Thus spake the tender, pitying angels. But their leader said. There is a beauty far transcending innocence-a beauty which childhood and innocence may never possess. Shall we wait, my brethren, for this, or offer to our God an imperfect gift?" And so the angels waited until the child became a -for to immortal spirits, whose inheritance is eternal, the life of man is but an hour. man Then pain and sorrow came upon the man, and drove the rose from his cheek, and the light from his heart; and anguish bowed his frame, and care planted furrows on his brow. Then, when all his soul was dark, the angels drew near and whispered of unspeakable bliss, so that his heart grew strong and earnest, and faith was the first gem in his crown of beauty. Now temptations gathered thickly about him-now his guardians hovered near his path, watching his struggles, answering his thoughts, raising him when nearly trodden down, yet keeping him encompassed with tribulations, until he cast away his own strength-and the beauty of humility was perfected. Still they poured temptation upon his pathwayfor without temptation there can be no victory. Still, as he rose triumphant from every struggle, his countenance grew more angelic, his beauty more godlike, till at last, when they had breathed into his spirit of that joy with which they were filled, and his soul melted with love and great adoration, they looked with awe upon their work and pronounced it fit for Heaven! And when those who had loved him looked upon his withered, lifeless form, they were sad, and mourned his departed beauty. And it was so; for the soul, so strengthened and purified—that soul, so intensely beautiful, whose light its earthly covering could no longer obscure, was borne rejoicing by the angels to the throne, resting not in the joy of spirits innocent and untried, but mounting high, higher, to dwell forever in the presence of the fountain of all joy, and all truth, and all knowledge, and all glory. Spirits sadder and more dread See ye not that woman pale? Hark! that rustle of a dress, Stiff with lavish costliness! Here comes one whose cheek would flush But to have her garments brush 95 96 A hyena by her side kulks, downlooking-it is Pride. Round her heart and round her brain Ah! the fountain's angel shrinks, There walks Judas, he who sold He hath dealt in flesh and blood At the Bank, his name is good, In his eyes that stealthy gleam Who is he that skulks, afraid Through the pent, unwholesome room, By more instinct for the Best? To base use or glorious: He who might have been a lark Of the spirit's full sunrise,- Of the world's idolatry. Then the mountains whose white peaks But enough! Oh, do not dare VOICES OF THE TRUE HEARTED. No. 7. THE LADY'S DREAM. BY THOMAS HOOD. The lady lay in her bed, Her couch so warm and soft, But her sleep was restless and broken still; From side to side, she muttered and moaned, At last she started up, And gazed on the vacant air, With a look of awe, as if she saw Some dreadful phantom there And then in the pillow she buried her face From visions ill to bear. The very curtain shook, Her terror was so extreme, And the light that fell on the broider'd quilt And her voice was hollow, and shook as she cried ; That weary, weary walk, In the church-yard's dismal ground! And those horrible things, with shady wings, Death, death, and nothing but death, In every sight and sound! And oh! those maidens young, Who wrought in that dreary room, With figures drooping and spectres thin, And cheeks without a bloom ; And the voice that cried, "For the pomp of pride, We haste to an early tomb! "For the pomp and pleasure of pride, We toil like Afric slaves, And only to earn a home at last, Where yonder cypress waves;"And then he pointed-I never saw A ground so full of graves! And still the coffins came, With their sorrowful trains and slow; A sad and sickening show; Of such a world of woe! Of the hearts that daily break, I drank the richest draughts: And ate whatever is good Fish and flesh, and fowl and fruit, But I never remembered the wretched ones I dressed as the nobles dress, But I never remembered the naked limbs The wounds I might have healed! The human sorrow and smart! And yet it never was in my soul To play so ill a part; But evil is wrought by want of thought, She clasped her fervent hands, Remorse was so extreme : And yet, oh yet, that many a Dame, Would dream the Lady's Dream! MOUNTAIN CHILDREN. BY MARY HOWITT. Dwellers by lake and hill! Merry companions of the bird and bee! Go gladly forth and drink of joy your fill, With unconstrained step and spirit free! No crowd impedes your way; No city wall proscribes your further bounds; Where the wild flock can wander, ve may