Through thy transparent veil, And wide around thee, Nature's grandest forms, Fed by thy rapid stream, In every crevice of that savage pile And over all, that gush Of rain-drops, brightly sparkling in the sun! While ages round thee on their course have run, Forever on they rush. I would not that the bow With gorgeous hues should light thy virgin stream; Better thy white and sunlit foam should gleam Thus, like pure mountain snow. Yes! thou hast seen these woods Around, for centuries, rise, decay, and die, The ages pass away; Successive nations rise and are forgot, But on thy brilliant course thou pausest not,Thy changing, changeless play. TONGUES. When I have sunk to rest, Thus wilt thou pass, in calm sublimity. Here does a spirit dwell Of gratitude and contemplation high, TONGUES. A. D. T. W. 37 "And every man heard them in his own language." EARTH speaks to us! Her seasons, as they roll, Give noble utterings, And inward bear sweet influence o'er the soul,— Summers and springs! Life hath its lessons, - fervent love, and losing, Rapture and pain, Writ on the leaf that turns not at our choosing, Nor turns in vain. And every earnest spirit finds a tongue, Out on an air of mingled echoes flung, Seeking its own. God speaketh! He hath left beyond the sky And, wearing lesser robes of majesty, Take heed how ye shall hear, in gratitude, Since to each soul that tongue is understood, Art thou alive to things of sense alone? Naught else, though heaven and earth their thunder tone Shout in thine ear. Dost reverent wait and listen for the teaching Then doth thine attitude of pure beseeching A voice shall one day utter weal or woe And "each in his own language," learned below, THE LILIES OF THE FIELD. 39 THE LILIES OF THE FIELD. AGNES STRICKLAND. FAIR lilies of Jerusalem, Ye wear the same array By sacred Jordan's desert tide As when your simple charms outvied Ye flourished when the captive band, In hostile lands to weep and dream And sigh to see your golden gleam, Ye have survived Judæa's throne, And seen proud Salem sitting lone, |