"IN OTHER MEN WE FAULTS CAN SPY, AND BLAME THE MOTE THAT DIMS THEIR EVE,

OF PLEASURE WHICH THE SOCIAL NEVER KNOW."-B. PROCTER.

EACH LITTLE SPECK AND BLEMISH FIND; TO OUR OWN STRONGER ERRORS BLIND."-GAY.

"THE SMALLEST THINGS OF NATURE LET ME KNOW, RATHER THAN ALL MEN'S GREATEST ACTIONS DO."-COWLEY.

WHO ON THINGS REMOTE CAN FIX HIS SIGHT,

THE LENT JEWELS.

While such thy prayer, it mounts above

In vain; the golden key

Of God's rich treasure-house of love

Thine own will ever be.

[RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH.]

283

THE LENT JEWELS.

N schools of wisdom all the day was spent ;

His steps at eve the Rabbi homeward bent,
With homeward thoughts, which dwelt upon the wife
And two fair children, who consoled his life.
She, meeting at the threshold, led him in,
And with these words preventing,* did begin :
"Ever rejoicing at your wished return,

Yet am I most so now; for since this morn
I have been much perplexed and sorely tried
Upon one point, which you shall now decide.
Some years ago a friend unto my care

Some jewels gave-rich, precious gems they were:
But having given them in my charge, this friend
Did afterwards nor come for them nor send,
But left them in my keeping for so long,
That now it almost seems to me a wrong
That he should suddenly arrive to-day
To take those jewels which he left away.
What think you? Shall I freely yield them back,
And with no murmuring? so henceforth to lack
Those gems myself which I had learned to see
Almost as mine for ever, mine in fee?"

* That is, anticipating him. The word preventing is here used in its
original sense, as it is in the English Common Prayer-Book.

THAT'S ALWAYS IN A TRIUMPH OR A FIGHT?"-COWLEY.

"HOPE OF ALL ILLS THAT MEN ENDURE, THE ONLY CHEAP AND UNIVERSAL CURE."-ABRAHAM COWLEY.

66 TEARS, IDLE TEARS, I KNOW NOT WHAT THEY MEAN."-TENNYSON.

“What question can be here? Your own true heart
Must needs advise you of the only part.

That may be claimed again which was but lent,
And should be yielded with no discontent.
Not surely can we find herein a wrong,
That it was left us to enjoy so long."

"Good is the word," she answered: "may we now
And evermore that it is good allow !"
And, rising, to an inner-chamber led,

And there she showed him, stretched upon one bed,
Two children pale: and he the jewels knew,
Which God had lent him, and resumed anew.

[RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH.]

"NAY, GRIEVE NOT FOR THE DEAD ALONE, WHOSE SONG HAS TOLD THEIR HEART'S SAD STORY;

WEEP FOR The voicelesS, WHO HAVE KNOWN THE CROSS WITHOUT THE CROWN OF GLORY."-O. W. HOLMES.

HOPE.

HE night is mother of the day,
The winter of the spring,
And ever upon old decay
The greenest mosses cling.

Behind the cloud the starlight lurks;
Through showers the sunbeams fall;
For God, who loveth all his works,
Has left his hope with all.

[JOHN GREENLeaf Whittier, born in 1808, an American poet of high reputation, author of "Snow-bound," and other works.]

"IF WINTER COMES, CAN SPRING BE FAR BEHIND?"-SHELLEY.

"ENVY DETECTS THE SPOTS IN THE CLEAR ORB OF LIGHT; AND LOVE THE LITTLE STARS IN THE GLOOMIEST NIGHT."

"GENIUS And its reWARDS ARE briefly TOLD

THE FROST SPIRIT.

THE FROST SPIRIT.

E comes-he comes-the frost spirit comes !

You may trace his footsteps now

On the naked woods, and the blasted fields,
And the broad hill's withered brow.
He has smitten the leaves of the gray old trees,

Where their pleasant green came forth,
And the winds which follow where'er he goes,
Have shaken them down to earth.

A LIBERAL NATURE AND A NIGGARD DOOM."-FORSter.

285

"'TIS IN CROWNS A NOBLER GEM, TO GRANT A PARDON THAN CONDEMN."-SAMUEL BUTLER.

"O TIME, WHO KNOW'ST A LENIENT HAND TO LAY SOFTEST ON SORROW'S WOUND!"-W. LISLE BOWLES.

286

BUT TRUE IT IS, ABOVE ALL LAW AND FATE

THE FROST SPIRIT.

"POETS MUST FALL, LIKE THOSE THEY SUNG-DEAF THE PRAISED EAR AND MUTE THE TUNEFUL TONGUE !"-POPE.

And the streams which danced on the broken rocks,

Or sang on the leaning grass,

Shall bow again to the winter's chain
And in mournful silence pass.

He comes-he comes-the frost spirit comes !

Let us meet him as we may,
And turn with the light of the parlour fire

His evil power away;

And gather closer the circle round,
When that fire-light dances high,

IS FAITH, ABIDING THE APPOINTED DAY."-H. COLERIDGE.