A sword, with gilt trappings, rose up in the scale,
Though balanced by only a ten-penny nail.
A shield and a helmet, a buckler and spear,
Weighed less than a widow's uncrystallized tear.
A lord and a lady went up at full sail,
When a bee chanced to light on the opposite scale.
Ten doctors, ten lawyers, two courtiers, one earl,
Ten counsellors' wigs, full of powder and curl,
All heaped in one balance, and swinging from thence,
Weighed less than some atoms of candour and sense ;-
A first-water diamond, with brilliants begirt,
Than one good potatoe just washed from the dirt;
Yet, not mountains of silver and gold would suffice,
One pearl to outweigh,-'twas "the pearl of great price."
At last, the whole world was bowled in at the grate,
With the soul of a beggar to serve for a weight;
When the former sprang up with so strong a rebuff,
That it made a vast rent, and escaped at the roof;
Whence, balanced in air, it ascended on high,
And sailed up aloft-a balloon in the sky:
While the scale with the soul in, so mightily fell,
That it jerked the philosopher out of his cell.
Dear reader, if e'er self-deception prevails,
We pray you to try The Philosopher's Scales:
But if they are lost in the ruins around,
Perhaps a good substitute thus may be found:
Let judgment and conscience in circles be cut,
To which strings of thought may be carefully put :
Let these be made even with caution extreme,
And impartiality use for a beam :
Then bring those good actions which pride over-rates,
And tear up your motives to serve for the weights.
CELADON AND AMELIA.
"Tis listening fear, and dumb amazement all:
When to the startled eye the sudden glance
Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud;
And following slower, in explosion vast,
The thunder raises his tremendous voice.
At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of Heaven,
The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes,
And rolls its awful burden on the wind,
The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more
The noise astounds: till over head a sheet
Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts,
And opens wider; shuts and opens still
Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze.
Follows the loosened aggravated roar,
Enlarging, deepening, mingling; peal on peal
Crushed horrible, convulsing heaven and earth.
Guilt hears appalled, with deeply troubled thought :
And yet not always on the guilty head
Descends the fated flash.--Young Celadon
And his Amelia were a matchless pair;
With equal virtue formed, and equal grace,
The same, distinguished by their sex alone:
Hers the mild lustre of the blooming morn,
And his the radiance of the risen day.
They loved but such their guileless passion was,
As in the dawn of time informed the heart
Of innocence, and undissembling truth.
'Twas friendship, heightened by the mutual wish,
The enchanting hope, and sympathetic glow,
Beamed from the mutual eye. Devoting all
To love, each was to each a dearer self;
Supremely happy in the awakened power
Of giving joy. Alone, amid the shades,
Still in harmonious intercourse they lived
The rural day, and talked the flowing heart,
Or sighed, and looked unutterable things.
So passed their life, a clear united stream,
By care unruffled; till, in evil hour,
The tempest caught them on the tender walk,
Heedless how far, and where its mazes strayed,
While, with each other blest, creative love
Still bade eternal Eden smile around.
Presaging instant fate her bosom heaved
Unwonted sighs; and stealing oft a look
Towards the big gloom, on Celadon her eye
Fell tearful, wetting her disordered cheek.
In vain assuring love, and confidence
In Heaven, repressed her fear; it grew, and shook
Her frame near dissolution. He perceived
The unequal conflict, and as angels look
On dying saints, his eyes compassion shed,
With love illumined high. "Fear not," he said,
"Sweet innocence! thou stranger to offence
"And inward storm! He, who yon skies involves
"In frowns of darkness, ever smiles on thee
"With kind regard. O'er thee the secret shaft
"That wastes at midnight, or the undreaded hour
"Of noon, flies harmless; and that very voice,
"Which thunders terror through the guilty heart,
"With tongues of seraphs whispers peace to thine.
""Tis safety to be near thee sure, and thus
"To clasp perfection!" From his void embrace,
(Mysterious Heaven!) that moment to the ground,
A blackened corse, was struck the beauteous maid.
But who can paint the lover as he stood,
Pierced by severe amazement, hating life,
Speechless, and fixed in all the death of woe?
So, faint resemblance!-on the marble tomb,
The well-dissembled mourner stooping stands,
For ever silent, and for ever sad.
THE POWER OF GOD.
THE Lord our God is full of might,
The winds obey his will;
He speaks, and in his heavenly height,
The rolling sun stands still.
Rebel ye waves, and o'er the land,
With threatening aspect roar;
The Lord uplifts his awful hand,
And chains you to the shore.
Howl winds of night, your force combine;
Without his high behest,
Ye shall not in the mountain pine,
Disturb the sparrow's nest.
His voice sublime is heard áfar,
In distant peals it dies;
He yokes the whirlwind to his car,
And sweeps the bowling skies.
Ye nations bend, in reverence bend,
Ye monarchs wait his nod,
And bid the choral song ascend
To celebrate your God.
POWER AND OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.
THE Lord our God is Lord of all,
His station who can find?
I hear him in the waterfall!
I hear him in the wind!
If in the gloom of night I shroud,
His face I cannot fly;
I see him in the evening cloud,
And in the morning sky.
He lives, he reigns, in every land,
From winter's polar snows,
To where across the burning sand,
The blasting meteor glows.
He smiles, we live,-he frowns, we die-
We hang upon his word:
He rears his red right arm on high,
And ruin bares his sword.
He bids his blast the fields deform-
Then, when his thunders cease,
Sits like the ruler of the storm,
And smiles the winds to peace.
HENRY IV.'S SOLILOQUY ON SLEEP.
How many thousands of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep! O gentle Sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the perfumed chambers of the Great,
Under the canopies of costly state,
And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody?
O thou dull God! why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch,
A watch-case to a common larum-bell?
Wilt thou, upon the high and giddy mast,
Seal up the shipboy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge;
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
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