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HADALLAH.

How needful is it, then, for man
From things of time to steal
Those of eternity to scan,

Their magnitude to feel :—
The first are transitory, vain;
The last for ever will remain.

Retirement must adjust the beam,

And prayer must poise the scales;
Our Guide, Example, Head supreme,
In neither lesson fails;

Oh may we in remembrance bear,

He sought retirement,-practis'd prayer!

101

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O'er the desert waste and dreary,

Many a day we've journeyed on,
Parched with heat, and faint, and weary,
All our store of water gone.

Welcome, then, thy crystal treasure !
Not more sweet the sparkling draught
In the Prophet's bowers of pleasure,
By his faithful followers quaffed.

Though they say, no soul immortal
Allah hath to woman given,
And for her the golden portal
Is for ever closed in heaven,—

Yet I feel within me burning,

Thoughts which are not of the earth; Breathings all divine, returning

To the home that gave them birth.

Surely never hopes so holy

Can, like earth-born raptures, die!
No;-Heaven blesses e'en the lowly
Slighted maid of Araby.

In the blissful groves of Yemen,
Once the fragrant tears I caught,
From the fair mimosa streaming,—

Tears of myrrh with incense fraught.

HADALLAH.

Then to show a thankful spirit,

For the gracious care of Heaven,
Who, without its creature's merit,

Life and strength through thee has given.

Here I bring my tribute, only
Scanty store of fragrant myrrh,
All the treasure of the lonely
Desert's homeless wanderer.

Minister of bounteous Allah!

Thou, like Him, still bounteous be;
Shed thy blessings on Hadallah,
Worthless though her gifts to thee.

Spirit of the lonely fountain!

Mean though all the gift I bring,
Gentle Spirit of the fountain,

Take, O take mine offering!

103

L. P.

In private we have our thoughts to watch, in the family our

tempers, and in company our tongues.

104

PASSING AWAY.

"PASSING AWAY?"

I ask'd the stars in the pomp

of night,

Gilding its blackness with crowns of light,
Bright with beauty and girt with power,
Whether eternity were not their dower?

And dirge-like music stole from their spheres,
Bearing this message to mortal ears.

We have no light that hath not been given,
We have no strength but shall soon be riven,
We have no power wherein man may trust,
Like him we are things of time and dust;

And the legend we blazon with beam and ray,
And the song of our silence is "passing away."

We shall fade in our beauty, the fair and bright,
Like lamps that have served for a festal night;
We shall fall from our spheres the old and strong,
Like rose-leaves swept by the breeze along;

Though worship'd as gods in the olden day,
We shall be like a vain dream, "passing away."

ISLE OF BEAUTY, FARE THEE WELL.

105

From the stars of heaven to the flowers of earth,
From the pageant of power and the voice of mirth,
From the mists of man on the mountain's brow,
From childhood's song and affection's vow;

From all, save that o'er which soul bears sway,
Breathes but one record "passing away."

Passing away," sing the breeze and rill,
As they sweep on their course by vale and hill!
Through the varying scenes of each earthly clime,
'Tis the lesson of nature, the voice of time;
And man at last, like his fathers grey,
Writes in his own dust, "passing away."

ISLE OF BEAUTY, FARE THEE WELL.

Shades of evening! close not o'er us!

Leave our lonely bark awhile!

Morn, alas! will not restore us

Yonder dim and distant isle.

Still my fancy can discover

Sunny spots where friends

may

Darker shadows round us hover

Isle of Beauty! Fare thee well.

dwell;

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