And brothers; and they wept her sisters, too, Did weep and sorrow comfortless; and I,
Too, wept, tho' not to weeping given and all
Within the house was dolorous and sad.
This I remember well; but better still,
I do remember, and will ne'er forget,
The dying eye-that eye alone was bright,
And brighter grew, as nearer death approached :
As I have seen the gentle little flower
Look fairest in the silver beam, which fell
Reflected from the thunder cloud that soon
Came down, and o'er the desert scattered far
And wide its loveliness. She made a sign
To bring her babe-'twas brought, and by her
placed.
She looked upon its face, that neither smiled
Nor wept, nor knew who gazed upon't, and laid
Her hand upon its little breast, and sought
For it, with look that seemed to penetrate
The heavens-unutterable blessings—such
As God to dying parents only granted,
For infants left behind them in the world.
God keep my child," we heard her say, and heard
No more the Angel of the Covenant
Was come, and faithful to his promise stood
Prepared to walk with her thro' death's dark vale.
And now her eyes grew bright, and brighter still,
Too bright for ours to look upon, suffused
With many tears, and closed without a cloud.
They set as sets the morning star, which goes
Not down behind the darkened west, nor hides
Obscured among the tempests of the sky,
But melts away into the light of heaven.
Loves, friendships, hopes, and dear remem
The kind embracings of the heart-and hours Of happy thought—and smiles coming to tears— And glories of the heaven and starry cope
Above, and glories of the earth beneath
These were the rays that wandered through the
Of mortal life-wells of the wilderness;
Redeeming features in the face of Time;
Sweet drops, that made the mixed cup of Earth
A palatable draught-too bitter else,
About the joys and pleasures of the world,
This question was not seldom in debate-
Whether the righteous man, or sinner, had
The greatest share, and relished them the most?
Truth gives the answer thus, gives it distinct,
Nor needs to reason long: The righteous man.
For what was he denied of earthly growth,
Worthy the name of good? Truth answers-
Nought.
Had he not appetites, and sense, and will?
Might he not eat, if Providence allowed,
The finest of the wheat? Might he not drink
The choicest wine? True, he was temperate ;
But then was temperance a foe to peace?
Might he not rise, and clothe himself in gold?
Ascend, and stand in palaces of kings?
True, he was honest still, and charitable :
Were then these virtues foes to human peace?
Might he not do exploits, and gain a name?
Most true, he trod not down a fellow's right,
Nor walked up to a throne on skulls of men;
Were justice, then, and mercy, foes to peace?
Had he not friendships, loves, and smiles, and
hopes ?
Sat not around his table sons and daughters?
Was not his ear with music pleased? his eye
With light? his nostrils with perfumes ? his lips
With pleasant relishes? grew not his herds?
Fell not the rains upon his meadows ? reaped
He not his harvests? and did not his heart
Revel at will thro' all the charities
And sympathies of nature unconfined?
And were not these all sweetened, and sanctified
By dews of holiness shed from above?
Might he not walk thro' Fancy's airy halls?
Might he not History's ample page survey?
Might he not, finally, explore the depths
Of mental, moral, natural, divine?
But why enumerate thus? One word enough.
There was no joy in all created things,
No drop of sweet, that turned not in the end
To sour, of which the righteous man did not
Partake-partake, invited by the voice
Of God, his Father's voice-who gave him all
His heart's desire, And o'er the sinner still,
The Christian had this one advantage more,
That when his earthly pleasures failed, and fail
They always did to every soul of man,
He sent his hopes on high, looked up, and reached
His sickle forth, and reaped the fields of heaven, And plucked the clusters from the vines of
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