Seek thy salve while sore is green, Fester'd wounds ask deeper lancing; Often sought, scarce ever chancing: Out of season, out of price. ROBERT SOUTHWELL, 1560-1595. NEVER DESPAIR. NEVER despair! when the dark cloud is lowering, The sun, though obscured, never ceases to shine; Above the black tempest his radiance is pouring, While faithless and faint-hearted mortals repine. The journey of life has its lights and its shadows, And Heaven in its wisdom to teach sends a share ; Though rough be the road, yet with reason to guide us, And courage to conquer, we'll never despair! Never despair! when with troubles contending, Make labour and patience a sword and a shield, And win brighter laurels, with courage unbending, Than ever were gain'd on the blood-tainted field. As gay as the lark in the beam of the morning, When young hearts spring forward to do and to dare, The bright star of promise their future adorning, Will light them along, and they'll never despair! The oak in the tempest grows strong by resistance, And true hearts grow stronger by labour and care, While Hope, like a seraph, still whispers above us,Look upward and onward, and never despair! ALEXANDER SMART, 1798 HOPE. AT summer eve, when Heaven's ethereal bow More pleasing seems than all the past hath been, From dark oblivion, glows divinely there. What potent spirit guides the raptured eye To pierce the shades of dim futurity? Can wisdom lend, with all her heavenly power, Ah, no! she darkly sees the fate of man- With thee, sweet Hope, resides the heavenly light -Pleasures of Hope. THOMAS CAMPBELL, 1777-1844. CONTENTMENT. IN vain do men The heaven of their fortune's fault accuse; Sith they know best what is the best for them: N But fittest is, that all contented rest With that they hold; each hath his fortune in his breast. It is the mind that maketh good or ill, EDWARD SPENSER, 1553-1599. THE OLD MAN'S FUNERAL. I SAW an aged man upon his bier ; His hair was thin and white, and on his brow A record of the cares of many a year— Cares that were ended and forgotten now. And there was sadness round, and faces bow'd, And women's tears fell fast, and children wail'd aloud. Then rose another hoary man, and said, In faltering accents, to that weeping train :Why mourn ye that our aged friend is dead? Ye are not sad to see the gather'd grain, Nor when their mellow fruit the orchards cast, mast. Ye sigh not when the sun, his course fulfill'd- Why weep ye then for him, who, having won Life's blessings all enjoy'd, life's labours done, While the soft memory of his virtues yet His youth was innocence; his riper age Mark'd with some act of goodness every day; And watch'd by eyes that loved him, calm and sage, Faded his late declining years away. Cheerful he gave his being up, and went That life was happy: every day he gave |