stray, The long day through, 'mid summer sights and sounds. The sunshine and the flowers, And the old trees that cast a solemn shade; The pleasant evening, the fresh dewy hours, And the green hills whereon your fathers play'd ; The grey and ancient peaks, Round which the silent clouds hang day and night; These are your joys! go forth,— The voice of hidden rills, Its quiet way into your spirit finds; Ye sit upon the earth, Twining its flowers, and shouting, full of glee; And a pure mighty influence, 'mid your mirth, Moulds your unconscious spirit silently. Hence is it that the lands Of storm and mountain have the noblest sons; Whom the world reverence-the patriot bands Were of the hills like you, ye little ones! Children of pleasant song Are taught within the mountain solitudes; For hoary legends to your wilds belong, And yours are haunts where inspiration broods. Then go forth; earth and sky To you are tributary; joys are spread LETTER TO THE UNKNOWN PURCHASER AND NEXT OCCUPANT OF GLENMARY. BY N. P. WILLIS. SIR In selling you the dew and sunshine ordained to fall hereafter on this bright spot of earth-the waters on their way to this sparkling brook-the tints mixed for the flowers of that enamelled meadow, and the songs bidden to be sung in coming summers by the feathery builders in Glenmary, I know not whether to wonder more at the omnipotence of money, or at my own impertinent audacity toward Nature. How you can buy the right to exclude at will every other creature made in God's image from sitting by this brook, treading on that carpet of flowers, or lying listening to the birds in the shade of these glorious trees-how I can sell it you, is a mystery not understood by the Indian, and dark, I must say, to me. "Lord of the soil," is a title which conveys your privileges but poorly. You are master of waters flowing at this moment, perhaps, in a river of Judea, or floating in clouds over some spicy island of the tropics, bound hither after many changes. There are lilies and violets ordered for you in millions, acres of sunshine in daily instalments, and dew nightly in proportion. There are throats to be tuned with song, and wings to be painted with red and gold, blue and yellow; thousands of them, and all tributaries to you. Your corn is ordered to be sheathed in silk, and lifted high to the sun. Your grain is to be duly bearded and stemmed. There is perfume distilling for your clover, and juices for your grasses and fruits. Ice will be here for your wine, shade for your refreshment at noon, breezes and showers and snow-flakes; all in their season, and all deeded to you for forty dollars the acre!" Gods! what a copyhold of property for a fallen world! Mine has been but a short lease of this lovely and well endowed domain (the duration of a smile of fortune, five years, scarce longer than a five act play); but as in a play we sometimes live through a life, it seems to me that I have lived a life at Glenmary. Allow me this, and then you must allow me the privilege of those who, at the close of life, leave something behind them: that of writing out my will. Though I depart this life, I would fain, like others, extend my ghostly hand into the future; and if wings are to be borrowed or stolen where I go, you may rely on my hovering around and haunting you, in visitations not restricted by cock-crowing. Trying to look at Glenmary through your eyes, sir, I see too plainly that I have not shaped my ways as if expecting a successor in my lifetime. I did not, I am free to own. I thought to have shuffled off my mortal coil tranquilly here; flitting at last in company with some troop of my autumn leaves, or some bevy of spring blossoms, or with snow in the thaw; my tenants at my back, as a landlord may say. I have counted on a life-interest | male eye, and, with the trimness of his shape, has departed much of that measured alacrity which first won our regard. He presumes a little on your allowance for old age; and with this pardonable weakness growing upon him, it seems but right that his position and standing should be tenderly made known to any new-comer on the premises. In the cutting of the next grass, slice me not up my fat his modest domain. He is mine ancient," and I would fain do him a good turn with you. in the trees, trimming them accordingly; and in the squirrels and birds, encouraging them to chatter and build and fear nothing; no guns permitted on the premises. I have had my will of this beautiful stream. I have carved the woods into a shape of my liking. I have propagated the despised sumach and the persecuted hemlock and "pizen laurel." And "no end to the weeds dug up and set out again," | friend, sir! nor set your cane down