ECHOES OF MANY VOICES FROM MANY LANDS. I. CONSOLATION. ALL are not taken; there are left behind Where "dust to dust" the love from life dis joined; And if, before those sepulchres unmoving, I stood alone (as some forsaken lamb Goes bleating up the moors in weary dearth), B Crying, "Where are ye, oh my loved and loving?" I know a voice would sound, "Daughter, I AM; Can I suffice for Heaven, and not for Earth?" E. B. BROWNING. II. Io, vo piangendo i miei passati tempi, E il mio difetto di tua grazia adempi, PETRARCA. III. SUBMISSION. BUT the faint soul must bear up its own weight, "Do with me what Thou wilt, I will lie still." J. WILLIAMS. Thoughts in Past Years. IV. "THE WITHERED FLOWER." THE flowers o' the simmer time, The nor' wind is swirling the driven snaw An' tossing the white flakes or e'er they fa', To hide where a' lay a dying: But my Flower is withered, an' winna rebloom! The birks in the erie glen Their leafless boughs a' wide are tossing; The sough frae the upland forest seems As in wild faem a thousand mountain streams Frae rock to den were crossing :— But my Flower is withered, an' winna rebloom. The spring maun return again, Opening the fresh buds o' ilka flower, Drappin' the gowans o'er strath an' lea; Buskin' wi' blossom ilk buss an' tree, Blessing a' nature wi' walth o' dower:But my Flower is withered, an' winna rebloom. Till ance this waefu' warld Its last flowers a' withered, its ways a'toom, An' nought for a lap for the lanesome dying, But the graves where death's latest plenish is lying, Steerin' to wake at the trump o' doom :Then my Flower, though withered, shall again rebloom! V. DANIEL. LOOK not mournfully into the Past, it comes not back again; wisely improve the Present, it is thine; go forth to meet the shadowy Future without fear, and with a manly heart. LONGFELLOW. VI. To be thought ill of, worse than we deserve,To have hard speeches said, cold looks dis played By those who should have cheered us, when we swerve, Is one of Heaven's best gifts, and may be made A treasure ere we know it—a lone field Which to hot hearts may bitter blessings yield. Either we learn from our past sins to shrink When their full guilt is kept before our eye, |