And such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, Thus to mine eyes.—Now o'er the one half world Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, Which now suits with it.-Whiles I threat, he lives; I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell [A bell rings. That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. [Exit. THE TEARFUL CORNET. TO-DAY, arresting the passers' feet, A cornet I heard in the hurrying street. Common the cornet and man that play'd it; What could be its spell? I couldn't get from it. that I could but feel well. Often I'd heard our Koenig play, Strange was its charm, it must be confest; The player was one not worth a rap, With a broken hat and a coat with no nap. Out at the elbows-with shoes that let Wrinkled and old-too aged by half To be standing for pence amid jeer and laugh: Though many I saw, to my elbows nigh, What could the cause be that all of us made 'Twas a common street-air, I shouldn't have linger'd, Except I'd been forced, to hear uttered or finger'd. One-why, a month past each urchin had humm'd it, No organ but ground it-no scraper but strumm'd it. And yet as it swell'd now and died through my ears, My heart, it beat to it and praised it with tears. You'll think me a maudlin: I wasn't a fool For the powers that ruled in that cornet's breath Away in a dirty lane of the town, A close court where never the sun comes down, Up reeking stairs, if you'll pick your way, Neat, to your wonder-cleanly though bare, Though the rusty grate seems little to know Yet the room is furnish'd, as better ones are, For a silence is there that is hushing your breath, The sunshine seems dim and the day full of awe As it touches with reverence that old bed of straw, And the wither'd face on it, and hair thin and gray, To pay for whose coffin that cornet must play. THE OLD PHILOSOPHER AND THE YOUNG LADY. 303 Yes, to pay dues to death for his aged old wife, Who wonders-not I-my heart to it beat, Who wonders-not I-I never had known That I felt in its music a terrible sense Of a something beyond a mere playing for pence! The heart it was played it-the heart it was heard it, And therefore it was that old wretched breath stirr'd it. God send that few players may play so well That the ears of few passers be startled again BENNETT. THE OLD PHILOSOPHER AND THE YOUNG LADY. "ALAS!" exclaimed a silver-headed sage, "how narrow is the utmost extent of human knowledge! I have spent my life in acquiring knowledge, but how little do I know! The farther I attempt to penetrate the secrets of nature, the more I am bewildered and benighted. Beyond a certain limit all is but conjecture: so that the advantage of the learned over the ignorant consists greatly in having ascertained how little is to be known. It is true that I can measure the sun, and compute the distances of the planets; I can calculate their periodical movements, and even ascertain the law by which they perform their sublime revolutions; but with regard to their construction, to the beings which inhabit them, their conditions and circumstances, what do I know more than the clown!-Delighting to examine the economy of nature in our own world, I have analyzed the elements, and given names to their component parts. And yet, should I not be as much at a loss to explain the burning of fire, or to account for the liquid quality of water, as the vulgar, who use and enjoy them without thought or examination ?—I remark, that all bodies unsupported, fall to the ground, and I am taught to account for this by the law of gravitation. But what have I gained here more than a term? Does it convey to my mind any idea of the nature of that mysterious and invisible chain which draws all things to a common centre ?-Pursuing the track of the naturalist, I have learned to distinguish the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms, and to divide these into their distinct tribes and families;-but can I tell, after all this toil, whence a single blade of grass derives its vitality? Could the most minute researches enable me to discover the |