'HE flower is small that decks the field, But flower and bee alike may yield Essence and attributes of each Is there who scorneth little things? Methinks, indeed, that such an one The lark that in the morning air Amid the sunbeams mounts and sings; What lifted her so lightly there? Small feathers in her wings. What form too, then, the beauteous dyes Meadows and streams, woods, hills, and skies?- And when the earth is sere and sad Yea, and the robe that Nature weaves, O sure, who scorneth little things, XCIX Thomas Davis L THE LOST DAY OST! lost! lost! A gem of countless price, Cut from the living rock, And graved in Paradise: Set round with three times eight Lost where the thoughtless throng In Fashion's mazes wind, Where trilleth folly's song, Yet to my hand 't was given, A golden harp to buy, Such as the white-robed choir attune For till these heartstrings sever, But when the sea and land, Like burning scroll have fled, I'll see it in His hand, Who judgeth quick and dead; What shall it answer there? L. H. Sigourney C R RELIGION NOT ADVERSE TO ELIGION does not censure or exclude Unnumbered pleasures harmlessly pursued ; To study, culture, and with artful toil, To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil; The grain, or herb, or plant, that each demands; And share the joys your bounty may create; Cowper CI MUTABILITY HE sea of Fortune doth not even flow, THE She draws her favors to the lowest ebb, Her tides have equal times to come and go, Her loom doth weave the fine and coarsest web. No joy so great, but runneth to an end; Not always full of leaf, nor always spring; The roughest storm a calm may soon allay. R. Southwell CII W EARLY RISING AND PRAYER WHEN first thine eyes unveil, give thy soul leave The spirit's duty: true hearts spread and heave Give Him thy first thoughts then, so shalt thou keep Him company all day, and in Him sleep. Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should Dawn with the day: these are set awful hours |