The kind returns of tenderness and love;
Firm in those hopes that heal the wounds of woe,
Which hearts at peace with God alone can know ;
High in that holy charge so wisely given,
To lead an earthly flock the way to heaven.

So may'st thou live, 'till honours more divine, More perfect peace, more lasting joys are thine; "Till from a lofty and a cloudless sphere,

Shall burst those sounds, too sweet for mortal ear, "Come, good and faithful servant, thy reward is here."

ON SEEING THE MOON ATTENDED BY A SOLITARY STAR, JUST BEFORE SUN-RISE.

LEAVING the cell of her companion, night, She sought her bow'r which vestal lamps adorn, But paus'd, and stay'd, and linger'd in her flight, To change stol'n glances with the youthful morn.

All unattended too, she chose to tread,
Save that one solitary star was seen,

Darkly to wrap a mantle o'er its head,
And page the mystic footsteps of the queen.

Her veil was all undrawn, her eye was fair,
But ah! her cheek grew pale, her lustre dim ;
For dark-rob'd night, high-seated on his car,
Was heard to call the wanderer on with him.

Sternly he staid his chariot 'till she came,
His cold eye glancing on her, unapprov'd,
The star attendant glow'd with angry shame,
And rising morn beheld her as she mov'd.

POPE.

"CURST be the verse, how well so e'er it flow, "That tends to make one honest man my foe, "Give virtue, scandal; innocence, a fear; "Or from the soft-ey'd virgin steal a tear."

Too well may be applied to this fine writer, the following imitation.

SHAME to the man! how well so e'er he write,
Who mingles fair with foul, and wrong with right;
Gives pain to virtue, spotted robes to truth,
And crimsons o'er the bashful cheek of youth.

RAPIDITY OF TIME.

EV'N while we pause, the rapid date
Of life comes rushing on,

The sad heart feels the stroke of fate,
We tremble and are gone :

Gone and forgot, the mourning eye
May moisten as we sleep;

But time shall sooth the rushing sigh,
And dry the eyes that weep.

A little mound of turf, alone

Shall shade our senseless breast;

The clay-cold sod, the burial stone,

Made dark with storms, with moss o'ergrown, Shall mark our place of rest.

TO A FRIEND, WITH A PACKET OF GERANIUM LEAVES.

"TIS said by Cynics harsh and stern,
The sweets of life are frail and few;
But is not gentle friendship one,
That we around our paths may strew?
It surely is I therefore send,
An emblem of its sweets to you.

TWILIGHT.

I SAW, ere the landscape had faded in night, The slow-moving twilight with gesture sublime, As I pensively watch'd the decline of the light,

And listen'd, absorb'd to the foot-fall of time.

And I said to my heart, as it rose in my breast, "What wakes thee to sorrow, what moves thee to mourn?"

And my heart answer'd quick, with emotion opprest,

"I grieve for the hours, that must never return."

In the pale hand of twilight, a tablet appear'd, Though veil'd in her mantle, and muffled with shade;

That this had recorded my errors I fear'd,

And I knew that its traces were never to fade.

EVENING EXAMINATION.

AND now let sable night assert her power,
And summon back the late departed hour,
And call the pausing soul with care to trace
The lines that mark its half averted face.

The frown of pride, or semblance of content,
The deed of duty done, or time mispent,

The meek resolve, firm hope, or wandering bold,
The vain desire, or cherish'd, or controll❜d,