I will rise to noblest themes, for the soul hath an heritage of glory;

The passions of puny man; the majestic characters of

God;

The feverish shadows of time, and the mighty substance of eternity.

Commend thy mind unto candour, and grudge not as though thou hadst a teacher,

Nor scorn angelic Truth, for the sake of her evil herald;

Heed not him, but hear his words, and care not whence

they come;

The viewless winds might whisper them, the billows roar

them forth,

The mean unconscious sedge sigh them in the ear of

evening,

Or the mind of pride conceive, and the mouth of folly speak them.

Lo now, I stand not forth laying hold on spear and buckler,

I come a man of peace, to comfort, not to combat;
With soft persuasive speech to charm thy patient ear,
Giving the hand of fellowship, acknowledging the heart
of sympathy:

Let us walk together as friends in the shaded paths of meditation,

Nor Judgment set his seal until he hath poised his

balance;

That the chastenings of mild reproof may meet unwitting

error,

And Charity not be a stranger at the board that is spread for brothers.

PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY.

THE WORDS OF WISDOM.

FEW and precious are the words which the lips of Wisdom utter:

To what shall their rarity be likened? What price shall count their worth?

Perfect, and much to be desired, and giving joy with

riches,

No lovely thing on earth can picture their fair beauty. They be chance pearls, flung among the rocks by the sullen waters of Oblivion,

Which Diligence loveth to gather, and hang around the neck of Memory:

They be white-winged seeds of happiness, wafted from the islands of the blessed,

Which Thought carefully tendeth, in the kindly garden of the heart:

They be sproutings of an harvest for eternity, bursting through the tilth of time,

B