;
The clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober coloring from an eye
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,--
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

* * * * *

SOLILOQUY: ON IMMORTALITY.

FROM "CATO," ACT V. SC. I.

SCENE.--CATO, _sitting in a thoughtful posture, with book on
the Immortality of the Soul in his hand, and a drawn sword on
the table by him_.

It must be so--Plato, thou reasonest well!--
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire.
This longing after immortality?
Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;
'Tis Heaven itself, that points out a hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.
Eternity!--thou pleasing, dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried being,
Through what new scenes and changes, must we pass!
The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me;
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.
Here will I hold. If there's a Power above us
(And that there is, all Nature cries aloud
Through all her works), he must delight in virtue;
And that which he delights in must be happy.
But when? or where? This world was made for Caesar.
I'm weary of conjectures,--this must end 'em.

_(Laying his hand on his sword.)_

Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me:
This in a moment brings me to an end;
But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amid the war of elements,
The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds!

JOSEPH ADDISON.

* * * * *

EDWIN AND PAULINUS:

THE CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA.

The black-haired gaunt Paulinus
By ruddy Edwin stood:--
"Bow down, O king of Deira,
Before the blessed Rood!
Cast out thy heathen idols.
And worship Christ our Lord."