PART III.

THE IDLE BOYS.

HARDLY a hundred years have passed
Since I was gay as you;

When earth was ever green to me,
And skies were ever blue ;

And I loved the running summer brook
And the forest's autumn hue.

But time, that brings some change to all,
Hath wrought much change with me ;
And in many things I am much unlike

The boy I used to be,

When years ago I loved to play

Beneath the spreading tree.

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THE IDLE BOYS.

Care has not overshadowed me,

Nor sorrow been my lot;

And I have spent some pleasant hours

Too bright to be forgot;

And forged strong chains that bind me to
This dim and earthly spot.

My best and earliest friend is dead,

Untouched by stain of sin;

But they still live whose memories
Light up a love within,-

Hope lives and holds the laurels out

That I would die to win!

For a wide future is before,

My heart beats high for fame;

And I have learned to breathe with love

The music of a name,

Writ on the tablets of my heart

In syllables of flame.

O! little thought have ye of all
That comes in after years,

To stir the spirit with a spell
Of changing hopes and fears;

To ruin all the fancy work

That dreaming boyhood rears.

THE WORDS OF FAITH.

Play while the glad hours sparkle by

Like the bubbles of a stream;

Play on the world may be to you

All that it now may seem;

Love may not be a phantasy,
Nor fame an idle dream!

THE WORDS OF FAITH,

(SCHILLER.)

THREE words of import high I speak to thee,
Which oft from lip to lip are passing round;
Not from without their origin may be,

Their knowledge in the heart alone is found:
And the heart loses all its excellence
When this deep, solemn faith is taken thence,

Man is born free of man, is ever free,

No drop of slavish blood runs in his veins; Let not the turbulent cry of madmen be

Proof that a race is born to iron chains.

Fear not the freeman, but the slave awaking
From his long slumbers, and his fetters breaking.

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THE WORDS OF FAITH.

And virtue is no light and empty name,

But full of heavenly power to soothe and bless, Life's golden rule it is, and only aim,

To run the glorious race of godliness;

A child may understand the truth, which lies
Hid from the piercing vision of the wise.

And a God lives, majestic and alone,

In the eternal realms of endless space;

All change, and thought of change, to him unknown,
The lapse of time unmarked, the bounds of place;
Man dies, and worlds, and systems fade away,
He lives and reigns unsubject to decay.

These holy words I would impress on thee,
And pass them oft from lip to lip around;
Not from without their origin may be,

Their knowledge in the heart alone is found;
The human heart keeps all its excellence,

Till this deep, solemn faith is taken thence.

A SPRING EVENING.

A SPRING EVENING.

(MATTHISON.)

BRIGHT with the changing colors of the skies
The many dew-drops gleam,

The image of the varied landscape lies

Clear on the silent stream.

Bright is the crystal spring, the blossoming tree,
The meadow tinged with gold;

The star of evening peeping timidly
From the cloud's purple fold.

The valley's green is beautiful, the heath
And flowery mantled hill;

The little lake girt with its sedgy wreath,
And alder-shaded rill!

O! how the influence of eternal love

Circles life like a band!

The glow-worm, and the star that shine above,
Each shows a Father hand.

It is THY power that bids the bud uprear

Its beauty to the day,

That bids the burning planet disappear
From its unmeasured way!

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