Next, by a fearful judgment tamed,

He threats the offending race;

God spares ;—he murmurs, pride-inflamed,
His threat made void by grace.

What?-pride and sloth! man's worst of foes!

And can such guests invade

Our choicest bliss, the green repose
Of the sweet garden-shade?

LXXVIII.

d.

JEREMIAH.

"Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them."

"WOE's me!" the peaceful prophet cried,
"Spare me this troubled life;

To stem man's wrath, to school his pride,
To head the sacred strife!

"O place me in some silent vale,

Where groves and flowers abound;

Nor eyes that grudge, nor tongues that rail,
Vex the truth-haunted ground!"

If his meek spirit erred, opprest

That God denied repose,

What sin is ours, to whom Heaven's rest
Is pledged to heal earth's woes?

LXXIX.

New Self.

WHY sittest thou on that sea-girt rock, With downward look and sadly dreaming eye? Playest thou beneath with Proteus' flock, Or with the far-bound sea-bird wouldst thou fly?

Old Self.

I sit upon this sea-girt rock,

With downward look and dreaming eye,

But neither do I sport with Proteus' flock, Nor with the far-bound sea-bird would I fly.

d.

I list the splash so clear and chill Of yon old fisher's solitary oar:

I watch the waves that rippling still

Chase one another o'er the marble shore.

New Self.

Yet from the splash of yonder oar

No dreamy sound of sadness comes to me:
And yon fresh waves that beat the shore,
How merrily they splash, how merrily!

Old Self.

I mourn for the delicious days,

When those calm sounds fell on my childish ear,

A stranger yet to the wild ways

Of triumph and remorse, of hope and fear.

New Self.

Mournest thou, poor soul, and wouldest thou yet Call back the things which shall not, cannot be ? Heaven must be won, not dreamed; thy task is set, Peace was not made for earth, nor rest for thee.*

* Hæc memini, et victum frustra contendere Thyrsin,
Ex illo Corydon, Corydon est tempore nobis.

B.

LXXX.

ST. PAUL AT MELITA.

"And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat."

SECURE in his prophetic strength,
The water peril o'er,

The many-gifted man at length
Stepped on the promised shore.

He trod the shore; but not to rest,
Nor wait till Angels came;

Lo! humblest pains the Saint attest,
The firebrands and the flame.

But, when he felt the viper's smart,
Then instant aid was given;
Christian! hence learn to do thy part,

And leave the rest to heaven.

d.

SEVERITY.

LXXXI.

"Am I my brother's keeper ?"

THE time has been, it seemed a precept plain
Of the true faith, Christ's tokens to display ;
And in life's commerce still the thought retain,

That men have souls, and wait a judgment-day ;
Kings used their gifts as ministers of heaven,
Nor stripped their zeal for God, of means which God
had given,

'Tis altered now ;-for Adam's eldest born

Has trained our practice in a selfish rule; Each stands alone, Christ's bonds asunder torn,

Each has his private thought, selects his school, Conceals his creed, and lives in closest tie

Of fellowship with those who count it blasphemy.