AFTER-THOUGHT.

AN dwells apart, though not alone,

He walks among his peers unread ;
The best of thoughts which he hath known,
For lack of listeners are not said.

Yet dreaming on earth's clustered isles,

He saith, "They dwell not lone like men," Forgetful that their sun-flecked smiles

Flash far beyond each other's ken.

He looks on God's eternal suns,

That sprinkle the celestial blue,

And saith, "Ah! happy shining ones,

I would that men were grouped like you!"

Yet this is sure: the loveliest star

That clustered with its peers we see,

Only because from us so far

Doth near its fellows seem to be.

JEAN INGELOW.

ISOLATION.

@ES! in the sea of life enisled,

With echoing straits between us thrown,
Dotting the shoreless watery wild,

We mortal millions live alone.

The islands feel the enclasping flow,
And then their endless bounds they know.

But when the moon their billows lights,
And they are swept by balms of spring,
And in their glens, on starry nights,
The nightingales divinely sing;

And lovely notes, from shore to shore,
Across the sounds and channels pour-

Oh! then a longing like despair
Is to their farthest caverns sent;

For surely once, they feel, we were

Parts of a single continent!

Now round us spreads the watery plain--

Oh might our marges meet again!

Who order'd that their longing's fire
Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd?
Who renders vain their deep desire?
A God, a God their severance ruled!
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

THE SOLITUDE OF LIFE.

HEN Fancy's exhalations rise

From youth's delicious morn,

Our eyes seem made for others' eyes,
Spirit for spirit born:

But time the truthful faith controls,

We learn too soon, alas!

How wide the gulf between two souls,

How difficult to pass!

In twilight and in fearfulness

We feel our path along

From heart to heart, yet none the less

Our way is often wrong.

And then new dangers must be faced,
New doubts must be dispelled,-
For not one step can be retraced

That once the Past has held.

To some 'tis given to walk awhile

In Love's unshaded noon,

But clouds are gathering while they smile,

And night is coming soon!

Most happy he whose journey lies

Beneath the starlight sheen

Of unregretful memories

Of glory that has been.

We live together years and years,

And leave unsounded still

Each other's springs of hopes and fears,

Each other's depths of will:

We live together day by day,

And some chance look or tone

Lights up with instantaneous ray

An inner world unknown.

Then wonder not that they who love

The longest and the best,

Are parted by some sudden move

Of passion or unrest :

Nor marvel that the wise and good

Should oft apart remain,

Nor dare, when once misunderstood,
To sympathise again.