THE HOLLY TREE. O READER! hast thou ever stood to see The eye that contemplates it well perceives Its glossy leaves, Order'd by an intelligence so wise, As might confound the Atheist's sophistries. Below a circling fence, its leaves are seen No grazing cattle through their prickly round But as they grow where nothing is to fear, Smooth and unarm'd the pointless leaves appear. I love to view these things with curious eyes, And moralise: D And in this wisdom of the holly tree Can emblems see Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme, One which may profit in the after time. Thus though perchance I might appear Harsh and austere, To those who on my leisure would intrude, Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be, And should my youth, as youth is apt, I know, Some harshness show, All vain asperities I day by day Would wear away; Till the smooth temper of my age should be And as when all the summer trees are seen The holly leaves their fadeless hues display But when the bare and wintry winds we see, What then so cheerful as the holly tree. So serious should my youth appear among So would I seem among the young and More grave than they; That in my age as cheerful I might be, As the green winter of the holly tree. gay Southey. THE floating weeds and birds that meet The wanderers back at sea, And tell that fresh, and new, A world is on the lee, and sweet, Are like the hints of that high clime, Towards which we steer o'er waves of time. ANTIQUITIES. No one can look on the antiquities in the British Museum, without feeling a train of reflections arise in his mind as to the changes which have taken place in the world since the periods to which these antiquities point us back. I look on a block of stone richly carved with Egyptian hieroglyphics, and I think of the moral and political vicissitudes, which not only nations, but whole continents, have experienced since the hand that executed those figures was laid in the dust. I look on a fragment of exquisite sculpture, and I think of the numerous events of unutterable importance which have taken place since the bosom of him who formed it ceased to beat. The most momentous of all transactions the universe ever witnessed, the death of the Redeemer, is one of those events which occurred since that time. What vast and mighty empires have crumbled into dust, leaving no trace of their fame, glory, and power? And nations, which were then sunk to the lowest depths of degradation, being not many removes in point of intelligence above the brute creation, are now the most civilised and powerful on the face of the earth. The Greek and Roman empires, then so glorious and powerful, have for numerous ages been among the things that were; and France and Great Britain, then scarcely known among the countries of the world, may now be said to be the mistresses of the world. And not only have new powers of great moral and political importance since that period started into existence, but we have now an entire world (America), then unknown and undreamed of. Grant. LIFE is a kind of enchanted circle there seems always to be as much before us, as we have already passed; though we are necessarily conscious that we leave every hour more behind us. |