of the earth, and everything else here
created only to be sacrificed to you. It is you, on the contrary, whom God
has put into the world only for your people."

POEMS.

BY MRS. GEORGE P. MARSH.

I.

EXCELSIOR.

The earnest traveller, who would feed his eye
To fullness of content on Nature's charms,
Must not forever pace the easy plain.
No! he must climb the rugged mountain's side,
Scale its steep rocks, cling to its crumbling crags,
Nor fear to plunge in it's eternal snows.
And yet, if he be wise, he will not choose
To find the doubtful way alone, lest night
O'ertake him wandering, and her icy breath
Chill him to marble; not alone will risk
His foot unwonted on the glassy bed
Of rifted glacier, lest a step amiss
Should hurl him headlong down some fissure dark,
That yawns unseen--thence to arise no more.
But, furnished with a trusty guide, he mounts
From peak to peak in safety, though with toil.
Once on the lofty summit, he beholds
A glory in earth's kingdom all undreamed
Till now. The heavy curtains are withdrawn,
That shut the old horizon down so close;
And, lo! a world is lying at his feet!
A world without a flaw! What late he held
But as discordant fragments, now show forth,
From this high vantage ground, the perfect parts
Of a harmonious whole! He would not dare
To change one line in all that picture marvellous
Of hill and vale, bright stream and rolling sea,
O'erhung by the great sun that gildeth all.

And thou! If thou would'st truly feast thy soul
Upon the things invisible of Him
Who made the visible, fear not to tread
The awful heights of Thought! not to thyself
Sole trusting, lest thou perish in thy pride;
But following where Faith enlightened leads,
Thou shalt not miss or fall. The way is rough,
But never toil did win reward so rich
As that she findeth here. At every step
New prospects open, and new wonders shine!
Mount higher still, and whatsoe'er thy pains,
Thou'lt envy not the sleeper at thy feet!
Visions of truth and beauty shall arise
So multiplied, so glorified, so vast,
That thy enraptured soul amazed shall cry,
"No longer Earth, but the new Heavens I see
Lighted forever by the throne of God."

II.

FABLE.

A widow, feeble, old and lonely,
Whose flock once numbered many a score,