While the last petition of the soul that breatheth on the confines of prayer Is deliverance from sin and the evil one, the miseries of earth and hell. And wherefore, child of hope, should the rock of tny conndence be sure? Thou knowest that God heareth, and promiseth an answer of peace; Thou knowest that he is King, and none can stay his hand; Thou knowest his power to be boundless, for there is none other: And to Him thou givest glory, as a creature of nis workmansnio and favour, For the never-ending term of thy saved and bright existence. OF DISCRETION. FOR what then was I born?-to fill the circling year With daily toil for daily bread, with sordid pains and pleasures?— To walk this chequered world, alternate light and darkness, The day-dreams of deep thought followed by the night-dreams of fancy?— To decorate the gallery of art?—to clear a few acres of forest? Το Is it to grow stronger in self-government, to check the chafing will, In earth, yea in heaven, if thou seek it for itself, seeking thou shalt not find. Happiness is a roadside flower, growing on the highways of Usefulness, Plucked, it shall wither in thy hand; passed by, it is fragrance to thy spirit: Love not thine own soul, regard not thine own weal, Trample the thyme beneath thy feet; be useful, and be happy! THUS unto fair conclusions argueth generous youth, And quickly he starteth on his course, knight-errant to do good. The quiet whisper of Discretion-Thy time is not yet come. He challengeth to a fair field that subtle giant Infidelity, And worsted in the unequal fight, strengtheneth the hands of error: He hasteth to teach and preach, as the war-horse rusheth to the battle, The hottest friends of truth have done her deadliest wrong. Alas! for there are enemies without, glad enough to parley with a traitor, And a zealot will let down the drawbridge, to prove his own prowess: Yea, from within will he break away a breach in the citadel of truth, That he may fill the gap, for fame, with his own weak body. ZEAL without judgment is an evil, though it be zeal unto good: These thy wounded hands were smitten in the house of friends: To point out a meaning in her words, he will blot those words with his finger; And winnow chaff into the eyes, before he hath wheat to show: He will heap sturdy logs on a faint expiring fire, And with a room in flames, will cast the casement open; By a shoulder to the wheel downhill harasseth the labouring beast, And where obstruction were needed, will harm by an ill-judged thrusting on. A vessel foundereth at sea, if a storm have unshipped the rudder; And a mind with much sail shall require heavy ballast. Take a lever by the middle, thou shalt seem to prove it powerless, Argue for truth indiscreetly, thou shalt toil for falsehood. There is plenty of room for a peaceable man in the most thronged assembly; But a quarrelsome spirit is straitened in the open field: Many a teacher, lacking judgment, hindereth his own lessons; The garment woven of a piece is rashly torn by schism, DISCRETION guide thee on thy way, nobly-minded youth, Teach thee that well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech, And tell thee, the keystone of an arch can be loosened with least labour from within. The snows of Hecla lie around its troubled smoking Geysers; Let the cool streams of prudence temper the hot spring of zeal : So shalt thou gain thine honourable end, nor lose the midway prize, OF TRIFLES. YET once more, saith the fool, yet once, and is it not a little one? doubts; Whom shall I harm in this matter? and a little ill breedeth much good; My thoughts, are they not mine own? and they leave no mark behind them; And if God so pardoneth crime, how should these petty sins affect him?— So he transgresseth yet again, and falleth by little and little, Till the ground crumble beneath him, and he sinketh in the gulf despairing. For there is nothing in the earth so small that it may not produce great things, And no swerving from a right line, that may not lead eternally astray. difference; And the cairn is heaped high by each one flinging a pebble: The dangerous bar in the harbour's mouth is only grains of sand; And the shoal that hath wrecked a navy is the work of a colony of worms: Yea, and a despicable gnat may madden the mighty elephant; |