Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. Yet ev❜n those homes from insult to protect, With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. Their name, their years, spelt by th' unlettered Muse, The place of fame and elegy supply; And many a holy text around she strews, For who, to dumb Forgetfulness a prey, For thee, who, mindful of the unhonoured dead, Haply, some hoary-headed swain may say, "There, at the foot of yonder nodding beech, That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, His listless length at noontide would he stretch, And pore upon the brook that babbles by. "Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove; Now drooping, woful, wan, like one forlorn, Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love. "One morn I miss'd him on the 'customed hill, Along the heath, and near his favourite tree: Another came; nor yet beside the rill, Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he: "The next, with dirges due, in sad array, Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne : Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay Graved on the stone beneath yon agèd thorn." THE EPITAPH. Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth, Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere ; He gain'd from heaven,-'twas all he wish'd,a friend. No further seek his merits to disclose, Or draw his frailties from their dread abode (There they alike in trembling hope repose), The bosom of his Father and his God. REV. J. H. GURNEY. -0 William Tell. OME, list to me, and you shall hear A famous man of Switzerland His name was William Tell.* Near Reuss's bank, from day to day, His little flock he led ; By prudent thrift, and hardy toil, Content to earn his bread. *WILLIAM TELL-A celebrated Swiss patriot, who was ordered by Gesler, the Austrian Governor, to shoot an apple off his son's head, because he refused to show his submission to the Austrians by bowing to Gesler's cap which had been set on a pole. Tell did so, but it was found that he had secreted a second arrow, wherewith to shoot Gesler, if his son had been injured. Tell was greatly instrumental in delivering the Swiss from their oppressors in 1307. REUSS-A river in Switzerland. Nor was the hunter's craft unknown; In Uri* none was seen To track the rock-frequenting herd With eye so true and keen. A little son was in his home, His father's sheep were all his friends, The lambs he called by name; And when they frolicked in the fields, The child would share the game. So peacefully their hours were spent That life had scarce a sorrow; They took the good of every day, And hoped for more to-morrow. But oft some shining April morn And blackest griefs o'er joyous homes, Not yet on Switzerland had dawned Her day of liberty; The stranger's yoke was on her sons, And pressed right heavily. *URI.-A canton in Switzerland. So one was sent, in luckless hour, A haughty man of savage mood— . One day, in wantonness of power, It chanced that William Tell that morn For oft the boy had eyed the spoil And prayed to join the hunting crew, And often on some merry night, So towards the Chamois' haunts they went,- *ALTORF.-The chief town in Uri. |