MAN.

In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God created He him.

Male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam,

in the day when they were created. GENESIS, v, 1, 2.

Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man, then, understand his own way? PROVERBS, Xx, 24.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. MATTHEW, iv, 4.

When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained,

What is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou visitest him?

For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honour. PSALM viii, 3, 4,

5.

Behold, even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight:

How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm? JoB, XXV, 5, 6.

ALAS! that man

Must prove the direst enemy of man
His boasted reason wielded to contrive
Dark systems of despair-his vaunted skill,
To forge the fetters which enthral the soul.

A. ALEXANDER.

A BEAM ethereal, sullied and absorpt!
Though sullied and dishonoured, still divine;
Dim miniature of greatness absolute!
An heir of glory! a frail child of dust!
Helpless immortal! insect infinite!

A worm a god! I tremble at myself,
And in myself am lost. At home a stranger,
Thought wanders up and down, surprised, aghast,
And wondering at her own. How reason reels!
Oh! what a miracle to man is man!

YOUNG.

WHATE'ER of earth is formed, to earth returns
Dissolved: the various objects we behold
Plants, animals, this whole material mass-
Are ever changing, ever new. The soul
Of man alone, that particle divine,

Escapes the wreck of worlds, when all things fail: Hence the great distance 'twixt the beasts that perish, And God's bright image, man's immortal race.

SOMERVILLE,

How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful is man!
How passing wonder He who made him such,
Who centred in our make such strange extremes !

YOUNG.

WHERE were flown

Our hopes, if man were left to man's decree alone?

MRS. HEMANS.

So fair is man, that death (a parting blast,)
Blasts his fair flower, and makes him earth at last;
So strong is man, that with a gasping breath
He totters, and bequeaths his strength to death;
So wise is man, that if with death he strive,
His wisdom cannot teach him how to live;
So rich is man, that (all his debts being paid,)
His wealth's the winding-sheet wherein he's laid;
So young is man, that (broke with care and sorrow,)
He's old enough to-day to die to-morrow.

FRANCIS QUARLES.

O, WHAT is man, great Maker of mankind!.
That Thou to him so great respect dost bear;
That Thou adornest him with so bright a mind,

Mak'st him a king, and even an angel's peer?

O, what a lively life, what heavenly power,
What spreading virtue, what a sparkling fire,
How great, how plentiful, how rich a dower
Dost Thou within the dying flesh inspire!

Thou leav'st Thy print in other works of Thine,
But Thy whole image Thou in man hast writ;
There cannot be a creature more divine,

Except, like Thee, it should be infinite.

But it exceeds man's thoughts, to think how high God hath raised man, since God a man became; The angels do admire this mystery,

And are astonished when they view the same:

Nor hath He given these blessings for a day,
Nor made them on the body's life depend;
The soul, though made in time, survives for aye;
And though it hath beginning, sees no end.
SIR JOHN DAVIES.

MAN's not a lawful steersman of his days,
His bootless wish nor hastens, nor delays;
We are God's hired workmen; He discharges
Some late at night, and (when He list) enlarges
Others at noon, and in the morning some:
None may relieve himself, till He bid, Come.

FRANCIS QUARLES.

AND what is man? In outward guise
Let him be prince, or peer, or slave,
Or poor and weak, or great and wise

A mortal, tending to the grave:
Such are all men - from earth we came,
Earth doth her own poor dust reclaim.

H. H. WELD.

MARRIAGE.

BUT, if Thy works, through sea and land,
Or the wide fields of ether wending,
In man Thy noblest thoughts are blending;
Man is the glory of Thy hand;-
Man, modelled in a form of grace,
Where every beauty has its place;
A gentleness and glory sharing
His spirit, where we may behold
A higher aim, a nobler daring:
'Tis Thine immortal mould.

231

JACOB BELLAMY.

MARRIAGE.

THEREFORE shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. GENESIS, ii, 24.

Marriage is honourable in all.

HEBREWS, Xiii, 4.

SAVE the love we pay

To Heaven, none purer, holier than that
A virtuous woman feels, for him she'd cleave
Thro' life to. Sisters part from sisters-brothers
From brothers children from their parents- but
Such woman from the husband of her choice,
Never!

SHERIDAN KNOWLES.

THERE are smiles and tears in that gathering band,
Where the heart is pledged with the trembling hand.
What trying thoughts in the bosom swell,
As the bride bids parents and home farewell!
Kneel down by the side of the tearful fair,
And strengthen the perilous hour with prayer.

HENRY WARE, JR.

NOT for herself was woman first create,

Nor yet to be man's idol, but his mate.

Who wast at Cana! Bless the rite that's past!
Help me to put a wedding-garment on

For the great marriage supper; and to wear

Thy choice of ornaments, while I await

The coming of the Bridegroom.

HANNAH F. GOULD.

Joy, serious and sublime,

Such as doth nerve the energies of prayer,
Should swell the bosom, when a maiden's hand,
Filled with life's dewy flowerets, girdeth on
That harness which the ministry of death
Alone unlooseth, but whose fearful power
May stamp the sentence of Eternity.

MRS. SIGOURNEY.