That forms these tones of gladness we despise, That lifts their steps, that sparkles in their eyes; That talks or laughs or runs or shouts or plays, And speaks in all their looks and all their ways. CRABBE. SLAVERY THAT WAS. AGES', ages have departed Since the first dark vessel bore Weeping, for they were no more. Millions, millions have been slaughter'd Fields of travail, Where their bones till doomsday sleep. Mercy, mercy vainly pleading, Rent her garments, smote her breast, Come, and I will give you rest!" The slave trade between Africa and the West Indies began in the reign of Charles V. who granted to Chievres, one of his Flemish favourites, the exclusive right to import 4000 negroes into America. Tidings, tidings of salvation! Britons rose with one accord, Purg'd the plague-spot from our nation, Slaves no longer, Freemen, freemen of the Lord. J. MONTGOMERY. THE WATERFALL. I LOVE the roaring waterfall, They tell of ages long gone by, And beings that have pass'd away, Like voices from eternity. And, from the past, they seem to call My spirit to the realms beyond The ruin that must soon befal These scenes, where grandeur sits enthron'd: And thus its thunders sound to me Like voices from eternity. For I am on a torrent borne, That whirls me rapidly away, From morn to eve from eve to morn From month to month. from day to day: This mighty cataract's thundering sound But that dread hour will prove to me Eternity! that vast unknown! Who can that deep abyss explore, RAFFLES. A MOONLIGHT NIGHT. How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air; In full-orb'd glory yonder moon divine The desert-circle spreads, Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. SOUTHEY. CHILDHOOD'S TEAR. THE tear down childhood's cheek that flows, When next the summer breeze comes by, SCOTT. THE EAGLE AND CHILD. ' THERE was an Eagle, that had long acquir'd Savage, sublime; nor from the hills alone In the south A speck appear'd, enlarging; and ere long, Upward he came, ascending through the clouds, The world beneath. - "But what is in his grasp? And shot the apple from the youngling's head The Eagle and Child is so favourite a sign in various parts of Europe, that we must suppose that such an event may have happened, although there is no authentic testimony in proof of the fact. The Lammergeyer (lamb vulture) or beaked vulture of the Swiss and German Alps, is the largest European bird of prey, measuring four feet in length and from nine to ten in the expanse of its wings, a size little, if at all, inferior to the condor of the Andes. It unites the audacity and cruelty of the eagle with many of the habits of the vulture-preferring living prey, and boldly seizing the lambs from the fold, at the same time that it will feed upon a dead carcass, which it scents out with all the acuteness of smell of the vulture. Grant me the strength, the courage!" As he spoke, He aim'd, he fir'd; and at his feet they fell, Tho', such the grasp, not the child unhurt ev'n in death relin quish'd. ROGERS. CEDAR OF LEBANON.1 WHERE are the goodly cedars now, Recorders of their own sad story! They tell us of those pillar'd domes, The bitter thought, the fruitless sigh! For who can look on Lebanon, Or see unmov'd that front of snow, Upon the howling scene below? Whether the cedars of Lebanon were thinned to exhaustion by the "fourscore thousand hewers" (1 Kings, v. 15.) of king Solomon, or whether they have decayed from various natural causes, it is impossible to say; but few now exist, though some are of immense size, about thirty-six feet in circumference. They are held in great veneration, and a holiday is set apart on the mountain for the "Feast of cedars." |