Or act but a sluggard's part.

Success has a heart that can sing,
A hand and a spirit to try,
A word that is fraught with good cheer,
A soul that illumines the eye.

Failure is cheerless, sullen, and glum,
His hand hanging idly by,
His voice is an echo of woe,
His face distorted, awry.

FRAGMENTS.

This world was made of fragments
Each separate from the other,
Yet in such close relation
As to indicate a brother.

Each atom of the universe
Has in itself attraction,
That finds response so much allied
To voluntary action,

That one might quickly recognize
A power, supreme, benign,
That emanates from master hand
With forces so divine,

That every touch which nature gives
To matter or to mind,
Must indicate creative power
Superior to mankind.

What scientist can ever tell
The mainspring of all action,
If all his reasons fail so prove
Molecular attraction?

It has its source from out the space,
Beyond the astral heaven;
It had a purpose to perform,
Or it had not been given.

We may not know its secret laws
Or understand its source,
But faith has taught us to be wise
And recognize its force.

Of all the teeming millions now
Upon this mundane sphere,
Not one can give a reason
For his living presence here.

'Tis strange, and yet we know 'tis true,
We constantly are dying,
All things are old, nothing is new,
And life with death is vying.

We know not when this all will cease,
We cannot understand
Why matter never may increase,
Or seas become dry land.

Enough we know to serve the end
For which we were designed,
God never yet was known to send
The blind to lead the blind.

If we but act an honest part,
And use the powers given,
When from this earth we shall depart,
We may be wise in heaven.

A BEACON LIGHT.

Adown the vistas of the past
I cast my memory's eye,
And see bright scenes receding fast,--
Some hopes in ruins lie;
Yet still there shines a beacon light
Whose ray on me descends,
And shows in its effulgency
A circle of true friends.

The magic charm this circle yields
Is richer far to me,
Than cattle in a thousand fields
Or