borace Smith.

1779-1849.

HYMN TO THE FLOWERS.

ay-stars! that ope your frownless eyes to twinkle From rainbow galaxies of earth's creation, nd dew-drops on her lonely altars sprinkle As a libation!

e matin worshippers! who bending lowly Before the uprisen sun-God's lidless eyehrow from your chalices a sweet and holy Incense on high !

e bright mosaics! that with storied beauty
The floor of Nature's temple tessellate,-
What numerous emblems of instructive duty
Your forms create !

Neath cloister'd boughs, each floral bell that swingeth

And tolls its perfume on the passing air, akes Sabbath in the fields, and ever ringeth

A call to prayer.

ot to the domes where crumbling arch and column

Attest the feebleness of mortal hand,

ut to that fane, most catholic and solemn,

Which God hath plann'd;

To that cathedral, boundless as our wonder, Whose quenchless lamps the sun and moon supply

Its choir the winds and waves, its organ thunder, Its dome the sky.

There-as in solitude and shade I wander Through the green aisles, or, stretch'd upon the sod,

Awed by the silence, reverently ponder

The ways of God

Your voiceless lips, O flowers, are living preachers,
Each cup a pulpit, every leaf a book,
Supplying to my fancy numerous teachers
From loneliest nook.

Oh, may I deeply learn, and ne'er surrender,
Your lore sublime!

Thou wert not Solomon ! in all thy glory, Array'd," the lilies cry, "in robes like ours ; How vain your grandeur! ah, how transitory Are human flowers!"

In the sweet-scented pictures, Heavenly Artist! With which thou paintest Nature's widespread hall,

What a delightful lesson thou impartest

Of love to all!

Not useless are ye, flowers! though made for pleasure;

Blooming o'er field and wave, by day and night,

From every source your sanction bids me treasure Harmless delight.

Ephemeral sages! what instructors hoary

For such a world of thought could furnish scope?

Each fading calyx a memento mori,

Yet font of hope.

Posthumous glories! angel-like collection! Upraised from seed or bulb interr'd in earth, Ye are to me a type of resurrection,

And second birth.

Were I in churchless solitudes remaining,
Far from all voice of teachers and divines,
My soul would find, in flowers of God's ordaining,
Priests, sermons, shrines!

Bernard Barton.

1784-1849.

THERE BE THOSE.

There be those who sow beside
The waters that in silence glide,
Trusting no echo will declare

Whose footsteps ever wandered there.

The noiseless footsteps pass away,
The stream flows on as yesterday;
Nor can it for a time be seen
A benefactor there had been.

Yet think not that the seed is dead
Which in the lonely place is spread;
It lives, it lives-the spring is nigh,
And soon its life shall testify.

That silent stream, that desert ground,
No more unlovely shall be found ;
But scattered flowers of simplest grace

Shall spread their beauty round the place.

And soon or late a time will come
When witnesses, that now are dumb,
With grateful eloquence shall tell

From whom the seed, there scattered, fell.

James Henry Leigh Hunt.

(LEIGH HUNT.)

1784-1859.

AN ANGEL IN THE HOUSE.

How sweet it were, if without feeble fright,
Or dying of the dreadful beauteous sight,
An angel came to us, and we could bear
To see him issue from the silent air

At evening in our room, and bend on ours

His divine eyes, and bring us from his bowers News of dear friends, and children who have

never

Been dead indeed, -as we shall know forever.
Alas! we think not what we daily see
About our hearths, angels, that are to be,
Or may be if they will, and we prepare
Their souls and ours to meet in happy air,
A child, a friend, a wife whose soft heart sings
In unison with ours, breeding its future wings.

ABOU BEN ADHEM AND THE ANGEL.

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase !)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel, writing in a book of gold;
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,

"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,