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O power divine! dispelling all deception,
Brushing with angel wing the earthy scale
From off our eyes, thus rectifies the sight,
And places objects in their proper light.

With such new optics now the world surveying,
What is it? a kaleidoscopic show,

At every turn, ay, every hour, betraying
Sad, everlasting change through all below;
Where all is vanity, and nothing staying,

O solemn truths! and I have found them so;
But little now my lonely heart endears,
Wrecked are my joys, and passed with other years.

And what is life? a fleeting, vain illusion!

Brief as the flowers that flourish and decay; Soon sets the sun, that heralds the conclusion E'en of the longest and the brightest day. Another smile, a heartache, an effusion

Of tears, and then we sighing pass away. How loved, how honoured once, avails us not; Death deals the blow, regardless of our lot.

O melancholy thoughts! to mind recalling
Those years when all was hope and promise fair,
The bosom light and buoyant, nothing paling
The sweets I dreamt would ever blossom there!
But soon the blasting mildew, ruthless falling

On all I loved on earth, my only care,
Hath shed a bleak and cheerless gloomy wild,
Where once for me the glowing Summer smiled.

Nature in hope may wait the Spring returning,
Though Winter howls, the birds may sing again,
The longing mother change for joy her mourning,
The vessel still may brave the stormy main;
But Hope's bright taper here hath ceased its burning:
I pour the tear, and heave the sigh in vain;
The temple of the heart now stands alone-
The spell is broken-the enchantress gone.

But oh! by Heaven, can I forget her? Never!
Sooner the thirsty soul shall loathe the stream,
The weary rest, the miser cease for ever

Of his dear idol-heaps of gold-to dream,
Than e'er the bleeding bosom of her lover
Shall cease to cherish homage and esteem—
The memory of her loveliness and worth,
Too exquisite to flourish long on earth.

I saw the gangrene daily undermining

My vernal hopes, that rose as cedars tall; For months she drooped, and nature fast declining, I saw in sorrow, every wonted call.

At length she lay like a young flower reclining,

'Neath incongenial snows, in Spring that fall; Her charms the heart in silence then wept o'er, And felt as if it ne'er had loved before.

She was, in fact, a living concentration

Of all that heaven could love and earth admire; How lost to virtue and divine sensation, The soul such excellence could not inspire!

Her blushing cheeks then mocked the fair carnation;
And oh! those eyes of intellectual fire,
The placid smile that lighted up her mien,
For all was peace and purity within.

Still fast the fell destroyer seemed progressing,
With sweep relentless as the Nubian blast,
Another change my soul anew distressing,
In double gloom enwrapt the lucid past,
And o'er her angel form unsparing passing,
Youth, love, and beauty blighted lay at last;
Deep was the groan, and heavy rose the sigh-
Methought it surely terrible to die.

I saw the golden bowl was yet unbroken,
The jewel in the casket lingered still;
Whose final flight each moment did betoken,
O righteous Heaven, how trying was Thy will;
For ere the man of God had ceased invoking
The blessing, with all tenderness and skill,
She gave a moan and a convulsive quiver,
Then all was o'er-the spirit past for ever!

Strange must that moment be, our journey ending-
Mysterious to the wisest as to me-

When feel we on that hairbreadth footing standing,
The all to mortals then of time that be,
When all around is hovering and blending
Amid the dawnings of eternity;

And the soul struggling hard to wing her way
From her frail shattered tenement of clay,

To face her Judge omniscient and unerring,

Enthroned in peerless majesty and might, And hear Him from her deeds her doom inferring, 'Mid hosts angelic robed in glory bright, And by his fiat solemn her transferring

To realms of bliss, or shades of endless night! What scenes and secrets may she not behold? And who her last sensations can unfold?

There is an awful something past revealing,
About the cold and silent bed of death,
That neutralises every earthly feeling,

When all that pleased has vanished with a breath: And O that lonely sorrow o'er us stealing!

'Tis then the heart, if ever, values faith, Whose torch divine dispels the deepest gloom, And lights beyond the desert of the tomb.

Soon must that king of terrors-thanks to HeavenThe iron sceptre of his power resign.

Soon must the marble and the mound be riven;

O Grave, thy slumbering treasures are not thine! Of restitution was an earnest given

When rose thy Spoiler glorious and divine,

Who captive led captivity that hour,

Triumphant by His own almighty power.

Hence friends shall meet whom Death had long divided,
And welcome in embrace each other dear,

Whose kindred souls again shall be united
In bands of love eternal and sincere.

No more their joys by sorrow shall be blighted;

God from their eyes shall wipe off every tear. Hail to that morn when all shall thus transpire! Blessed consummation! my supreme desire.

LOVE NOT THE WORLD.

OVE not the world! O precept how divine! In which the wisdom from above we trace, Breathed forth in accents glowing and benign, Adapted truly to our state and place: To all how apposite the warning givenThe soul earth-fettered can it enter heaven?

Love not the world! Its pleasures and its joys,
What are they syrens singing to deceive;
Vain fancy fruit, no sooner plucked than cloys,
And o'er her Folly leaves the heart to grieve:
Believe not youth, but reverently inquire
The truth, if dubious, from the aged sire.

Love not the world! ah, why in riches trust?
Precarious duping foibles of a day;

To-morrow may your golden heaps, as dust
Before the blast, for ever pass away,
Involving in their flight that fatal hour,
All earthly honour, dignity, and power.

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