"TWAS when the world was in its prime,
When the fresh stars had just begun
Their race of glory, and young Time
Told his first birth-days by the sun;
When, in the light of Nature's dawn
Rejoicing, men and angels met
On the high hill and sunny lawn,--
Ere sorrow came, or Sin had drawn
'Twixt man and heaven her curtain yet!
When earth lay nearer to the skies

Than in these days of crime and woe,
And mortals saw, without surprise,
In the mid-air, angelic eyes

Gazing upon this world below.

Alas, that Passion should profane,

Even then, the morning of the earth!

That, sadder still, the fatal stain

Should fall on hearts of heavenly birthAnd that from Woman's love should fall So dark a stain, most sad of all !

One evening in that time of bloom,

On a hill's side, where hung the ray Of sunset, sleeping in perfume,

Three noble youths conversing lay; And, as they looked, from time to time, To the far sky, where Daylight furled His radiant wing, their brows sublime Bespoke them of that distant worldCreatures of light, such as still play,

Like motes in sunshine, round the Lord,
And through their infinite array
Transmit each moment, night and day,
The echo of His luminous word!

Of Heaven they spoke, and, still more oft,
Of the bright eyes that charmed them thence;
Till, yielding gradual to the soft

And balmy evening's influence

The silent breathing of the flowers,

The melting light that beamed above,
As on their first, fond, erring hours,
Each told the story of his love,
The history of that hour unblest,
When, like a bird, from its high nest
Won down by fascinating eyes,

For Woman's smile he lost the skies.

The first who spoke was one, with look
The least celestial of the three-
A Spirit of light mould, that took

The prints of earth most yieldingly;
Who, even in heaven, was not of those
Nearest the Throne, but held a place
Far off, among those shining rows

That circle out through endless space, And o'er whose wings the light from Him In Heaven's centre falls most dim.

Still fair and glorious, he but shone

Among those youths the unheavenliest one-
A creature, to whom light remained
From Eden still, but altered, stained,
And o'er whose brow not Love alone
A blight had, in his transit, sent,
But other, earthlier joys had gone,
And left their footprints as they went.
Sighing, as through the shadowy Past,
Like a tomb-searcher, Memory ran,
Lifting each shroud that Time had cast
O'er buried hopes, he thus began:--

FIRST ANGEL'S STORY. ""TWAS in a land, that far away Into the golden orient lies,

Where Nature knows not night's delay,
But springs to meet her bridegroom, Day,
Upon the threshold of the skies.

One morn, on earthly mission sent,'

And mid-way choosing where to light,

I saw, from the blue element

Oh beautiful, but fatal sight!

One of earth's fairest womankind,
Half veiled from view, or rather shrined
In the clear crystal of a brook;

Which, while it hid no single gleam
Of her

young beauties, made them look More spirit-like, as they might seem Through the dim shadowing of a dream. Pausing in wonder I looked on,

While, playfully around her breaking The waters, that like diamonds shone, She moved in light of her own making, At length, as slowly I descended To view more near a light so splendid, The tremble of my wings all o'er

(For through each plume I felt the thrill Startled her, as she reached the shore

Of that small lake-her mirror stillAbove whose brink she stood, like snow When rosy with a sunset glow. Never shall I forget those eyes !— The shame, the innocent surprise Of that bright face, when in the air Uplooking, she beheld me there. It seemed as if each thought, and look, And motion, were that minute chained Fast to the spot, such root she took, And-like a sunflower by a brook, With face upturned-so still remained!

In pity to the wondering maid,

Though loth from such a vision turning, Downward I bent, beneath the shade

Of my spread wings to hide the burning Of glances, which—I well could feelFor me, for her, too warmly shone ; But, ere I could again unseal

My restless eyes, or even steal

One sidelong look, the maid was gone

Hid from me in the forest leaves,

Sudden as when, in all her charms
Of full-blown light, some cloud receives
The Moon into his dusky arms.

'Tis not in words to tell the power,
The despotism that, from that hour,
Passion held o'er me. Day and night

I sought around each neighbouring spot And, in the chase of this sweet light, My task, and heaven, and all forgot ;All, but the one, sole, haunting dream Of her I saw in that bright stream.

Nor was it long, ere by her side

I found myself, whole happy days,
Listening to words, whose music vied
With our own Eden's seraph lays,
When seraph lays are warmed by love,
But, wanting that far, far above!-
And looking into eyes where, blue
And beautiful, like skies seen through
The sleeping wave, for me there shone
A heaven, more worshipped than my own.
Oh what, while I could hear and see
Such words and looks, was heaven to me?
Though gross the air on earth I drew,
'Twas blessed, while she breathed it too;
Though dark the flowers, though dim the sky,
Love lent them light, while she was nigh.
Throughout creation I but knew

Two separate worlds-the one, that small,
Beloved, and consecrated spot

Where Lea was-the other, all

The dull, wide waste, where she was not!

But vain my suit, my madness vain ;
Though gladly, from her eyes to gain
One earthly look, one stray desire,
I would have torn the wings, that hung
Furled at my back, and o'er the Fire
Unnamed in heaven their fragments flung ;-
'Twas hopeless all--pure and unmoved
She stood, as lilies in the light

Of the hot noon but look more white;-
And though she loved me, deeply loved,
'Twas not as man, as mortal-no,
Nothing of earth was in that glow-
She loved me but as one, of race
Angelic, from that radiant place

She saw so oft in dreams-that Heaven,
To which her prayers at morn were sent,
And on whose light she gazed at even,
Wishing for wings, that she might go
Out of this shadowy world below,
To that free, glorious element !

Well I remember by her side
Sitting at rosy even-tide,

When,-turning to the star, whose head
Looked out, as from a bridal bed,
At that mute, blushing hour,—she said,
'Oh! that it were my doom to be

The Spirit of yon beauteous star,
Dwelling up there in purity,

Alone, as all such bright things are ;— My sole employ to pray and shine,

To light my censer at the sun
And cast its fire towards the shrine
Of Him in heaven, the Eternal One !'

So innocent the maid, so free

From mortal taint in soul and frame,
Whom 'twas my crime-my destiny-
To love, ay, burn for, with a flame,
To which earth's wildest fires are tame.
Had you but seen her look, when first
From my mad lips the avowal burst;
Not angry-no-the feeling had
No touch of anger, but most sad-
It was a sorrow, calm as deep,
A mournfulness that could not weep,
So filled her heart was to the brink,
So fixed and frozen there to think
That angel natures—even I,

Whose love she clung to, as the tie
Between her spirit and the sky

Should fall thus headlong from the height
Of such pure glory into sin !—

The very night-my heart had grown
Impatient of its inward burning;
The term, too, of my stay was flown,
And the bright Watchers near the throne,
Already, if a meteor shone

Between them and this nether zone,

Thought 'twas their herald's wing returning:

Oft did the potent spell-word, given

To Envoys hither from the skies,

To be pronounced, when back to heaven
It is their time or wish to rise,

Come to my lips that fatal day;

And once, too, was so nearly spoken,

That my spread plumage in the ray

And breeze of heaven began to play ;

When my heart failed-the spell was broken-

The word unfinished died away,

And my checked plumes, ready to soar,

Fell slack and lifeless as before.

How could I leave a world which she,

Or lost or won, made all to me?

No matter where my wanderings were,

So there she looked, breathed, moved about

Woe, ruin, death, more sweet with her,

Than all heaven's proudest joys without!

But, to return-that very day

A feast was held, where, full of mirth,