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His life is neither toss'd in boisterous seas

Of troublous world, nor lost in slothful ease:

Pleased and full bless'd he lives, when he his God can please.

His bed of wool yields safe and quiet sleeps,
While by his side his faithful spouse hath place:
His little son into his bosom creeps,

The lively picture of his father's face.

Never his humble house or state torment him ; Less he could like, if less his God had sent him ; And when he dies, green turfs, with grassy tomb, content him.

PHINEAS FLETCHER, 1584-1650.

HUMAN FRAILTY.

CAN he be fair, that withers at a blast?
Or he be strong, that airy breath can cast?
Can he be wise, that knows how to live?
Or he be rich, that nothing hath to give?
Can he be young, that's feeble, weak, and wan?
So fair, strong, wise, so rich, so young is man.

So fair is man, that death (a parting blast)
Blasts his fair flower, and makes him earth at last;
So strong is man, that with a gasping breath
He totters, and bequeaths his strength to death;

So wise is man, that if with death he strive,
His wisdom cannot teach him how to live;
So rich is man, that (all his debts being paid)
His wealth's the winding-sheet wherein he's laid;
So young is man, that, broke with care and sorrow,
He's old enough to-day, to die to-morrow:
Why bragg'st thou, then, thou worm of five feet long?
Thou 'rt neither fair, nor strong, nor wise, nor rich, nor

young.

FRANCIS QUARLES, 1592-1644.

UP WITH THE DAWN.

Up with the dawn, ye sons of toil!
And bare the brawny arm,
To drive the harness'd team afield,
And till the fruitful farm;

To dig the mine for hidden wealth,
Or make the woods to ring
With swinging axe, and steady stroke,
To fell the forest king.

With ocean car and iron steed

Traverse the land and sea,

And spread our commerce round the globe,

As winds that wander free.

Subdue the earth, and conquer fate,

Outspeed the flight of time;
Old earth is rich, and man is young,
Nor near his jocund prime.

Work, and the clouds of care will fly,
Pale want will pass away;
Work, and the leprosy of crime
And tyrants must decay.
Leave the dead ages in their urns ;
The present time be ours,

To grapple bravely with our lot,

And strew our path with flowers.

THOMAS ELLIOTT, 1820

THE SEASONS OF LIFE.

WE, too, have autumns, when our leaves Drop loosely through the dampen'd air, When all our good seems bound in sheaves, And we stand reap'd and bare.

Our seasons have no fix'd returns,
Without our will they come and go;

At noon our sudden summer burns,
Ere sunset all is snow.

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But each day brings less summer cheer,
Crimps more our ineffectual spring,
And something earlier every year

Our singing birds take wing.

As less the olden glow abides,

And less the chillier heart aspires,
With drift-wood beach'd in past spring-tides
We light our sullen fires.

By the pinch'd rushlight's starving beam
We cower and strain our wasted sight,
To stitch youth's shroud up, seam by seam,
In the long arctic night.

It was not so we once were young-
When Spring, to womanly Summer turning,
Her dewdrops on each grass-blade strung
In the red sunrise burning.

We trusted then, aspired, believed

That earth could be remade to-morrow ;

Ah, why be ever undeceived?

Why give up faith for sorrow?

O thou, whose days are yet all spring,

Trust, blighted once, is past retrieving;
Experience is a dumb, dead thing;

The victory's in believing.

-American.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, 1819

THE QUIET LIFE.

HAPPY the man whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air

In his own ground!

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter, fire.

Blest, who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years, slide soft away
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day.

Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix'd; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most doth please
With meditation.

Then let me live, unseen, unknown;
Then unlamented let me die;

Steal from the world, and not a stone

Tell where I lie.

ALEXANDER POPE, 1688-1744.

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