When the canvas of his vessel Flutters to the favoring gale, Years of solitary exile Hid behind the sunny sail: It is well we cannot see When the youth beside the maiden Like enchanted garden-ground; He may falter-so do many; It is well we cannot see When the altar of religion Greets the expectant bridal pair, And the vow that lasts till dying Vibrates on the sacred air; When man's lavish protestations Doubts of after-change defy, Comforting the frailer spirit Bound his servitor for aye; When beneath love's silver moonbeams AFFLICTION ONE DAY. Undiscovered, till possession It is well we cannot see Whatsoever is beginning, That is wrought by human skill; Of the mind's ambitious will: Of life's sad, oft desperate game, It is well we cannot see What the end shall be. ANONYMOUS. A Affliction one Day FFLICTION one day, as she harked to the roar Of the stormy and struggling billow, Drew a beautiful form on the sands of the shore Jupiter, struck with the noble plan, As he roamed on the marge of the ocean, Breathed on the figure, and, calling it man, Endowed it with life and with motion. A creature so wondrous in mind and in frame, 191 He is mine, said Affliction, I gave him his birth, I alone am his cause of creation: The material was furnished by me, answered Earth, I gave him, said Jove, animation. So the Gods, all assembled in solemn divan, Let Affliction possess her own child till the woes Then his body return to the earth whence it rose, HORACE SMITH. Lines on a Skeleton. BEHOLD this ruin! 't is a skull, Once of ethereal spirit full! This narrow cell was life's retreat, Beneath this mouldering canopy If with no lawless fire it gleamed, But through the dew of kindness beamed, When stars and suns have lost their light. YOUTH, THAT PURSUEST. Here, in this silent cavern, hung And, where it could not praise, was chained: If bold in virtue's cause it spoke, Yet gentle concord never broke, That tuneful tongue shall plead for thee Say, did these fingers delve the mine, Avails it whether bare or shod Those feet the paths of duty trod? ANONYMOUS. Youth, that Pursuest. YOUTH, that pursuest, with such eager pace, Thy even way, Thou pantest on to win a mournful race; Then stay! oh stay! 193 Pause and luxuriate on thy sunny plain; Loiter-enjoy; Once past, thou never wilt come back again, The hills of manhood wear a noble face When seen from far; The mist of light from which they take their grace, Hides what they are. The dark and weary path those cliffs between Thou canst not know; And how it leads to regions never green, Dead fields of snow. Pause while thou may'st, nor deem that fate thy gain, Which, all too fast, Will drive thee forth from this delicious plain, A man at last. RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES. M Maidenhood. AIDEN! with the meek, brown eyes, In whose orbs a shadow lies, Like the dusk in evening skies! Thou whose locks outshine the sun, Standing, with reluctant feet, Gazing, with a timid glance, |