Nay, Friend, thou know'st the golden time-the age Whose legends live in many a poet's page ?

When heavenlier shapes with Man walked side by side, And the chaste Feeling was itself a guide;

Then the great law, alike divine amid

Suns bright in Heaven, or germs in darkness hid,—
That silent law-(call'd whether by the name
Of Nature or Necessity-the same,)

To that deep sea, the heart, its movement gave—
Sway'd the full tide, and freshened the free wave.
Then sense unerring-because unreproved-
True, as the finger on the dial, moved,

Half-guide, half-playmate, of Earth's age of youth,
The sportive instinct of Eternal Truth.

Then, nor Initiate nor Profane was known;

Where the Heart felt-there Reason found a throne:
Not from the dust below, but life around,

Warm Genius shaped what quick Emotion found.
One rule, like light, for every bosom glowed,
Yet hid from all the fountain whence it flowed.

But
gone that blessed Age !—our wilful pride
Has lost, with Nature, the old peaceful Guide.
FEELING, no more to raise us and rejoice,
Is heard and honoured as a Godhead's voice;
And, disenhallowed in its eldest cell
The Human Heart,-lies mute the Oracle ;
Save where, withdrawn into itself and still,
Listens the soul, and feels the murmur thrill,

Seeking within lost Nature's steps to track,

Till, found once more, she gives him wisdom back!
Hast thou-(0 Blest, if so, whate'er betide!)—
Still kept the Guardian Angel by thy side?
Can thy Heart's guileless childhood yet rejoice
In the sweet instinct with its warning voice?
Does Truth yet limn upon untroubled eyes,
Pure and serene, her world of Iris-dyes?
Rings clear the echo that her accent calls
Back from the breast on which the music falls?
In the calm mind is doubt yet hush'd,—and will
That doubt to-morrow as to-day be still?
Will all these fine sensations in their play,
No censor need to regulate and sway?1
Fear'st thou not in the insidious Heart to find
The source of trouble to the limpid mind?

No!—then thine innocence thy Mentor be! Science can teach thee nought—she learns from thee! Each law that lends lame succour to the WeakThe cripple's crutch-the vigorous need not seek! From thine own self thy rule of action draw ;— That which thou dost-what charms thee-is thy Law, And founds to every race a code sublime : What pleases Genius gives a Law to Time! The Word-the Deed-all Ages shall command, Pure if thy lip, and holy if thy hand!

1 Will this play of fine sensations (or sensibilities) require no censor to control it?-i. e., will it always work spontaneously for good, and run into no passionate excess?

Thou, thou alone mark'st not within thy heart
The inspiring God whose Minister thou art,
Know'st not the magic of the mighty ring
Which bows the realm of Spirits to their King;
But meek, nor conscious of diviner birth,

Glide thy still footsteps through the conquer'd Earth!

ULYSSES.

To gain his home all oceans he explor❜d—

Here Scylla frown'd, and there Charybdis roar'd;
Horror on sea, and horror on the land—

In hell's dark boat he sought the spectre land,
Till borne-a slumberer-to his native spot,
He woke—and, sorrowing, knew his country not!

VOTIVE TABLETS.

UNDER this title Schiller arranged that more dignified and philosophical portion of the small Poems published as Epigrams in the Musen Almanach; which rather sought to point a general thought than a personal satire.-Many of these, however, are either wholly without interest for the English reader, or express in almost untranslateable laconism what, in far more poetical shapes, Schiller has elsewhere repeated and developed. We, therefore, content ourselves with such a selection as appears to us best suited to convey a fair notion of the object and spirit of the class.

MOTTO TO THE VOTIVE TABLETS.

What the God taught-what has befriended all

Life's ways, I place upon the Votive Wall.

THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.

(ZWEIERLEI WIRKUNGSARTEN.)

Achieve the Good, and godlike plants, possest
Already by mankind, thou nourishest ;
Create the Beautiful, and seeds are sown

For godlike plants, to man as yet unknown.

VALUE AND WORTH.

If thou hast something, bring thy goods-a fair return be

thine;

If thou art something, bring thy soul and interchange

with mine.

THE DIVISION OF RANKS.

YES, in the moral world, as ours, we see
Divided grades-a Soul's Nobility;

By deeds their titles common men create—
The loftier order are by birthright great.1

TO THE MYSTICS.

LIFE has its mystery ;-True, it is that one
Surrounding all, and yet perceived by none."

THE KEY.

To know thyself—in others self discern ;

Wouldst thou know others? read thyself—and learn!

WISDOM AND PRUDENCE.

WOULDST thou the loftiest height of Wisdom gain?

On to the rashness, Prudence would disdain ;

The purblind see but the receding shore,

Not that to which the bold wave wafts thee o'er!

1 This idea is often repeated, somewhat more clearly, in the haughty philosophy of Schiller. He himself says elsewhere, "In a fair soul each single action is not properly moral, but the whole character is moral. The fair soul has no other service than the instincts of its own beauty." "Common Natures," observes Hoffmeister, "can only act as it were by rule and law; the Noble are of themselves morally good, and humanly beautiful."

2 Query?-the Law of Creation, both physical and moral.