Who smoothly sank into the tomb with the smile of fraud upon his face, Yea, bitterly shall that handwriting testify against him at the judgment. And ministered with kind hand to the wailings of disease and discontent ; I noted how watchfulness and care were feeding on the marrow of her youth; How heavy was the yoke of dependence, loaded by petty tyranny; Putting off the lover of her youth until the dawn of wealth; And it came, that day of release, and the freed heart could not sorrow, The miserable past was forgotten, as she looked for the happier future, thought, That perchance her right had been the safer, if not left alone with honour: But, alas, the sad knowledge soon came, that her stern task-master's will Hath rewarded her toil with a jibe, her patience with utter destitution !— Shall not the scourge of justice lash that cruel coward, Who mingled the gall of ingratitude with the bitterness of disappointment Hunt down the wretched being that sinneth in his grave? But Hades rose as he came in, to point at him the finger of scorn; And again must he meet that orphan-maid to answer her, face to face, And her wrongs shall cling around his neck, to hinder him from rising with the just: For his last most solemn act hath linked his name with liar, And the crime of Ananias is branded on his brow! A good man commendeth his cause to the one great Patron of innocence, Convinced of justice at the last, and sure of good meanwhile. He knoweth he hath a Guardian, wise and kind and strong, And can thank Him for giving, or refusing, the trust or the curse of riches: His confidence standeth as a rock; he dreadeth not malice nor caprice, No gain, but by its price; labour, for the poor man's meal, Labour, with fear, for the merchant, whose hopes are ventured on the sea; Labour, with care, for the man of law, responsible in his gains; And the grasp of the mind is weakened, as the talons of a caged vulture. OF INVENTION. MAN is proud of his mind, boasting that it giveth him divinity, Yet with all its powers can it originate nothing: For the great God into all his works hath largely poured out himself, To improve and expand is ours, as well as to limit and defeat: But to create a thought or a thing is hopeless and impossible. The potter must have his clay, and the mason his quarry, Or the water frame its monads, or the mist its swarming blight ?— Truly spake Wisdom, There is nothing new under the sun : We only arrange and combine the ancient elements of all things. Invention is activity of mind, as fire is air in motion. A sharpening of the spiritual sight, to discern hidden aptitudes; The shadowed profile on the wall helpeth the limner to his likeness: The strange skin garments cast upon the shore suggest another hemisphere: (23) A falling apple taught the sage pervading gravitation ; The Huron is certain of his prey, from tracks upon the grass; And shrewdness, guessing on the hint, followeth on the trail ; But the hint must be given, the trail must be there, or the keenest sight is as blindness. Behold the barren reef, which an earthquake hath just left dry; It hath no beauty to boast of, no harvest of fair fruits: But soon the lichen fixeth there, and, dying, diggeth its own grave, (*4) And softening suns and splitting frosts crumble the reluctant surface; And cormorants roost there, and the snail addeth its slime, And efts, with muddy feet, bring their welcome tribute; And the sea casteth out her dead, wrapped in a shroud of weeds; rivulet; And the tall pine and hazel thicket shade the rambling hunter. Shall the rock boast of its fertility? shall it lift the head in pride ?— We yield an hundred-fold; but the great sower is Analogy. A boll of rotting flax before the bridal veil, An egg before an eagle, a thought before a thing, A spark struck into tinder, to light the lamp of knowledge, A slight suggestive nod to guide the watching mind, A half-seen hand upon the wall, pointing to the balance of Comparison. By culture man may do all things, short of the miracle,-Creation : Here is the limit of thy power,-here let thy pride be stayed: The soil may be rich, and the mind may be active, but neither yield unsown; The eye cannot make light, nor the mind make spirit: Therefore it is wise in man to name all novelty invention: For it is to find out things that are, not to create the unexisting: OF RIDICULE. SEAMS of thought for the sage's brow, and laughing lines for the fool's face; For all things leave their track in the mind; and the glass of the mind is faithful. Seest thou much mirth upon the cheek? there is then little exercise of virtue; For he that looketh on the world cannot be glad and good: Seest thou much gravity in the eye? be not assured of finding wisdom, There is a grave-faced folly; and verily a laughter-loving wisdom; There is indeed an evil in excess, and a field may lie fallow too long; For that a true philosophy commandeth an innocent life, Yea, there is no cosmetic like a holy conscience : The eye is bright with trust, the cheek bloomed over with affection, The brow unwrinkled by a care, and the lip triumphant in its gladness. And for your grave-faced folly, need not far to look for her; How seriously on trifles dote those leaden eyes, How ruefully she sigheth after chances long gone by, How sulkily she moaneth over evils without cure! I have known a true-born mirth, the child of innocence and wisdom, be left alone; But when its breast is healed, it runneth gladly with its fellows: Whereas the solitary heron, standing in the sedgy fen, |