Again they search, and find a lodging nigh;
The soil improved around, the mansion neat,
And neither poorly low, nor idly great:
It seemed to speak its master's turn of mind,
Content, and not for praise, but virtue, kind.
Hither the walkers turn their weary feet,
Then bless the mansion, and the master greet.
Their greeting fair, bestowed with modest guise,
The courteous master hears, and thus replies :

“Without a vain, without a grudging heart,
To Him who gives us all, I yield a part;
From Him you come, from Him accept it here,
A frank and sober, more than costly cheer!”
He spoke, and bade the welcome table spread;
They talk of virtue till the time of bed;
When the grave household round his hall repair,
Warned by a bell, and close the hours with prayer.

At length the world, renewed by calm repose,
Was strong for toil; the dappled morn arose ;
Before the pilgrims part, the younger crept
Near the closed cradle, where an infant slept,
And writhed its neck; the landlord's little pride
O, strange return!- grew black, and gasped, and

died.

Horror of horrors! what! his only son!

How looked our hermit when the fact was done!

Not hell, though hell's black jaws in sunder part,
And breathe blue fire, could more assault his heart.
Confused, and struck with silence at the deed,
He flies, but, trembling, fails to fly with speed.

His steps the youth pursues; the country lay
Perplexed with roads; a servant showed the way;
A river crossed the path; the passage o'er
Was nice to find; the servant trod before;
Long arms of oak an open bridge supplied,
And deep the waves beneath them bending glide.
The youth, who seemed to watch a time to sin,
Approached the careless guide, and thrust him in ;
Plunging he falls, and, rising, lifts his head,
Then flashing turns, and sinks among the dead.
Wild sparkling rage inflames the father's eyes,
He bursts the bonds of fear, and madly cries,
"Detested wretch!" but scarce his speech began,
When the strange partner seemed no longer man!
His youthful face grew more serenely sweet,
His robe turned white, and flowed upon his feet;
Fair rounds of radiant points invest his hair,
Celestial odors breathe through purpled air,
And wings, whose colors glittered on the day,
Wide at his back their gradual plumes display ;
The form ethereal bursts upon his sight,
And moves in all the majesty of light.

Though loud at first the pilgrim's passion grew,
Sudden he gazed, and wist not what to do;
Surprise, in secret chains, his words suspends,
And in a calm his settling temper ends.
But silence here the beauteous angel broke,-
The voice of music ravished as he spoke :-
"Thy prayer, thy praise, thy life to vice unknown,

In sweet memorial rise before the throne;

These charms success in our bright region find,
And force an angel down to calm thy mind.
For this commissioned, I forsook the sky;
Nay, cease to kneel, thy fellow-servant I.

“Then know the truth of government divine, And let these scruples be no longer thine. "The Maker justly claims that world he made; In this the right of Providence is laid; Its sacred majesty, through all, depends On using second means to work His ends. 'Tis thus, withdrawn in state from human eye, The Power exerts His attributes on high; Your actions uses, not controls your will,

And bids the doubting sons of men be still.

"What strange events can strike with more surprise, Than those which lately struck thy wondering eyes! Yet, taught by these, confess the Almighty just, And, where you can't unriddle, learn to trust! "The great vain man, who fared on costly food, Whose life was too luxurious to be good, Who made his ivory stands with goblets shine, And forced his guests to morning draughts of wine, Has, with the cup, the graceless custom lost, And still he welcomes, but with less of cost. "The mean, suspicious wretch, whose bolted door Ne'er moved in pity to the wandering poor, With him I left the cup, to teach his mind That Heaven can bless, if mortals will be kind; Conscious of wanting worth, he views the bowl, And feels compassion touch his grateful soul.

Thus artists melt the sullen ore of lead,
With heaping coals of fire upon its head;
In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow,
And, loose from dross, the silver runs below.

"Long had our pious friend, in virtue trod,

But now the child half weaned his heart from God;
Child of his age, for him he lived in pain,
And measured back his steps to earth again.
To what excesses had his dotage run!
But God, to save the father, took the son.
To all but thee, in fits he seemed to go,
And 'twas my ministry to deal the blow;
The
poor, fond parent, humbled in the dust,
Now owns, in tears, the punishment was just.
"But how had all his fortunes felt a wrack,
Had that false servant sped in safety back!
This night his treasured heaps he meant to steal,
And what a fund of charity would fail!

"Thus Heaven instructs thy mind; this trial o'er, Depart in peace, resign, and sin no more."

On sounding pinions, here the youth withdrew,
The sage stood wondering, as the seraph flew ;
Thus looked Elisha, when, to mount on high,
His master took the chariot of the sky;
The fiery pomp ascending left to view ;
The prophet gazed, and wished to follow too.
The bending hermit here a prayer begun,

66 Lord, as in heaven, on earth, Thy will be done,"
Then gladly turning, sought his ancient place,
And passed a life of piety and peace.

James Beattie.

1735-1803.

EDWIN'S MEDITATIONS IN AUTUMN.

"O YE wild groves, O where is now your bloom! " (The Muse interprets thus his tender thought) "Your flowers, your verdure, and your balmy gloom, Of late so grateful in the hour of drought! Why do the birds, that song and rapture brought To all your bowers, their mansions now forsake? Ah! why has fickle chance this ruin wrought? For now the storm howls mournful through the brake, And the dead foliage flies in many a shapeless flake.....

"Yet such the destiny of all on earth;
So flourishes and fades majestic man!
Fair is the bud his vernal morn brings forth,
And fostering gales a while the nursling fan :
O smile, ye heavens, serene; ye mildews wan,