Oh! may we soon again renew that song, To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light! Milton. ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT.1 To Heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow Milton. TO A FRIEND. WHEN we were idlers with the loitering rills (1) This sublime prayer, as it may truly be called, was written on occasion of the barbarous massacre in 1665, inflicted by the Duke of Savoy on his Protestant subjects, the Vaudois. (2) So pure of old-The Vaudois appear to have kept themselves separate from the church of Rome from time immemorial. (3) Their moans, &c.-The simplicity of the expression, the fulness of meaning, and the fine movement of the verse, make this sentence truly sublime. (4) The triple tyrant-the Pope. So designated, probably, from his wearing the triple crown. (5) Babylonian wooe-the woe denounced on the spiritual Babylon, which is by many considered to be the Roman Catholic church. To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills : Of that sweet music which no eye can measure; Hartley Coleridge. THE DEATH-BED. WE watched her breathing through the night, As in her breast the wave of life Kept heaving to and fro. So silently we seemed to speak, So slowly moved about, As we had lent her half our powers Our very hopes belied our fears, Our fears our hopes belied- For when the morn came, dim and sad, Her quiet eyelids closed-she had Another morn than ours. (1) Wisely doting-to dote, connected with the Dutch dutten, and the French doter, radoter, probably meant originally to sleep, or dream, then to rave, to talk or act foolishly: hence the pointed antithesis, in the above phrase. (2) This beautiful line reminds us of Gray's expression (see p. 127)— "Where ignorance is bliss "Tis folly to be wise;" and also of the exquisite story of Cupid and Psyche, as told by Apuleius (book iv. 28). Psyche was perfectly happy in the love of Cupid, or Eros, until her curiosity prompted her to try to ascertain who he was-and then he vanished for ever! NIGHT. NIGHT is the time for rest;- Stretch the tired limbs and lay the head Night is the time for dreams ; The gay romance of life; When truth that is, and truth that seems, Ah! visions less beguiling far Than waking dreams by daylight are! Night is the time for toil;- Night is the time to weep ;- The joys of other years; Hopes that were angels in their birth, But perished young, like things of earth. Night is the time for care;- Come to our lonely tent; Like Brutus,' 'midst his slumbering host, ghost. (1) Like Brutus-in allusion to the phantom of Cæsar, which is said to have appeared to Brutus before the battle of Philippi. (2) Stalworth-from the Anglo-Saxon stal-weorth, worth stealing or taking, and therefore (says Richardson), by inference-brave, strong, daring. Jamieson derives its equivalent stalwart from the Anglo-Saxon stalferhth, steel mind or spirit-a much more probable derivation. M Night is the time to pray ;- Steal from the throng to haunts untrod, Calmly to yield the weary breath, From sin and suffering cease; Think of heaven's bliss and give the sign To parting friends-such death be mine! Montgomery. DEATH OF AN INFANT.1 DEATH found strange beauty on that infant brow, With which the babe would claim its mother's ear, Death gazed and left it there;-he dared not steal Mrs. Sigourney. EARLY RISING AND PRAYER.2 WHEN first thine eyes unveil, give thy soul leave (1) This subject has not often been more gracefully and tenderly handled than in the above lines. The picture here presented matches with that by the same elegant hand in p. 88. (2) The author of these striking lines was a Welsh private gentleman, who lived in the 17th century. It is rare to find so much meaning in so few words. The spirit's duty; true hearts spread and heave Yet never sleep the sun up; prayer should Dawn with the day; there are set awful hours 6 Serve God before the world; let him not go (1) The sun up-i. e. when the sun is up. (2) Prevent from the Latin præ, before, and venire, to come or go-to go before. This is the primitive signification of the word, and was common in the 17th century and earlier, as is evident from the Liturgy:-" Prevent us, O Lord, by thy continual grace." (3) Heaven's gate, &c.-It is difficult to conceive of a more beautiful mode of suggesting the charms and benefits of early rising. Many a long poem on the subject is less eloquent than this one line. (4) Fellow-creatures-i. e. the trees, flowers, birds, &c., created by the same hand. (5) I Am-See Exodus iii. 14. (6) Go this way-i. e. do as they do-praise God early in the morning. (7) Who prevailed, &c.-See Genesis xxxii. 26. (8) Heaven-rhymes here, by a most extraordinary licence, with sin. (9) Shroud in, &c.—are wrapt in, or symbolized by; as when we speak of the morning of the world, of the resurrection, &c. |