"HOW DIVINE TO ROAM AT LARGE AMONG UNPEOPLED GLENS!"-WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

Oh, how more sweet is bird's harmonious moan,
Or the hoarse sobbings of the widowed dove,
Than those smooth whisperings near a prince's throne
Which good make doubtful, do the ill approve!
Oh, how more sweet is zephyr's wholesome breath,
And sighs embalmed which new-born flowers unfold,
Than that applause vain honour doth bequeath!

How sweet are streams to poisons drunk in gold!

AND SHORT RETIREMENT URGES SWEET RETURN."-MILTON.

"FOR LOST TO VIRTUE THEY, WHO THINK IT SOLITUDE TO BE ALONE."-EDWARD YOUNG.

"NOT RURAL SIGHTS ALONE, BUT RURAL SOUNDS EXHILARATE THE SPIRITS."-WILLIAM COWPER.

"GOD MADE THE COUNTRY, AND MAN MADE THE TOWN."

A LANDSCAPE.

-COWPER.

The world is full of horrors, troubles, slights:
Woods' harmless shades have only true delights.

53

[Sir WILLIAM DAVENANT, a Scotch poet, born in 1605, died in 1668. Author of "The Flowers of Zion," "Wandering Muses," and numerous sonnets, epigrams, and lyrics.]

A LANDSCAPE.

IT was a roundel seated on a plain,

That stood as sentinel unto the main,
Environed round with trees and many an arbour,
Wherein melodious birds did nightly harbour:

"THE LIGHTS AND SHADOWS ON THE LANDSCAPE'S FACE."-A. SMITH.

"BLEST SILENT GROVES! OH, MAY YE BE FOR EVER MIRTH'S BEST NURSERY!-SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

"IN ALL SEASONS, FLOWERS EXPAND THEIR LIGHT AND SOUL-LIKE WINGS."-HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

RELICS YE ARE of Eden's BOWERS."-REV. JOHN KEBLE.

And on a bough within the quick'ning spring,
Would be a-teaching of their young to sing;
Whose pleasing notes the tirèd swain have made
To steal a nap at noontide in the shade.

Nature herself did there in triumph ride,
And made that place the ground of all her pride.
Whose various show'rs deceived the rasher eye,
In taking them for curious tapestry.

A silver spring forth of a rock did fall,
That in a drought did serve to water all.
Upon the edges of a grassy bank,
A tuft of trees grew circling in a rank,
As if they seemed their sports* to gaze upon,
Or stood as guard against the wind and sun :
So fair, so fresh, so green, so sweet a ground,

The piercing eyes of heaven yet never found.
[WILLIAM BROWNE, a descriptive poet of great excellence, born at
Tavistock in 1590, died about 1645. His principal works are,
"Britannia's
Pastorals"-from which the foregoing extract is taken-"The Shepherd's
Pipe," and "The Inner Temple Masque."]

"AND WHOSO CARETH FOR THE FLOWERS, WILL CARE MUCH MORE for him."-MRS. MARY HOWITt.

TO BLOSSOMS.

JAIR pledges of a fruitful tree,
Why do you fall so fast?
Your date is not so past
But you may stay yet here awhile,
To blush and gently smile,

And go at last.

What! were ye born to be
An hour or half's delight
And so to bid good night?

* The sports of some merry maidens who made this their place of meeting.

"FLOWERS ARE LIKE THE PLEASURES OF THE WORLD."-SHAKSPEARE.

"TIME LAYS HIS HAND ON PYRAMIDS."-SIR W. DAVENANT.

A WARNING AGAINST PROCRASTINATION.

55

'Tis pity Nature brought ye forth
Merely to show your worth,
And lose you quite.

But you are lovely leaves, where we

May read how soon things have
Their end, though ne'er so brave:
And after they have shown their pride,

Like you, awhile, they glide

Into the grave.

[ROBERT HERRICK, one of the most beautiful of English lyrical poets, born in London, 1591, died at the vicarage of Dean Prior, Devonshire, 1674; wrote "Noble Numbers," and the "Hesperides, or Works both Human and Divine." His songs are distinguished by their happy expression and graceful flow.]

"GOOD IS BEST WHEN SOONEST WROUGHT; LINGERING LABOURS COME TO NOUGHT."-SOUTHWELL.

"FOR VIRTUOUS ACTS AND HARMLESS JOYS THE MINUTES WILL NOT STAY."-DR. CHARLES MACKAY.

A WARNING AGAINST PROCRASTINATION.

ATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times, still succeed the former.

[ROBERT HERRICK. From the "Hesperides."]

"WE TAKE NO NOTE OF TIME BUT FROM ITS LOSS."-YOUNG.

"SEEK NOT TIME WHEN TIME IS PAST; SOBER SPEED IS WISDOM'S LEISURE."-ROBERT SOUTHWELL.

56

"SHUN DELAYS, THEY BREED REMORSE."-SOUTHWELL.

SIC VITA-SUCH IS life.

TO DAFFODILS.

AIR daffodils, we weep to see

You haste away so soon;
As yet the early rising sun
Has not attained his noon :

Stay, stay,

Until the hastening day
Has run

But to the even song;
And having prayed together, we

Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you;
We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay
As you, or any thing:
We die

As your hours do; and dry

Away

Like to the summer's rain,

Or as the pearls of morning dew,
Ne'er to be found again.

[ROBERT HERRICK. From the "Hesperides."]

SIC VITA-SUCH IS LIFE.

IKE the falling of a star,

Or as the flights of eagles are ;

Or like the fresh spring's gaudy hue,
Or silver drops of morning dew;

"TAKE THY TIME, WHILE TIME IS LENT THEE."-SOUTHWELL.

"HE MOST LIVES WHO THINKS MOST, FEELs the noblesT, ACTS THE BEST."-PHILIP JAMES BAILEY.