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I read the burning letters

Of warlike pomp, on History's page, alone;
I counted nothing the struck widow's moan;

I heard no clank of fetters;

I only felt the trumpet's stirring blast,

And lean-eyed Famine stalked unchallenged past!

I heard with veins of lightning,

The utterance of the Statesman's word of powerBinding and loosing nations in an hour

But while my eye was brightening,

A masked detraction breathed upon his fame,
And a curst serpent slimed his written name.

The Poet rapt mine ears

With the transporting music that he sung.
With fibres from his life his lyre he strung,
And bathed the world in tears-

And then he turned away to muse apart,

And scorn stole after him and broke his heart!

Yet here and there I saw

One who did set the world at calm defiance,

And press right onward with a bold reliance;

And he did seem to awe

The very shadows pressing on his breast,

And, with a strong heart, held himself at rest.

And then I looked again,

And he had shut the door upon the crowd,
And on his face he lay and groaned aloud-
Wrestling with hidden pain;

And in her chamber sat his wife in tears,

And his sweet babes grew sad with whispered fears.

And so I turn'd sick-hearted

From the bright cup away, and, in my sadness, Searched mine own bosom for some spring of glad

ness;

And lo! a fountain started

Whose waters ev'n in death flow calm and fast,

And my wild fever-thirst was slaked at last.

And then I met thee, Mary,

And felt how love may into fulness pour,

Like light into a fountain running o'er :

And I did hope to vary

My life but with surprises sweet as this

A dream, but for thy waking filled with bliss.

Yet now I feel my spirit

Bitterly stirred, and-nay, lift up thy brow!
It is thine own voice echoing to thee now,

And thou didst pray to hear it—

I must unto my work and my stern hours!

Take from my room thy harp, and books and flowers!

And in his room again he sat alone.

A year

His frame had lost its fulness in that time;
His manly features had grown sharp and thin,
And from his lips the constant smile had faded.
Wild fires had burned the languor from his eye:
The lids looked fevered, and the brow was bent
With an habitual frown. He was much changed.
His chin was resting on his clenched hand,
And with his foot he beat upon the floor
Unconsciously the time of a sad tune.

Thoughts of the past preyed on him bitterly.

He had won power and held it. He had walked
Steadily upward in the eye of Fame,

And kept his truth unsullied-but his home
Had been invaded by envenomed tongues;
His wife-his spotless wife-had been assailed
By slander, and his child had grown afraid
To come to him-his manner was so stern.
He could not speak beside his own hearth freely.
His friends were half estranged, and vulgar men
Presumed upon their services and grew

Familiar with him. He'd small time to sleep,
And none to pray; and, with his heart in fetters,
He bore deep insults silently, and bowed
Respectfully to men who knew he loathed them!
And when his heart was eloquent with truth,
And love of country and honest zeal
Burned for expression, he could find no words
They would not misinterpret with their lies.
What were his many honors to him now?
The good half doubted, falsehood was so strong-
His home was hateful with its cautious fears-
His wife lay trembling on his very breast
Frighted with calumny !And this is FAME.

THE SCHOLAR OF THEBET BEN KHORAT.*

"Iufluentia cœli morbum hunc movet, interdum omnibus aliis amotis."

MELANCTHON DE ANIMA, CAP. DE HUMORIBUS.

NIGHT in Arabia. An hour ago,

Pale Dian had descended from the sky,
Flinging her cestus out upon the sea,

And at their watches now the solemn stars
Stood vigilant and lone; and, dead asleep,
With not a shadow moving on its breast,

The breathing earth lay in its silver dew,

*

A famous Arabian astrologer, who is said to have spent forty years in discovering the motion of the eighth sphere. He had a scholar, a young Bedouin Arab, who, with a singular passion for knowledge, abandoned his wandering tribe, and, applying himself too closely to astrology, lost his reason and died.

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