Nor would I like to spread No, on the wings of air Might I be left to fly, I know not and I heed not where - Or flung upon the stream, As through the changes of a dream, Who that hath ever been, Could bear to be no more? On, with intense desire, Man's spirit will move on; It seems to die, yet, like heaven's fire, It is not quench'd, but gone. J. MONTGOMERY. COMFORT IN AFFLICTION. OH! Thou who dry'st the mourner's tear, If, when deceiv'd and wounded here, The friends who in our sunshine live, And he who has but tears to give, But Thou wilt heal that broken heart, When joy no longer soothes or cheers, Oh! who would bear life's stormy doom, Come, brightly wafting through the gloom Then sorrow, touch'd by Thee, grows bright As darkness shows us worlds of light We never saw by day! MOORE. THE FUNERAL OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. AT CAEN IN NORMANDY, 1087.1 LOWLY upon his bier The royal Conqueror lay; Silent in war array. The Conqueror was buried in the church of St. Stephen, which he had built, but his funeral was singularly interrupted. At the moment that the coffin was being lowered into the grave, a man of low degree, raising himself from the crowd, exclaimed, "Clerks, Bishops, this land is mine; it was the site of my father's house; the man for whom you pray took it from me by force to build his church. I have not sold my ground, I have not pawned it, I have not given it; it is my right, and I claim it. In the name of Heaven, I forbid that the body of the spoiler be placed there, and that it be covered by my Down the long minster's aisle Through mists of incense gleam'd. And by the torches' blaze They lower'd him, with the sound "Forbear! forbear!" it cried; 66 'By the violated hearth Which made way for yon proud shrine; 66 Hath borne for me and mine; By the house e'en here o'erthrown, Cumber our birth-place not! glebe." The man who spoke was named Asselin, and all the bystanders confirmed the truth of his assertions. The Bishops made him approach, and agreed to pay him sixty sous for the place of sepulture alone, and to compensate him justly for the rest of the ground.-THIERRY's Hist. of the Conquest of England by the Normans. "Will my sire's unransom'd field, O'er which your censers wave, To the buried spoiler yield Soft slumbers in the grave. "The tree before him fell Which we cherish'd many a year, But its deep root yet shall swell, And heave against his bier. "The land that I have till'd Hath yet its brooding breast With my home's white ashes fill'd, And it shall not give him rest! "Each pillar's massy bed Hath he wet by weeping eyes Away! bestow your dead Where no wrong against him cries." Shame glow'd on each dark face Of those proud and steel-girt men, And they bought with gold a place For their leader's dust e'en then. A little earth for him Whose banner flew so far! And a peasant's tale could dim The name, a nation's star! One deep voice thus arose From a heart which wrongs had riven; Oh! who shall number those That were but heard in Heaven? MRS. HEMANS. A MOTHER'S LOVE. HAST thou sounded the depths of yonder sea, Hast thou talk'd with the bless'd, of leading on Evening and morn hast thou watch'd the bee, Hast thou gone with the traveller, Thought, afar, There is not a grand inspiring thought, And ever, since earth began, that look There are teachings in earth, in sky, and air MISS EMILY TAYLOR. |