Blessed! for she shelter'd him

From the damp and chilling air;-
Blessed, blessed! for she lay

With such a babe in one blest bed,
Close as babes and mothers lie!
Blessed, blessed evermore,

With her virgin lips she kiss'd,
With her arms, and to her breast,
She embraced the babe divine,
Her babe divine the virgin mother!
There lives not on this ring of earth
A mortal that can sing her praise.
Mighty mother, virgin pure,
In the darkness and the night

For us she bore the heavenly Lord.

1810.

"Most interesting is it to consider the effect, when the feelings are wrought above the natural pitch by the belief of something mysterious, while all the images are purely natural: then it is that religion and poetry strike deepest."-Biog. Lit. vol. i.

p. 204.

ISRAEL'S LAMENT

ON THE DEATH OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES.

FROM THE HEBREW OF HYMAN HURWITZ.

MOURN, Israel! Sons of Israel, mourn!
Give utterance to the inward throe,

As wails of her first love forlorn

The virgin clad in robes of woe!

Mourn the young mother snatch'd away
From light and life's ascending sun!
Mourn for the babe, death's voiceless prey,
Earn'd by long pangs, and lost ere won!

Mourn the bright rose that bloom'd and went,

Ere half disclosed its vernal hue!

Mourn the green bud, so rudely rent,
It brake the stem on which it grew!

Mourn for the universal woe,

With solemn dirge and falt'ring tongue; For England's Lady is laid low,

So dear, so lovely, and so young!

The blossoms on her tree of life

Shone with the dews of recent bliss;Translated in that deadly strife

She plucks its fruit in Paradise.

Mourn for the prince, who rose at morn
To seek and bless the firstling bud
Of his own rose, and found the thorn,
Its point bedew'd with tears of blood.

Mourn for Britannia's hopes decay'd;-
Her daughters wail their dear defence,
Their fair example, prostrate laid,

Chaste love, and fervid innocence!

O Thou! who mark'st the monarch's path,
To sad Jeshurun's sons attend!

Amid the lightnings of thy wrath
The showers of consolation send!

Jehovah frowns!-The Islands bow,
And prince and people kiss the rod !
Their dread chastising judge wert Thou―
Be Thou their comforter, O God!

SENTIMENTAL.

THE rose that blushes like the morn
Bedecks the valleys low;

And so dost thou, sweet infant corn,
My Angelina's toe.

But on the rose there grows a thorn
That breeds disastrous woe;
And so dost thou, remorseless corn,
On Angelina's toe.

THE ALTERNATIVE.

THIS way or that, ye Powers above me!
I of my grief were rid—

Did Enna either really love me,

Or cease to think she did.

THE EXCHANGE.

WE pledged our hearts, my love and I,—
I in my arms the maiden clasping ;
I could not tell the reason why,
But, oh! I trembled like an aspen.

Her father's love she bade me gain;
I went, and shook like any reed!

I strove to act the man-in vain !

We had exchanged our hearts indeed.

1825.

1826.

1826.

WHAT IS LIFE?

RESEMBLES life what once was deem'd of light,
Too ample in itself for human sight?
An absolute self-an element ungrounded-
All that we see, all colours of all shade
By encroach of darkness made?-

Is very life by consciousness unbounded?

And all the thoughts, pains, joys of mortal breath, A war-embrace of wrestling life and death?

1829.

INSCRIPTION FOR A TIME-PIECE.

Now! It is gone.-Our brief hours travel post,
Each with its thought or deed, its Why or How:-
But know, each parting hour gives up a ghost
To dwell within thee—an eternal Now!

1830.

ΕΠΙΤΑΦΙΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΓΡΑΠΤΟΝ.

QUE linquam, aut nihil, aut nihili, aut vix sunt mea ;Do Morti;-reddo cætera, Christe! tibi. [sordes

A COURSE OF LECTURES.

PROSPECTUS.

THERE are few families, at present, in the higher and middle classes of English society, in which literary topics and the productions of the Fine Arts, in some one or other of their various forms, do not occasionally take their turn in contributing to the entertainment of the social board, and the amusement of the circle at the fire side. The acquisitions and attainments of the intellect ought, indeed, to hold a very inferior rank in our estimation, opposed to moral worth, or even to professional and specific skill, prudence, and industry. But why should they be opposed, when they may be made subservient merely by being subordinated? It can rarely happen, that a man of social disposition, altogether a stranger to subjects of taste, (almost the only ones on which persons of both sexes can converse with a common interest) should pass through the world without at times feeling dissatisfied with himself. The best proof of this is to be found