We see but dimly through the mists and vapours,
Amid these earthly damps,

15 What seem to us but sad, funereal* tapers
May be heaven's distant lamps.

20

There is no death! What seems so is transition!*
This life of mortal breath

Is but a suburb* of the life Elysian,*
Whose portal* we call Death.

In that great cloister's* stillness and seclusion,
By guardian angels led,

Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution,*
She lives, whom we call dead.

*

25 Day after day we think what she is doing
In those bright realms of air;
Year after year, her tender steps pursuing,*
Behold her grown more fair.

30

Thus do we walk with her, and keep unbroken
The bond* which Nature gives,
Thinking that our remembrance, though un-
spoken,

May reach her where she lives.

Not as a child shall we again behold her
For when with raptures* wild,

35 In our embraces we again enfold her.
She will not be a child

40

But a fair maiden, in her Father's mansion,*
Clothed with celestial grace;

And beautiful with all the soul's expansion,*
Shall we behold her face.

And though at times impetuous* with emotion*
And anguish long suppressed,

The swelling heart heaves moaning like the

ocean

That cannot be at rest,

45 We will be patient, and assuage * the feeling
We may not wholly stay ;

By silence sanctifying,* not concealing,*
The grief that must have way.

SOME MURMUR.-Archbishop Trench.

RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH (1807- ), now Archbishop of Dublin, is the author of The Study of Words; English Past and Present, &c. In early life he published several volumes of poems, in a style resembling that of Wordsworth.

BEN JONSON (1573-1637) was the son of a clergyman, and received a university education. He wrote very many plays and poems, some of them marked by great powers. He also perfected the compositions called Masques, which formed a favourite amusement of the Court. It is to his credit that his constant aim was to improve the morals of the day. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and the flagstone over his grave was inscribed with the words, "O rare Ben Jonson!"

ABOU-BEN-ADHEM AND THE ANGEL.-Leigh Hunt. LEIGH HUNT (1784-1859) was an essayist and critic of the first half of this century. In early life he was editor of the Examiner, a London newspaper. Chief poems: Feasts of the Poets; A Legend of Florence; and The Palfrey. ABOU-PEN-ADHEM* (may his tribe * increase) Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, And saw within the moonlight in his room, Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, 5 An angel writing in a book of gold :

*

Abou-Ben-Adhem,
Adhem.

Abou, the son of

Tribe, at first it meant a third part, afterwards any di vision of people; a

Exceeding peace had made Ben-Adhem bold, race or family from
And to the Presence in the room he said,

the same ancestor a body of people

"What writest thou?"-The vision raised its under one leader.

head,

And with a look made all of sweet accord,

Exceeding, very much, very great.

10 Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."

66

"And is mine one?" said Abou. 'Nay, not so,"
Replied the Angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still; and said, "I pray thee then
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."

15 The angel wrote and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had

blest,

*

Lo

look, see, behold; it is a contrac.

tion of the word look. Led all the rest, stood

And, lo! Ben-Adhem's name led all the rest.* first on the list.

THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB'S* ARMY.

Byron.

THE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the
fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming with purple
and gold,*

And the sheen of their spears was like stars

on the sea,

When the blue waves roll nightly on deep
Galilee.*

Cohort, among the Romans, a body of 500 or 600 men, the tenth part of a legion; here

it means a company of soldiers.

Purple and gold, the

dresses of the officers adorned with gold lace.

5 Like the leaves of the forest when summer is Galilee, the sea of

green,

That host with their banners at sunset were

seen;

Galilee or lake of Gennesareth in Palestine was noted for its frequent storms.

* Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invaded Judea in the reign of Hezekiah. He afterwards threatened to destroy the king, but a "blast" from the Lord killed 185,000 of his men in one night.

C

Strown, scattered.

Foe, enemy.

Waxed, became.

Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,

That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.*

For the angel of death spread his wings on the
blast,

And breathed in the face of the foe* as he passed; 10
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed* deadly and

chill,

And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever were still.

And there lay the steed with his nostrils all wide, But through them there rolled not the breath of his pride;

Surf, the foam of the And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, 15 And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.*

waves.

Distorted, twisted out

of the regular or natural shape, deformed. Mail, chain armour. Asshur, Assyria, once

country;

capital,

And there lay the rider, distorted* and pale, With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;*

a great and powerful And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown.

Nineveh.

Baal, the sun-god, worshipped in Assyria

under the name of Bel or Belus.

Gentile, all other na

tions but the Jews

were generally called

Gentiles.

Unsmote by the sword,

destroyed

without

the aid of man.

And the widows of Asshur* are loud in their

wail;

*

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal ;*
And the might of the Gentile,* unsmote by the
sword,*
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the
LORD!

20

YOUNG LOCHINVAR.*—Scott.

SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832), the greatest of English romantic poets and novelists, was born at Edinburgh. He was a lawyer by profession. His poems were published for the most part between 1805 and 1814. Scott was a man of the most generous and amiable nature. He was made a baronet by George IV. Chief works: Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, Lady of the Lake, Rokeby, Lord of the Isles, Waverley Novels, Tales of a Grandfather, &c. Border, the land a few ОH, young Lochinvar is come out of the west; miles on either side of Through all the wide Border* his steed was the

the boundary between England and Scotland

best:

* Lochinvar, a lake in Kirkcudbrightshire, in the centre of which stood the ancient fortified castle of Lochinvar, the seat of the Gordons. Hence the chief is also called Lochinvar.

And save his good broad-sword* he weapon had

none;

He rode all unarmed,* and he rode all alone. 5 So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, There never was knight* like the

invar.

young

Broad-sword, a
double-edgedweapon,
in the use of which
the Scots were very
expert.

Unarmed,
Loch-

He stayed not for brake,* and he stopped not
for stone,

He swam the Esk* river where ford* there was

none;

But, ere he alighted at Netherby gate,

without

armour, i.e., helmet, breastplate, &c. Knight, a man

of

high birth or fortune admitted to military rank. A title of honour.

Brake, a thicket of brambles.

Esk, a river in Dum

10 The bride had consented-the gallant came late: friesshire.
For a laggard* in love and a dastard* in war
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.

So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall,*

Ford, a shallow part of a river which may be easily crossed. Laggard, a sluggish, backward person. Dastard, a coward.

Among bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, Netherby Hall, a for

and all :

15 Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword,

tified place about ten miles from Middleby in Dumfriesshire.

(For the poor craven* bridegroom said never a Craven, cowardly. word),

"Ho! come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,

Or to dance at our bridal,* young Lord Lochin- Bridal, wedding. var?

"I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied ;20 Love swells like the Solway,* but ebbs like its

tide

And now I am come, with this lost love of mine

Solway, a river in the

south of Scotland.

To lead but one measure,* drink one cup of wine. Measure, a dance,
There are maidens in Scotland, more lovely by far,

That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar."

25 The bride kissed the goblet; * the knight took Goblet, drinking cup

30

it up,

He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down Quaffed, drank.

the cup;

She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,

With a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye.

He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,

"Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.

So stately his form, and so lovely her face,
That never a hall such a galliard * did grace;
While her mother did fret, and her father did
fume,

And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet

Galliard, one whose nature it is to be gay and active; it also

means a dance.

and plume;