Then, since this world is vain,

And volatile and fleet,

Why should I lay up earthly joys,

Where rust corrupts, where moth destroys,
And cares and sorrows eat?
Why fly from ill

With anxious skill,

When soon this hand will freeze, this throbbing heart be still?

Come, Disappointment, come!
Thou art not stern to me;
Sad Monitress! I own thy sway,
A votary sad in early day,

I bend my knee to thee,
From sun to sun

My race will run,

I only bow, and say, "My God, thy will be done!

KIRKE WHITE.

MORNING ON THE PERSIAN GULF.

THE morn hath risen clear and calm,
And o'er the Green Sea1 palely shines,
Revealing Bahrein's 2 groves of palm,
And lighting Kishma's 3 amber vines.

1 The Persian Gulf.

• Islands in the Gulf celebrated for their pearl fishery. 3 A large island in the gulf, not far from Ormuz. Sultana raisin of commerce is the grape of Kishma.

The

Fresh smell the shores of Araby,
While breezes from the Indian sea
Blow round Selama's1 sainted cape,
And curl the shining flood beneath, -
Whose waves are rich with many a grape,
And cocoa-nut and flowery wreath,
Which pious seamen as they pass'd,
Had tow'rd that holy headland cast-
Oblations to the Genii there
For gentle skies and breezes fair!
The nightingale now bends her flight
From the high trees, where all the night
She sung so sweet, with morn to listen;
And hides her from the morning star

Where thickets of pomegranate glisten
In the clear dawn-bespangled o'er
With dew, whose night drops would not stain
The best and brightest scimitar 2
That ever youthful Sultan wore
On the first morning of his reign!

MOORE

THE SPANISH ARMADA:

ATTEND all ye who list to hear our noble England's praise,

I tell of the thrice-famous deeds she wrought in ancient days,

1 The genuine name of the headland at the entrance of the Gulf, commonly called Cape Musseldom. The Indians, when they pass the promontory, throw cocoa-nuts, fruits, or flowers into the sea, to secure a propitious voyage.

In speaking of the climate, an author says, "The dew is of such a pure nature, that if the brightest scimitar should be exposed to it all night, it would not receive the least rust."

When that great fleet invincible against her bore

in vain

The richest spoils of Mexico, the stoutest hearts of Spain.

It was about the lovely close of a warm summer

day,

There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail to Plymouth Bay;

Her crew hath seen Castile's black fleet, beyond Aurigny's isle,

1

At earliest twilight, on the waves lie heaving many a mile;

At sunrise she escap'd their van, by God's especial

grace;

And the tall Pinta, till the noon, had held her close in chase.

Forthwith a guard at every gun was plac'd along the wall;

The beacon blaz'd upon the roof of Edgecumb's 3 lofty

hall;

Many a light fishing-bark put out to pry along the

coast;

And with loose rein and bloody spur rode inland many a post.

While, his white hair unbonneted, the stout old sheriff comes;

Behind him march the halberdiers, before him sound the drums;

His yeomen, round the market-cross, make clear an ample space,

For there behoves him to set up the standard of her Grace.

And haughtily the trumpets peal, and gaily dance the bells,

As slow upon the labouring wind the royal blazon swells.

1 Alderney.
8 Near Plymouth.

2 One of the Spanish ships.

A A

Look how the lion of the sea lifts up his ancient

crown,

[down. And underneath his deadly paw treads the gay lilies So stalk'd he when he turn'd to fight, on that fam'd Picard field, [shield: Bohemia's plume, Genoa's bow, and Cæsar's eagle So glar'd he when at Agincourt in wrath he turn'd

to bay,

And crush'd and torn beneath his claws the princely hunter lay.

Ho! strike the flag-staff deep, sir knight: ho! scatter flowers, fair maids:

Ho! gunners, fire a loud salute: ho! gallants, draw your blades:

Thou sun, shine on her joyously-ye breezes, waft her wide;

[pride. Our glorious Semper Eadem 1 the banner of our The freshening breeze of eve unfurl'd that banner's

massy fold,

The parting gleam of sunshine kiss'd that haughty scroll of gold;

Night sank upon that dusky beach, and on the purple sea,

Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be.

From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to

Milford Bay,

[day; That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the For swift to east and swift to west the warning radiance spread;

High on St. Michael's Mount 2 it shone-it shone on Beachy Head. 3

The motto of Queen Elizabeth.

2 A remarkable insulated rock opposite the town of Marazion in Cornwall, connected with the mainland by a causeway over the sands.

3 Sussex.

Far on the deep the Spaniards saw, along each southern shire,

Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire;

The fisher left his skiff to rock on Tamar's glittering waves,

The rugged miners pour'd to war from Mendip's 2 sunless caves.

O'er Longleat's3 towers, o'er Cranbourn's 4 oaks, the fiery herald flew,

He rous'd the shepherds of Stonehenge, the rangers of Beaulieu. 5

Right sharp and quick the bells all night rang out from Bristol town,

And ere the day three hundred horse had met on Clifton down;

The sentinel on Whitehall Gate look'd forth into the night,

And saw o'erhanging Richmond Hill the streak of bloodshed light;

Then bugle's note and cannon's roar the death-like silence broke,

And with one start, and with one cry, the royal city woke:

At once on all her stately gates arose the answering

fires;

At once the wild alarum clash'd from all her reeling spires;

Rises in Cornwall and flows into Plymouth Sound, forming, almost entirely throughout its course, the boundary be tween Cornwall and Devonshire.

The Mendip hills contain zinc, calamine, and other minerals, and are celebrated for the cavern at Wokey, which yields only in extent to the Peak.

Near Warminster, Wilts, the seat of the Marquis of Bath. 4 Cranbourne chase, Dorsetshire.

5 New Forest, Hampshire.