heedlessly in as one of my neighbours delivers himself. I have built a bridge over Glenmary brook, which the town looks to have kept up by the place," and we have plied free ferry over the river, I and my man Tom, till the neighbours, from the daily saving of the two miles round, have got the trick of it. And betwixt the aforesaid Glenmary brook and a certain muddy and plebeian gutter formerly permitted to join company with, and pollute it, I have procured a divorce at much trouble and pains, a guardian duty entailed of course on my successor. For my spoilt family of squirrels, sir, I crave nothing but immunity from powder and shot. They require coaxing to come on the same side of the tree with you, and though saucy to me, I observe that they commence acquaintance invariably with a safe mistrust. One or two of them have suffered, it is true, from too hasty a confidence in my greyhound Maida, but the beauty of that gay fellow was a trap against which nature had furnished them with no warning instinct! (A fact, sir, which would pretti of the lawn, and the black walnut over the shoulder of the flower garden, have been, through my dynas. ty, sanctuaries inviolate for squirrels. I pray you, sir, let them not be reformed out" under your administration. First of all, sir, let me plead for the old trees of Glenmary! Ah! those friendly old trees! The cot-ly point a moral!) The large hickory on the edge tage stands belted in with them, a thousand visible from the door, and of stems and branches worthy of the great valley of the Susquehannah. For how much music played without thanks am I indebted to those leaf-organs of changing tone? for how many whisperings of thought, breathed like oracles into my ear? for how many new shapes of beauty moulded in the leaves by the wind? for how much companionship, solace, and welcome? Steadfast and constant is the countenance of such friends; God be praised for their staid welcome and sweet fidelity! If I love them better than some things human, it is no fault of ambitiousness in the trees. They stand where they did. But in recoiling from mankind, one may find them the next kindliest things, and be glad of dumb friendship. Spare those old trees, gentle sir! Of our feathered connexions and friends, we are most bound to a pair of Phebe-birds and a merry Bob o'-Lincoln, the first occupying the top of the young maple near the door of the cottage, and the der bushes in the meadow, though in common with latter executing his bravuras upon the clump of al. many a gay-plumaged gallant like himself, his whereabout after dark is a dark mystery. He comes every year from his rice-plantation in Florida to pass the summer at Glenmary. Pray keep him safe from percussion-caps, and let no urchin with a long pole poke down our trusting Phebes; annuals in that same tree for three summers. There are hummingbirds, too, whom we have complimented and looked morning to morning. And there is a golden oriole sweet upon, but they can not be identified from who sings through May on a dog wood tree by the brook side, but he has fought shy of our crumbs and coaxing, and let him go! We are mates for his bet. ters, with all his gold livery! With these reservations, sir, I commend the birds to your friendship and kind keeping. In the smooth walk which encircles the meadow betwixt that solitary Olympian sugar-maple and the margin of the river, dwells a portly and venerable toad; who (if I may venture to bequeath you my friends) must be commended to your kindly consideration. Though a squatter, he was noticed in our first rambles along the stream, five years since, for his ready civility in yielding the way; not hurriedly, however, nor with an obsequiousness unbecoming a republican, but deliberately and just enough; sitting quietly on the grass till our passing by gave him And now sir, I have nothing else to ask, save only room again on the warm and trodden ground. Punctu ally after the April cleansing of the walk, your watchfulness over the small nook reserved from this jewelled habitue, from his indifferent lodgings this purchase of seclusion and loveliness. In the near by, emerges to take his pleasure in the sun; shady depths of the small glen above you, among the and there, at any time when a gentleman is likely to wild flowers and music, the music of the brook babbe abroad, you may find him, patient on his os coccy-bling over rocky steps, is a spot sacred to love and gis, or vaulting to his asylum of long grass. This year, he shows, I am grieved to remark, an ominous obesity, likely to render him obnoxious to the fe memory. Keep it inviolate, and as much of the happiness of Glenmary as we can leave behind, stay with you for recompense! |