"SURSUM CORDA."

Seek not the spirit, if it hide

Inexorable to thy zeal :

Trembler, do not whine and chide:

Art thou not also real?

Stoop not then to poor excuse;

Turn on the accuser roundly; say,

'Here am I, here will I abide

Forever to myself soothfast;

Go thou, sweet Heaven, or at thy pleasure stay!'

Already Heaven with thee its lot has cast,
For only it can absolutely deal.

FROM "THE CELESTIAL LOVE."

For this is Love's nobility,

Not to scatter bread and gold,
Goods and raiment bought and sold ;
But to hold fast his simple sense,
And speak the speech of innocence,
And with hand and body and blood,
To make his bosom-counsel good.
He that feeds men serveth few ;
He serves all who dares be true.

FROM "SAADI."

Seek nothing,-Fortune seeketh thee.
Nor mount, nor dive; all good things keep
The midway of the eternal deep.

FROM "BLIGHT."

Give me truths;

For I am weary of the surfaces,
And die of inanition.

FROM "MUSKETAQUID."

Supplanters of the tribe, the farmers dwell.
Traveller, to thee, perchance, a tedious road,
Or, it may be, a picture: to these men,
The landscape is an armory of powers.

What these strong masters wrote at large in miles,

I followed in small copy in my acre;

For there's no rood has not a star above it; The cordial quality of pear or plum

Ascends as gladly in a single tree

As in broad orchards resonant with bees;
And every atom poises for itself,
And for the whole.

All my hurts

My garden spade can heal. A woodland walk,

quest of river-grapes, a mocking thrush, A wild-rose or rock-loving columbine, Salve my worst wounds.

The pure shall see by their own will,
Which overflowing Love shall fill,
'Tis not within the force of fate
The fate-conjoined to separate.

FROM "MAY-DAY."

None can tell how sweet,
How virtuous the morning air;
Every accent vibrates well; . . . .
An energy that searches thorough
From Chaos to the dawning morrow;
Into all our human plight,

The soul's pilgrimage and flight;
In city or in solitude,

Step by step, lifts bad to good,

Without halting, without rest,

Lifting Better up to Best;

Planting seeds of knowledge pure,

Through earth to ripen, through heaven en

dure.

FROM "THE ADIRONDACKS."

And presently the sky is changed; O world!

What pictures and what harmonies are thine !

The clouds are rich and dark, the air serene, So like the soul of me, what if 't were me?

FROM "FREEDOM."

Freedom's secret wilt thou know?—

Counsel not with flesh and blood;

Loiter not for cloak or food;
Right thou feelest, rush to do.

FROM "VOLUNTARIES."

So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,

When Duty whispers low, Thou must,

The youth replies, I can.

Stainless soldier on the walls,

Knowing this, and knows no more,—

Whoever fights, whoever falls,
Justice conquers evermore,
Justice after as before,-

And he who battles on her side,
God, though he were ten times slain,
Crowns him victor glorified,

Victor over death and pain.

"LETTERS."

Every day brings a ship,
Every ship brings a word;
Well for those who have no fear,
Looking seaward well assured
That the word the vessel brings
Is the word they wish to hear.

FROM "SEA-SHORE."

Behold the sea,

The opaline, the plentiful and strong, Yet beautiful as is the rose in June, Fresh as the trickling rainbow of July ; Sea full of food, the nourisher of kinds, Purger of earth, and medicine of men ; Creating a sweet climate by my breath,