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Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly sees,

For happiness and true philosophy

COWPER,

Are of the social, still, and smiling kind.

THOMSON'S Seasons.

For ever foremost in the ranks of fun,
The laughing herald of the harmless pun.

BYRON.

Not oft to smile descendeth he,

And when he does, 't is sad to see

That he but mocks at misery.

BYRON'S Giaour.

And yet, methinks, the older that one grows,
Inclines us more to laugh than scold, tho' laughter

Leaves us so doubly serious shortly after.

He is so full of pleasing anecdote,
So rich, so gay, so poignant in his wit,
Time vanishes before him as he speaks.

BYRON'S Beppo.

JOANNA BAILLIE

Were it not worse than vain, to close our eyes
Unto the azure sky and golden light,
Because the tempest-cloud doth sometimes rise,
And glorious days must darken into night?

DOUGLAS JERROLD's Magazine.

120

CHEERFULNESS - MIRTH-SMILE, &c.

See how the day beameth brightly before us!
Blue is the firmament, green is the earth;
Grief hath no voice in the universe chorus;
Nature is ringing with music and mirth.
Laft up thy eyes, that are looking in sadness;
Gaze! and, if beauty can rapture thy soul,
Virtue herself shall allure thee to gladness-
Gladness! philosophy's guardian and goal.

But then her face,

From the German

So lovely, yet so arch-so full of mirth,
The overflowing of an innocent heart ;—

It haunts me still, though many a year has fled,
Like some wild melody.

ROGERS' Italy.

Light be thy heart! why should'st thou keep

Sadness within its secret cells?

Let not thine eye one tear-drop weep,

Unless that tear of rapture tells.

It gives to beauty half its power,

MRS. A B. W ELBY.

The nameless charm, worth all the rest-
The light that dances o'er a face,

And speaks of sunshine in the breast.

If beauty ne'er have set her seal,

It will supply her absence too,

And many a cheek looks passing fair,
Because a merry heart shines through.

How beautiful the smile

On beauty's brow, in beauty's eye,
When not one token lingers nigh,
On lip, or eye, or cheek unbidden,
To tell of anguish vainly hidden!

J. G. WHITTIER.

CHILDHOOD - YOUTH.

121

But Oh, there is a smile, which steals

Sometimes upon the brow of care, And, like the north's cold light, reveals But gathering darkness there!

J. G. WHITTIER.

Joy, like the zephyr that flies o'er the flower,
Rippling into it fresh fairness each hour,-
Joy has wav'd o'er thee his sun-woven wing,
And dimpled thy cheek like the roses of spring.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

A little nonsense, now and then,

Is relish'd by the best of men.

MRS. OSGOOD.

H. W. LONgfellow.

CHILDHOOD - YOUTH.

For youth no less becomes

The light and careless livery that it wears,
Than settled age his sables, and his weeds
Importing health and graveness.

SHAKSPEARE

I'll serve his youth, for youth must have its course,
For being restrain'd it makes him ten times worse;
His pride, his riot, all that may be nam'd,
By time's recall'd, and all his madness tam'd.

The whining school-boy with his satchel, And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

122

CHILDHOOD - YOUTH.

Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,

Το
pour
the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast!

Gather the rose-buds while ye may,

Old time is still a-flying,

THOMSON'S Seasons.

And that same flower that blooms to-day,
To-morrow shall be dying.

HERRICK.

Something of youth I in old age approve;

But more the marks of age in youth I love.
Who this observes may in his body find

Decrepit age, but never in his mind.

DENHAM.

Intemperate youth, by sad experience found,

Ends in an age imperfect and unsound.

DENHAM.

Youth is ever apt to judge in haste,
And lose the medium in the wild extreme.

AARON HILL.

Young men soon give and soon forget affronts;
Old age is slow in both.

ADDISON'S Cato.

Happy the school-boy! did he know his bliss,
"T were ill exchang'd for all the dazzling gems
That gaily sparkle in ambition's eye:

His are the joys of nature, his the smile,
The cherub smile of innocence and health,
Sorrow unknown, or, if a tear be shed,

He wipes it soon.

ΚΝΟΣ

By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd;
The sports of children satisfy the child.

GOLDSMITH.

CHILDHOOD - YOUTH.

The tear down childhood's cheek that flows,
Is like the dew-drop on the rose;
When next the summer breeze comes by,
And waves the bush, the flower is dry.

123

SCOTT's Rokeby.

There still are many rainbows in your sky,

But mine are vanish'd. All, when life is new, Commence with feelings warm and prospects high, Bnt Time strips our illusions of their hue.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

A lovely being, scarcely form'd or moulded,
A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

Sweet be thy cradled slumbers! O'er the sea
And from the mountains where I now respire,
Fain would I waft such blessings upon thee,
As with a sigh I deem'd thou mightst have been to me.

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

The helpless look of blooming infancy.

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

Full swells the deep pure fountain of young life.

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

Oh mirth and innocence! Oh milk and water!
Ye happy mixtures of more happy days!

BYRON'S Beppo.

A little curly-headed good-for-nothing,
And mischief-making monkey from his birth.

The babe,

Who, capable of no articulate sound,

Mars all things with his imitative lisp.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

ROGERS.

Thine was the shout! the song! the burst of joy!
Which sweet from childhood's rosy lip resoundeth;
Thine was the eager spirit nought could cloy,
And the glad heart from which all grief reboundeth.

MRS. NORTON.

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