And then a softer image it supplied, For ever bending o'er that crystal tide, For ever list'ning to its liquid chime, Though all the sounds and sights of summer time- Once ('tis long since) when Fancy thus had been Too rashly said!— that joy would ne'er relume And, said I, joy's bright sun had set, No more to gild my path of shade! Well, on eve's dewy coronet Shine moon and star when sunbeams fade. Then will I not desponding grieve, Though dim my future path may be, For such as are those lights to eve And, said I, joy's gay flow'rs no more Will grace Well be it so such sunless heart as mine! the sweetest flower Not oft in gaudy tints doth shine. The wild rose on the storm-beat rock Than garden queen I'd rather see, And such, mid sorrow's tempest-shock, Yea, such is now thy love to me. When musing on the dead, my eye I think of thee, and feel a tie Still sweetly hold me captive here. Should that too break-oh! then most lone, Most desolate my heart would be; My bosom's evening star were gone, Yon alder leaning o'er the brook From the clear stream that murmurs by. And thus when thou art near I seem To have no thought for aught but thee,Thou art the star, the flow'r, the stream, The all of earthly joy to me. THE WEEPING WILLOW. SALIX BABYLONICA. 66 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept when we remembered Zion. "We hanged our harps on the willows that grew in the midst thereof.” AFTER contemplating the solemn sadness of this touching picture drawn by the pen of inspiration, every other association connected with the willow must not only appear insipid, but almost impertinent, except, indeed, such as may be borrowed from the same hallowed source. Every production of nature alluded to in the Bible is at once invested with a sacred character, and possesses an indescribable interest. It is this which gives the willow a claim on our regard very far beyond what it might derive from the graceful effect of its drooping boughs, or indeed from any other quality by which it is distinguished. At the Feast of Tabernacles, when, in commemoration of their fathers dwelling in tents during their forty years' sojourn in the wilderness, |