I have breathed on the South, and the chestnut flowers,
By thousands, have burst from the forest-bowers;
And the ancient graves, and the fallen fanes,
Are veiled with wreaths on Italian plains.
-But it is not for me, in my hour of bloom,
To speak of the ruin or the tomb!

I have passed o'er the hill of the stormy North,
And the larch has hung all his tassels forth,
The fisher is out on the sunny sea,

And the rein-deer bounds through the pasture free,
And the pine has a fringe of softer green,

And the moss looks bright where my step has been.

I have sent through the wood-paths a gentle sigh,
And call'd out each voice of the deep-blue sky,
From the night-bird's lay through the starry-time,
In the groves of the soft Hesperian clime,
To the swan's wild note by the Iceland lakes,
When the dark fir-bough into verdure breaks.

From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain
They are sweeping on to the silvery main,
They are flashing down from the mountain-brows,
They are flinging spray on the forest boughs,
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves,
And the earth resounds with the joy of waves.

Come forth, O ye children of gladness, come !
Where the violets lie may now be your home.
Ye of the rose-cheek and dew-bright eye,
And the bounding footstep to meet me fly,
With the lyre, and the wreath, and the joyous lay,
Come forth to the sunshine, I may not stay.

Away from the dwellings of care-worn men,
The waters are sparkling in wood and glen;
Away from the chamber and dusky hearth,
The young leaves are dancing in breezy mirth;
Their light stems thrill to the wild wood strains,
And youth is abroad in my green domains.

;

MRS. HEMANS.

TO THE CUCKOO.

185

VIII. TO THE CUCKOO.

"THE Cuckoo arrives in our island early in spring; in White's 'Naturalist's Calendar,' it is noted as being first heard April the 7th; and in Markwick's,' April the 15th, and last heard June 28th. By the first of July it has generally taken its departure for Northern Africa. In Ireland, according to Mr. Thompson, the cuckoo is usually heard from the 16th to the 20th of April, and departs at the end of June, but he adds that, in the year 1838, the stay of the cuckoo was remarkably prolonged, and the period of its arrival later than ordinary, and that one was heard at the Falls, near Belfast, on the 7th of July. The young birds of the year generally remain till towards the end of August, so late as the 27th of which month they have been observed in Antrim.' The Bishop of Norwich, in his Familiar History of Birds,' records an instance of about forty cuckoos being congregated in a garden, in the county of Down, from the 18th to the 22nd of July, and with the exception of two, which were smaller than the rest, taking their departure at that time."-Museum of Animated Nature.

HAIL beauteous stranger of the grove!

Thou messenger of spring!

Now heaven repairs thy rural seat,1
And woods thy welcome sing.

What time the daisy decks the green,
Thy certain voice we hear;
Hast thou a star to guide thy path,
Or mark the rolling year?

Delightful visitant! with thee

I hail the time of flowers,

And hear the sound of music sweet

From birds among the bowers.

The school-boy, wandering through the wood

To pluck the primrose gay,

Starts, thy curious voice to hear,

And imitates thy lay.

What time the pea puts on the bloom,2

Thou fliest the vocal vale,3

An annual guest, in other lands

Another spring to hail.

Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green,
Thy sky is ever clear;

Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year.

O! could I fly, I'd fly with thee;
We'd make, with joyful wing,
Our annual visit o'er the globe,
Companions of the spring.

1. What is the meaning of this line? 2. What time is this?

LOGAN.

3. In what case is vale, and how governed?

IX. THE CHARMS OF NATURE.

"In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against nature not to go out and see her riches and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth."-Milton.

O HOW canst thou renounce the boundless store
Of charms which Nature to her votaries yields?
The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,
The pomp of groves and garniture of fields;
All that the genial ray of morning gilds,
And all that echoes to the song of even:

All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields,
And all the dread magnificence of heaven,

O how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven?

BEATTIE.

X. SOLITUDE.

"CATO used to say, that he was never less alone than when alone, nor less at leisure than when at leisure."- Cicero.

"It had been hard for him that spake it to have put more truth and untruth together in few words than in that speech- Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god;' for it is most true that a natural and secret hatred and aversion towards society, in any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast; but it is most untrue that

THE MELODIES OF MORNING.

187 it should have any character at all of the divine nature, except it proceed not out of a pleasure in solitude, but out of a love and desire to sequester a man's self for a higher conversation, such as is found to have been falsely and feignedly in some of the heathens, as Epimenides the Sicilian, and Apollonius of Tyana, and truly and really in divers of the ancient hermits and holy fathers of the church. But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal where there is no love.-Bacon's Essays.

To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,

Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er, or rarely been:
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;
This is not solitude; 'tis but to hold

Converse with nature's charms, and see her stores unrolled.
But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,

And roam along, the world's tired denizen,

With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;
Minions of splendour shrinking from distress!
None that with kindred consciousness endued,
If we were not, would seem to smile the less
Of all that flattered, followed, sought, and sued:
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!

BYRON.

XI. THE MELODIES OF MORNING.

"THERE is no phenomenon in nature more beautiful and splendid than the rising sun. The richest dress that human art can invent, the finest decorations, the most pompous equipage, the most superb ornaments in the palaces of kings, vanish and sink to nothing when compared with this beauty of nature. The sun appears with all the splendour of majesty, rising higher and higher, and the earth assumes a new aspect. Every creature rejoices and seems to receive a new life. The birds, with songs of joy, salute the source of light and day: every animal begins to move, and all feel themselves animated with new strength and spirit."-Sturm.

BUT who the melodies of morn can tell ;'

The wild brook babbling down the mountain side;
The lowing herd; the sheepfold's simple bell;
The pipe of early shepherd dim descried 2

3

In the lone valley; echoing far and wide,
The clamorous horn along the cliffs above;
The hollow murmur of the ocean tide;

The hum of bees, the linnet's lay of love,
And the full choir that wakes the universal grove.◄

The cottage curs at early pilgrim bark;

Crowned with her pail the tripping milkmaid sings;
The whistling ploughman stalks afield: and hark!
Down the rough slope the ponderous waggon rings;
Through rustling corn the hare astonished springs;
Slow tolls the village-clock the drowsy hour;6
The partridge bursts away on whirring wings;
Deep mourns the turtle in sequestered bower,
And shrill lark carols clear from her aerial tower,

1. Put this line into its natural order? 2. What is the compound adjective "dim-descried" meant to qualify? 3. Another form of this word? 4. What is the meaning of the phrase wakes the universal grove?

BEATTIE.

5. In what sense is tripping here used? Has Milton ever used it in the

same sense?

6. Why drowsy?

XII. EVENING.

"How can we think without admiration and gratitude, on the tender care of Providence, to secure our repose during the absence of the day? As soon as night comes on, a calm is diffused over all nature, which proclaims to all creatures a rest from their labours, and invites man to sleep. During the time that men sleep, nature in their behalf suspends noise, vivid light, and all such impressions as might keep the senses in action. The animals whose activity might disturb our repose, have themselves need of rest. Birds seek their nests; the ox, the horse, and other domestic animals sleep around us."-Sturm.

Он, Hesperus! thou bringest all good things-
Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer,
To the young bird the parent's brooding wings,
The welcome stall to the o'erlaboured steer!
Whate'er of peace about our hearthstone clings,
Whate'er our household gods protect of dear,
Are gathered round us by thy look of rest;
Thou bring'st the child, too, to the mother's breast.