And richer store of sap to thrill

Into new fruitage year by year.

And though the Wintry days be drear, Does not my strength support thee still?"

Only a Letter.

NLY a letter that came last night,

A dear, little love-bird, winged with white,
That whispered the words in a maiden's ear
Of the sweetest song that a maid could hear.
And sang it over and over again,

Aye! the charmed din, and the soft refrain,
And the burden was this-so old, so new,
"Do you love me as I love you?"

Only a letter, by Cupid sent,

That maketh the maiden's heart content,
That bringeth the blushes sweet and shy,
And the tell-tale light to her azure eye!

A missive read in the shadiest nook

And dearer far than the choicest book,

Then hid with the precious things and few,

Tied with a band of love's own blue!

Only a letter that came this morn

With the heaviest weight that could be borne,

And yet it seemed, to the man in gray,
But a trifle light as he passed his way.

A wife is stunned by the sudden blow,

A mother's heart is filled with woe,
For the bird of omen tells a tale

That would make the stoutest spirit quail.

Only a letter, thin and white,

That has robbed a home of its joy and light,
That has hung, by the cruel news it bore,
The funereal crape on the outer door!

A missive clutched with hopes and fears,
And drenched with the mourner's scalding tears;
Read and re-read, with lips grown white,
Then laid, with a shudder, out of sight!

Oh! news of joy! Oh! news of pain!
Ye are mingled here like the sun and rain!
And joyous hearts in this world below
Must sometime feel the weight of woe!

Ring on, sweet wedding-bells to-day!

And fresh young hearts be glad and gay;

It is time enough to think of ill

When our light is dimmed by the Father's will.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE was born in Devonshire, England, October 20th, 1772, and he died in 1834. The poet was educated at Christ's Hospital, and Cambridge University. Coleridge was a great reader, and, mentally, he devoured the contents of whole libraries;

yet he was a builder of air-castles,-always forming

great and noble outlines, but seldom filling them.

"Much of the poet's life was spent in poverty and dependence, amidst disappointment and ill-health, and in irregularity caused by the excessive use of opium." He was almost without ambition. His father being dead, young Coleridge, at the age of fourteen, tried to apprentice himself to a shoemaker, although, at this time, he possessed an immense stock of learning. The master of the school interfered, and kept him at his studies. In the poet's first year at college, he gained the gold medal for a Greek ode. His debts and attachment to the principles of the French Revolution forced him to leave college suddenly. Poverty forced him to become a soldier under an assumed name, but he neve advanced beyond the awkward squad. A Latin sentence which the captain discovered, led him to enquire for