And canst thou thus requite the care
Thy sire bestowed, the love he felt;
The tender, earnest, heartfelt prayer,

He breathed, when round the altar knelt? Canst thou forget thy mother's tears,

When deep affliction brought thee low; Her bitter anguish, hopes, and fears, While bending o'er thy burning brow?

Canst thou forget the happy days,

That in thy sister's sunny smiles

Thou'st basked; her loving blue-eyed gaze
When she has played her harmless wiles?
In pleasure's bowers there may be flowers,
But transient is their loveliness.

Search all thy hours with all thy powers,
There's nothing like domestic bliss.

Those scenes may, for a time, destroy
A sense of guilt, and yield delight;
But soon, full soon, all these will cloy,
And conscience stern assert her right.
"Tis vain to quaff the maddening drink,
With gay associates to dwell;

Thou must, thou canst not help but think,
And those dark thoughts will make thy hell.

Rash youth! be wise, retrace thy steps!
Oh! yet forgiveness may be found!
A parent's love has heights and depths,

That line can't scale, nor plummet sound.
Return! there's hope; proceed! there's none;
Despair will haunt thy wretched path.
And oh! thy lot, when life is gone,

Will be divine, consuming wrath!

LIFE.

LIFE, life, immortal life!

To be and never cease to be!

O deep and wond'rous mystery

Birth without death-a ceaseless strife,

With burning glow

To search and know

The hidden truths of dread Eternity.

On from the shoreless sea,

The everflowing, sparkling stream

Dances through Time. Our fitful dream,

Soon past, into Eternity

We drop. From earth,

When tried our worth,

We pass again up to the Great Supreme.

Immortal life-from first!

But then (put off this mortal dress, And robed in light), we onward press To prouder eminence; and thirst

For purer rills,

From nobler hills,

And brighter visions of unclouded bliss.

O for one blessed glance

From the celestial, flowery mount, Whence gushes the eternal fountAround creation's vast expanse!

O then would be

Life's mystery

Unfolded free,

And earth be valued at its just amount.

A SUMMER EVENING SCENE.

Thy charms are ever new, fair Nature!-here,
Beneath this wood-spring's deep sequestered shade,

How sweet to ruminate! while here and there
The sunlight dances in the verdant glade;

Or, through the trees, in shafts of burnished gold, Darts down into the lonely woodland lake, Whose placid waters to the eye unfold

A fairy land of skies, fields, flowers, and brake.

L