Is the humblest he can speak? - Yet live low along the ground beside the grasses meek. Mountain-gorses, since Linnæus Knelt beside you on the sod, For your beauty thanking God, For your teaching, ye should see us Bowing in prostration new. Whence arisen, - if one or two Drops be on our cheeks, - O world! they are not tears, but dew. Mrs. Browning. M 19. PEACE. Y soul, there is a country There, above noise and danger, And One born in a manger Commands the beauteous files. He is thy gracious friend, And (O my soul, awake!) Henry Vaughan. 20. ANGEL-CHILDREN. NCE I took a picture fair To my heart, and kept it there; And I blessed the artist's thought Three small children on their knees, Not a flower upon the brink Softer shadowing could make, What beside those faces three Unto little children here Mrs. Wells. I 21. THE BETTER LAND. HEAR thee speak of the better land; Thou call'st its children a happy band. Mother, oh! where is that radiant shore? Shall we not seek it, and weep no more? Is it where the flower of the orange blows, And the fire-flies dance through the myrtle boughs? Not there, not there, my child! Is it where the feathery palm-trees rise, Is it far away in some region old, Where the rivers wander o'er sands of gold; Where the burning rays of the ruby shine, And the diamond lights up the secret mine, And the pearl gleams forth from the coral strand: Is it there, sweet mother, that better land? Not there, not there, my child! Eye hath not seen it, my gentle boy; Ear hath not heard its deep songs of joy; Dreams cannot picture a world so fair; Mrs. Hemans. W 22. WE SCATTER SEEDS. E scatter seeds with careless hand, And dream we shall ne'er see them more; But for a thousand years In weeds that mar the land Or healthful store. The deeds we do, the words we say, Into still air they seem to fleet; We count them ever past: But they shall last; In the dread judgment, they And we shall meet. Lyra Innocentium. |