SONGS OF LIFE AND LABOUR. A PSALM OF LIFE. WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE PSALMIST. JELL me not, in mournful numbers, For the soul is dead that slumbers, Life is real! Life is earnest ! And the grave is not its goal; Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, A Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, In the world's broad field of battle, Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! -- Heart within, and God o'erhead! Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, Footprints, that perhaps another, Let us, then, be up and doing, -American. H. W. LONGFELLOW, 1807- ODE TO DUTY. STERN daughter of the Voice of God! From vain temptations dost set free; There are who seek not if thine eye Glad hearts without reproach or blot; May joy be theirs while life shall last! And thou, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast! Serene shall be our days and bright, And happy shall our nature be, When love is an unerring light, And blest are they who in the main Yet find that other strength, according to their need. I, loving freedom, and untried; No sport of every random gust, The task imposed, from day to day; Through no disturbance of my soul, My hopes no more must change their name, Stern lawgiver! yet thou dost wear As is the smile upon thy face; Flowers laugh before thee on their beds; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong. To humbler functions, awful power! Give unto me, made lowly wise, The spirit of self-sacrifice; The confidence of reason give ; And in the light of truth thy bondsman let me live! WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, 1770-1850. INCENTIVES TO LIFE-ACTION. SEE how the day beameth brightly before us! up the looks that are sinking in sadness— Enter the treasuries pleasure uncloses List! how she thrills in the nightingale's lay! Breathe! she is wafting thee sweets from the roses; Feel! she is cool in the rivulet's play; Taste! from the grape and the nectarine gushing Flows the red rill in the beams of the sunGreen in the hills, in the flower-groves blushing, Look! she is always and everywhere one. |