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No more in noontide sun I bask;
My authorship's an endless task;

My head 's ne'er out of school ;
My heart is pained with scorn and slight,
I have too many foes to fight;

My friends grow strangely cool.

The very chum, that shared my cake,
Holds out so cold a hand to shake,
It makes me shrink and sigh;
On this I will not dwell and hang,
The changeling will not feel a pang
Though this should meet his eye.

No skies so blue or so serene
As then; no leaves look half so green
As clothed the play-ground tree;
All things I loved are altered so!
Nor does it ease my heart to know
That change resides in me.

O for the garb that marked the boy,
The trousers made of corduroy,

Well inked with black and red;
The crownless hat ne'er deemed an ill
It only let the sunshine still
Repose upon my head.

O for the ribbon round the neck!
The careless dogs' ears apt to deck
My book and collar both!
How can this formal man be styled
Mere.y an Alexandrine child

A boy of larger growth?

O for that small, small beer anew;
And (heaven's own type) that mild sky blue

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The "

omne bene" Christmas come.
The prize of merit won for home!
Merit had prizes then;

But now I write for days and days

For fame a deal of empty praise,

Without the silver pen!

Then home, sweet home! the crowded coach,
The joyous shout, the loud approach,

The winding horns like rams'!

The meeting sweet that made me thrill,
The sweetmeats almost sweeter still
No "satis" to the "jams"!

119. Happiness.

WHAT is earthly happiness?-that phantom, of which we hear so much and see so little; whose promises are con

Fagged, beat, compelled to drudge. — Fag, a laborious drudge, a drudge for another. In the English schools, this term is applied to a boy who does menial services for another of a higher form or class. Omne bene, supreme good Satis. sufficiency, enough.

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stantly given, and constantly broken, but as constantly believed; that cheats us with the sound instead of the substance, and with the blossom instead of the fruit. Anticipation is her herald, but Disappointment is her companion; the first addresses itself to our imagination, that would believe; but the latter to our experience, that must.

Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route. Aristippus pursued her in pleasure, Socrates in wisdom, and Epicurus in both; she received the attentions of each, but bestowed her endearments on none of them. Warned by their failure, the Stoic adopted another mode of preferring his suit; he thought, by slandering, to obtain her; by shunning, to win her; and proudly presumed, that, by fleeing her, she would turn and follow him.

She is deceitful as the calm that precedes the hurricane; smooth as the water at the edge of the cataract; and beautiful as the rainbow, that smiling daughter of the storm; but, like the image in the desert, she tantalizes us with a delusion that distance creates and that contiguity destroys; yet, often, when unsought, she is found, and when unexpected, often obtained; while those who search for her the most diligently, fail the most, because they seek her where she is not. Anthony sought her in love; Brutus in glory; Cæsar, in dominion. The first found disgrace; the second, disgust; the last, ingratitude; and each, destruction.

To some she is more kind, but not less cruel; she hands them her cup, and they drink even to stupefaction, until they doubt whether they are men— with Philip; or dream that they are gods- with Alexander. On some she smiles, as on Napoleon, with an aspect more bewitching than that of an Italian sun; but it is only to make her frown the more terrible, and, by one short caress, to imbitter the pangs of separation.

Ambition, avarice, love, all these seek her, alone. Alas! they are neither presented to her

and her

nor will

she come to them. She despatches, however, to them her envoys. To ambition, she sends power, tc avarice, wealth; and to love, she sends jealousy. Alas! what are these but so many other names for vexation or disappointment? Neither is she to be won by flatteries nor bribes: she is to be gained by waging war against her enemies, much sooner than by paying any particular court to herself. Those that conquer her adversaries will find that they need not go to her, for she will come unto them.

None bid so high for her as kings; few are more willing, none more able, to purchase her alliance at the fullest price But she has no more respect for kings than for their subjects; she mocks them, indeed, with the empty show of a visit, by sending to their palaces all her equipage, her pomp, and her train; but she comes not herself. What, then, detains her? She is travelling incognito, to hold an interview with Contentment, and to partake of a conversation and a dinner of herbs, with some humble, but virtuous peasant, in a cottage.

120. Westminster Abbey.

He who first raised from Gothic gloom
Our tongue- here Chaucer finds a tomb!
Here gentle Spenser, foulest stain

Of his own Gloriana's reign!

And he who mocked at Art's control,

The mighty master of the soul,

Shakspeare, our Shakspeare!- By his side

The man who poured his mighty tide!

The brightest union genius wrought

Was Garrick's voice and Shakspeare's thought.
Here Milton's heaven-strung lyre reposes!

Here Dryden's meteor brilliance closes '

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Stars, numerous as the host of heaven,
And radiant as the flashing levin!
Lo, Chatham! the immortal name
Graven in the patriot's heart of flame!
Here, his long course of honors run,
The mighty father's mighty son!
And here- ah! wipe that falling tear!
Last, best, and greatest, Fox lies here!
Here sleep they all; on the wide earth
There dwell not men of mortal birth
Would dare contest Fame's glorious race
With those who fill this little space.
O, could some wizard spell revive
The buried dead, and bid them live,
It were a sight to charm dull age,
The infant's roving eye engage,

The wounded heal, the deaf man cure,
The widow from her tears allure.

And they do live! - Our Shakspeare's strains
Die not whilst English tongue remains ;

Whilst light and colors rise and fly,

Lives Newton's deathless memory;

Whilst freedom warms one English breast,
There Fox's honored name shall rest.
Yes, they do live! - they live to inspire
Fame's daring sons with hallowed fire;

Like sparks from heaven, they make the blaze,
The living light of genius' rays;

Bid England's glories flash across the gloom,
And catch her heroes' spirit from their tomb.

MISS MITFORD.

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