Despite those titles, power, and pelf, Walter Scott. GOD, THE ONLY COMFORTER! lf, when deceived and wounded here, The friends who in our sunshine live, But thou wilt heal the broken heart, When joy no longer soothes or cheers, Then sorrow, touched by thee, grows bright As darkness shows us worlds of light FRIENDS. FRIEND after friend departs; There is no union here of hearts That finds not here an end: Were this frail world our final rest, Living or dying none were blest. Moore. (1) As darkness shows, &c.—A most ingenious and striking adaptation of a scientific truth to a moral purpose. Beyond the flight of time- There is a world above Where parting is unknown- Formed for the good alone; Thus star by star declines, Nor sink those stars in empty night, But hide themselves in Heaven's own light. Montgomery. TO ENGLAND. O NE'ER enchained, nor wholly vile, Or warped thy growth, or stamped the servile brand. Coleridge. (1) Thus star, &c.-The close of this beautiful stanza has been already charac terized. (See note 1, p. 34.) THE MAN OF ROSS.1 RISE, honest muse! and sing the Man of Ross: Or in proud falls magnificently lost, But clear and artless, pouring through the plain Thrice happy man! enabled to pursue 4 Of debts, and taxes, wife and children clear, (1) Ross is a town on the banks of the Wye, in Herefordshire; and the Man of Ross was a philanthropic individual, of the name of John Kyrle, who, after a life of benevolence, died in the year 1724, at the age of 90. (2) Vaga-wandering-the Latin name of the Wye. (3) Artless-i. e. not forced by art into fountains or cascades. This word is generally applied to persons, not to things, as here. (4) of debts, &c.-This line is ambiguous; it may mean either that he had no wife and children, or that after their expenses were paid, he had £500 a year. The former is the more probable interpretation. Blush, grandeur, blush! proud courts, withdraw your blaze; And what! no monument, inscription, stone? Pope. THE TRAVELLER'S HYMN OF GRATITUDE.2 How are thy servants blest, O Lord! How sure is their defence! Their help, Omnipotence. In foreign realms, and lands remote, Through burning climes I passed unhurt, Thy mercy sweetened every soil, Thou saw'st the wide-extended deep (1) There, where, &c.-i. e. in the parish registry. (2) "The earliest composition," says Burns, speaking of his eleventh or twelfth "that I recollect taking pleasure in, was the Vision of Mirza,' and a hymn of Addison's beginning year, 'How are thy servants blest, O Lord!" I particularly remember one half-stanza, which was music to my ear 'For though in dreadful whirls we hung (3) Tyrrhene sea-this sea, called also the Tuscan Sea, was accounted very dangerous by the Romans. It means here, of course, any dangerous sea. Confusion dwelt in every face, When waves on waves, and gulfs on gulfs, Yet then from all my griefs, O Lord, For though in dreadful whirls we hung I knew thou wert not slow to hear, The storm was laid, the winds retired, The sea that roared at thy command, In midst of dangers, fears, and death, And praise thee for thy mercies past, My life, if thou preserv'st my life, Thy sacrifice shall be; And death, when death shall be my doom, Shall join my soul to thee. Addison. SAMSON'S LAMENT OVER HIS BLINDNESS.1 O LOSS of sight, of thee I most complain! Blind among enemies, O worse than chains, Annulled, which might in part my grief have eased; (1) Some of Milton's most pathetic passages are due to his loss of sight. He was blind for the last twenty-two years of his life, during which period "Paradise Lost," "Paradise Regained," and "Samson Agonistes (from which the above passage is extracted), were published. (2) Prime-first; in allusion to the creation of light, which was the work of the first day, and there is perhaps a reference to its importance also. |