THE real greatness of soul in a Christian can only attain its perfection, when, for the benefit of humanity, it makes every sacrifice without the knowledge of any other mortal.

ZSCHOKKE. Hours of Meditation.

FOR she—so lowly-lovely and so loving,
Queenly responsive when the loyal hand
Rose from the clay it work'd in as she past,
Not sowing hedge-row texts and passing by,
Nor dealing goodly counsel from a height
That makes the lowest hate it, but a voice
Of comfort and an open hand of help,

A splendid presence flattering the poor roofs
Revered as theirs, but kindlier than themselves
To ailing wife or wailing infancy

Or old bed-ridden palsy,—was adored.

TENNYSON. Aylmer's Field.

POOR naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads, and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these ? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel;
That thou may'st shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

A COMMON REASON FOR CHARITY.

King Lear.

To purchase his quiet by a little alms he gratifies the beggar, but indeed relieves himself.

WATERLOO.

SOUTH.

THERE was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gather'd then
Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men ;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when

Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage-bell:

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!

Did ᎩᎾ not hear it ?-No; 'twas but the wind,
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;

No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet-
But hark!-that heavy sound breaks in once more.
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier, than before!

Arm! Arm! it is-it is-the cannon's opening roar !

Within a window'd niche of that high hall
Sate Brunswick's fated chieftain; he did hear
That sound the first amidst the festival,
And caught its tone with death's prophetic ear;
And when they smiled because he deem'd it near
His heart more truly knew that peal too well
Which stretch'd his father on a bloody bier,
And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell;
He rush'd into the field, and foremost fighting fell.

Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro,
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago
Blush'd at the praise of their own loveliness;
And there were sudden partings, such as press
The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs
Which ne'er might be repeated; who could guess
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise!.

And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar ;

And near, the beat of the alarming drum

Roused by the soldier ere the morning star;

While throng'd the citizens with terror dumb, [come! Or whispering, with white lips-" The foe! they come! they

And wild and high the "Camerons gathering" rose!

The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's hills
Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon foes:
How in the noon of night that pibroch thrills

Savage and shrill! But with the breath which fills
Their mountain pipe, so fill the mountaineers

With the fierce native daring which instils

The stirring memory of a thousand years,

And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears!

And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves,
Dewy with nature's tear-drops as they pass,
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves,

Over the unreturning brave,-Alas!

Ere evening to be trodden like the grass

Which now beneath them, but above shall grow
In its next verdure, when the fiery mass

Of living valour, rolling on the foe

And burning with high hope shall moulder cold and low.
Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,
Last eve in beauty's circle proudly gay,

The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife,
The morn the marshalling in arms,—the day
Battle's magnificently stern array!

The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent
The earth is covered thick with other clay,

Which her own clay shall cover, heap'd and pent,
Rider and horse,—friend and foe,-in one red burial blent!
Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine:
Yet one I would select from that proud throng,
Partly because they blend me with his line,
And partly that I did his sire some wrong,
And partly that bright names will hallow song,
And his was of the bravest, and when shower'd
The death-bolts deadliest the thinn'd files along,
Even where the thickest of war's tempest lower'd,
They reach'd no nobler breast than thine young gallant
Howard!

There have been tears and breaking hearts for thee,

And mine were nothing had I such to give;

But when I stood beneath the fresh green tree,
Which living waves where thou did'st cease to live,
And saw around me the wide field revive
With fruits and fertile promise, and the Spring
Come forth her work of gladness to contrive,
With all her reckless birds upon the wing,

I turn'd from all she brought, to those she could not bring.

I turned to thee, to thousands, of whom each
And one as all a ghastly gap did make

In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach
Forgetfulness were mercy for their sake;

The archangel's trump, not glory's, must awake
Those whom they thirst for; though the sound of fame
May for a moment soothe, it cannot slake *

The fever of vain-longing, and the name

So honour'd but assumes a stronger, bitterer claim.

Childe Harold, Canto III.

ARISTOCRACY.

A TRUE natural aristocracy is not a separate interest in the state, or separable from it. It is an essential integrant part of any large body rightly constituted. It is formed out of a class of legitimate presumptions, which taken as generalities, must be admitted for actual truths. To be bred in a place of estimation, to see nothing low and sordid from one's infancy; to be taught to respect one's-self; to be habituated to the censorial inspection of the public eye; to look early to public opinion; to stand upon such elevated ground as to be enabled to take a large view of the wide-spread and infinitely diversified combinations of men and affairs in a large society; to have leisure to read, to reflect, to converse; to be enabled to draw the court and attention of the wise and learned wherever they are to be found; to be habituated in armies to command and obey; to be taught to despise

*

And must I mourn my Country's shame?
And envious curse the conquering Foe?
No more I feel that thirst of Fame ;-
All I can feel is private woe.

E'en all the joy that Vict'ry brings,
(Her bellowing guns, and flaming pride)
Cold, momentary comfort flings
Around where weeping Friends reside.

Whose blighted bud no sun shall cheer,
Whose lamp of life no longer shine;
Some Parent, Brother, Child, most dear,
Who ventured, and who died like mine.

Proud crested Fiend, the world's worst foe,
Ambition; canst thou boast one deed,
Whence no unsightly horrors flow,

Nor private peace is seen to bleed.

R. BLOOMFIELD. The French Mariner.

danger in the pursuit of honour and duty; to be formed to the greatest degree of vigilance, foresight, and circumspection, in a state of things in which no fault is committed with impunity, and the slightest mistakes draw on the most ruinous consequences; to be led to a guarded and regulated conduct, from a sense that you are considered as an instructor of your fellowcitizens in their highest concerns, and that you act as a reconciler between God and man; to be employed as an administrator of law and justice, and to be thereby amongst the first benefactors to mankind; to be a professor of high science, or of liberal and ingenious art; to be amongst rich traders, who from their success are presumed to have sharp and vigorous understandings, and to possess the virtues of diligence, order, constancy, and regularity, and to have cultivated an habitual regard to commutative justice. These are the circumstances of men, that form what I should call a natural aristocracy, without which there is no nation.

NOBILITY.

NOBILITY of blood

Is but a glitt'ring and fallacious good.

The nobleman is he, whose noble mind

BURKE.

Is fill'd with inbred worth unborrow'd from his kind.
Virtue alone is true nobility:

*

Let your own acts immortalise your name,

'Tis poor relying on another's fame;

For take the pillars but away and all
The superstructure must in ruins fall,
As a vine droops when by divorce removed
From the embraces of the elm she loved.

FOR him I reckon not in high estate

Whom long descent of birth,

Or the sphere of fortune, raises;

DRYDEN. Juvenal.

But thee whose strength, while virtue was her mate,

Might have subdued the earth,

Universally crown'd with highest praises.

Samson Agonistes.

He whose mind

Is virtuous, is alone of noble kind;

Tho' poor in fortune, of celestial race,

And he commits the crime who calls him base.

DRYDEN. Fables.