Which forced me to begin my tale-
And then it left me free.

"Since then, at an uncertain hour,

That agony returns;

And till my ghastly tale is told
This heart within me burns.

"I pass, like night, from land to land;
I have strange power of speech;
That moment that his face I see,

I know the man that must hear me

To him my tale I teach.

"What loud uproar bursts from that door!

The wedding guests are there;

But in the garden bower the bride

And bridemaids singing are;

And hark the little vesper bell,

Which biddeth me to prayer!

"O Wedding Guest! this soul hath been

Alone on a wide, wide sea

So lonely 'twas that God himself

Scarce seemèd there to be.

"Oh, sweeter than the marriage feast,

'Tis sweeter far to me,

To walk together to the kirk

With a goodly company!

"To walk together to the kirk,

And all together pray,

While each to his great Father bends

Old men, and babes, and loving friends,

And youths and maidens gay!

He went like one that hath been stunned.
And is of sense forlorn;

A sadder and a wiser man

He rose the morrow morn.

T

TACT AND TALENT

From "London Atlas"

ALENT is something, but tact is everything. Talent is serious, sober, grave, and respectable. Tact is all that and more, too. It is not a sixth sense, but it is the life of all the five. It is the open eye, the quick ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch. It is the interpreter of all riddles, the surmounter of all difficulties, the remover of all obstacles. It is useful in all places and at all times. It is useful in solitude, for it shows a man his

way into the world. It is useful in society, for it shows him his way through the world.

Talent is power, tact is skill; talent is weight, tact is momentum. Talent knows what to do, tact knows how to do it; talent makes a man respectable, tact will make him respected; talent is wealth, tact is ready money. For all the practical purposes of life, tact carries it against talent, ten to one. Take them to the theater, and put them against each other on the stage, and talent shall produce you a tragedy that will scarcely live long enough to be condemned, while tact keeps the house in a roar, night after night, with its successful farces. There is no want of dramatic talent, there is no want of dramatic tact; but they are seldom together: so we have successful pieces which are not respectable, and respectable pieces which are not successful.

Take them to the bar, and let them shake their learned curls at each other in legal rivalry. Talent sees its way clearly, but tact is first at its journey's end. Talent has many a compliment from the bench, but tact touches fees from attorneys and clients. Talent speaks learnedly and logically, tact triumphantly.

Talent makes the world wonder that it gets on no faster, tact excites astonishment that it gets on so fast. And the secret is that it has no weight to carry; it makes no false steps; it hits the right nail on the head; it loses no time; it takes all hints, and by keeping its eye on the weathercock is ready to take advantage of every wind that blows. Take them into the church. Talent has always something worth hearing, tact is sure of abundance of hearers; talent may obtain a living, tact will make one; talent gets a good name, tact a great one; talent convinces, tact converts; talent is an honor to the profession, tact gains honor from the profession.

Take them to court. Talent feels its weight, tact finds

its way; talent commands, tact is obeyed; talent is honored with approbation, and tact is blessed by preferment. Place them in the senate. Talent has the ear of the house, but tact wins its heart and has its votes; talent is fit for employment, but tact is fitted for it. It has a knack of slipping into place with a sweet silence and glibness of movement, as a billiard ball insinuates itself into the pocket. It seems to know everything, without learning anything. It has served an invisible and extemporary apprenticeship; it wants no drilling; it never ranks in the awkward squad; it has no left hand, no deaf ear, no blind side. It puts on no looks of wondrous wisdom, it has no air of profundity, but plays with the details of place as dexterously as a well-taught hand flourishes over the keys of the pianoforte. It has all the air of commonplace, and all the forces and power of genius.

THANATOPSIS

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

To him who in the love of Nature holds

Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty; and she glides
Into his darker musings with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness ere he is aware.

When thoughts

Of the last bitter hour come like a blight

Over thy spirit, and sad images

Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder and grow sick at heart,
Go forth under the open sky and list

To Nature's teachings, while from all around-
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air
Comes a still voice: Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more

In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean shall exist

Thy image.

Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again; And, lost each human trace, surrendering up Thine individual being shalt thou go

To mix forever with the elements

To be a brother to the insensible rock,

And to the sluggish clod which the rude swain
Turns with his share and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold.

Yet not to thine eternal resting place

Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant world, — with kings,
The powerful of the earth-the wise, the good-
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,

All in one mighty sepulcher. The hills,
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between,
The venerable woods, rivers that move