
Wherein, should circumstance rebel,
The humble tenant may retreat.

EDUCATION.

The first, a room wherein to deal
With men for human nature's weal,

A room where he may work or play,
And all his social life reveal

In its pure texture day by day.

The second, for his wisdom sought,

Where, with his chosen book or friend,

He may employ his active thought

To virtuous and exalted end.

A chamber lofty and serene,
With a door-window to the green

Smooth shaven sward, and arching bowers,

Where lore, or talk, or song between,
May gild his intellectual hours.

The third, an oratory dim,

But beautiful, where he may raise,
Unheard of men, his daily hymn

Of Love, of Gratitude, of Praise :
Where he may revel in the light
Of things unseen and infinite,

And learn how little he may be,
And yet how awful in thy sight,
Ineffable Eternity!

Such is the house that I must build-
This is the cottage, this the home-
This is the palace, treasure-filled,

For an Immortal's earthly home.
Oh, noble work of toil and care!

Oh, task most difficult and rare!

Oh, simple, but most arduous plan!

To raise a dwelling-place so fair,

The sanctuary of a man!

15

Che Barmony of Nature.

THERE is joy among the ice-bergs, when ends the polar night, And their mighty crystals flash, in the newly wakened light: There is joy in shouting Egypt, when through her valleys wide, Pours the fountain of her harvests, its renovated tide.

Through each zone that belts the earth, Nature sings a gladsome

song,

In numbers sweetly simple, or magnificently strong.

By the well spring in the desert, beneath the spreading Palm,
Her voice rings sweet and holy, through an atmosphere of balm :
Where Niagara the burthen of his congregated springs,
Hurls down the yawning chasm, how gloriously she sings!
Afar in leafy forests, where the axe hath never swung,
Where the Indian roams sole monarch and the panther rears her
young;

In meadows of the wilderness, where proudly in the air,

The Elk his antlers tosseth, and the Bison makes his lair; From heights where the strong Eagle, sways his pinions on the

cloud,

And valleys where the vine's bright leaves the blushing clusters

shroud :

From the teeming lap of ocean where rest the sunny isles,
And white-winged barques are laden with their rich and sunny

spoils ;

With trumpet-tongued sublimity, or low and silver voice,
Nature swells the mighty anthem, whose burthen is-Rejoice!
Oh life sustaining air, bounding ocean, verdant earth,
The universe is ringing with the music of your mirth!
Yet wide as is your empire, and vast as is your plan,

Ye are but vassal servitors, that minister to man!

'Tis true in fierce rebellion, there are moments when ye rise, And crush the weak defences, he hath labored to devise: