HOMEWARD.

BY W.H. CHANNING

* * * * *

Last, having thus revealed all I could love
And having received all love bestowed on it,
I would die: so preserving through my course
God full on me, as I was full on men:
And He would grant my prayer--"I have gone through
All loveliness of life; make more for me,
If not for men,--or take me to Thyself,
Eternal, Infinite Love!"

BROWNING.

Till another open for me
In God's Eden-land unknown,
With an angel at the doorway,
White with gazing at His Throne;
And a saint's voice in the palm-trees, singing,--"ALL IS LOST, and _won_."

ELIZABETH BARRETT.

La ne venimmo: e lo scaglion primaio
Bianco marmo era si pulito e terso,
Ch'io mi specchiava in esso, qual io paio.
Era 'l secondo tinto, piu che perso,
D'una petrina ruvida ed arsiccia,
Crepata per lo lungo e per traverso.
Lo terzo, che di sopra s'ammassiccia,
Porfido mi parea si fiammegiante,
Come sangue che fuor di vena spiccia.
Sopra questa teneva ambo le piante
L' angel di Dio, sedendo in su la soglia,
Che mi sembiava pietra di diamante.
Per li tre gradi su di buona voglia
Mi trasse 'l daca mio, dicendo, chiodi
Umilmente che 'l serrame scioglia.

DANTE.

Che luce e questa, e qual nuova beltate?
Dicean tra lor; perch' abito si adorno
Dal mondo errante a quest 'alto soggiorno
Non sail mai in tutta questa etate.
Ella contenta aver cangiato albergo,
Si paragona pur coi piu perfetti.

PETRARCA.

IX.

HOMEWARD

SPRING-TIME.

Spring, bright prophet of God's eternal youth, herald forever
eloquent of heaven's undying joy, has once more wrought its miracle of
resurrection on the vineyards and olive-groves of Tuscany, and touched
with gently-wakening fingers the myrtle and the orange in the gardens
of Florence. The Apennines have put aside their snowy winding-sheet,
and their untroubled faces salute with rosy gleams of promise the new
day, while flowers smile upward to the serene sky amid the grass and
grain fields, and fruit is swelling beneath the blossoms along the
plains of Arno. "The Italian spring," writes Margaret, "is as good as
Paradise. Days come of glorious sunshine and gently-flowing airs, that
expand the heart and uplift the whole nature. The birds are twittering
their first notes of love; the ground is enamelled with anemones,