stole the livery of the court of Heaven
To serve the devil in.

* * * * *

THOMAS HOOD.
1798-1845.

_The Death-Bed_.

We watched her breathing through the night,
Her breathing soft and low,
in her breast the wave of life
Kept heaving to and fro.

* * * * *

Our very hopes belied our fears,
Our fears our hopes belied;
We thought her dying when she slept,
And sleeping when she died.

* * * * *

_The Bridge of Sighs_.

One more Unfortunate
Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death.

Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care;
Fashioned so slenderly
Young, and so fair!

* * * * *

SAMUEL ROGERS.

_Human Life_.

A guardian-angel o'er his life presiding,
Doubling his pleasures, and his cares dividing.

* * * * *

The soul of music slumbers in the shell,
Till waked and kindled by the master's spell;
And feeling hearts--touch them but rightly--pour
A thousand melodies unheard before!
Then, never less alone than when alone,
Those that he loved so long and sees no more,
Loved and still loves--not dead, but gone before--
He gathers round him.

* * * * *

_A Wish_.

Mine be a cot beside the hill;
A beehive's hum shall soothe my ear;
A willowy brook, that turns a mill,
With many a fall, shall linger near.

RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES.

_Tragedy of the Lac de Gaube_.

Stanza 2.

But on and up, where Nature's heart
Beats strong amid the hills.

* * * * *

_The Men of Old_.

Great thoughts, great feelings, came to them,
Like instincts, unawares.

* * * * *

A man's best things are nearest him,
Lie close about his feet.

* * * * *

BRYAN W. PROCTOR.

_The Sea_.

The sea! the sea! the open sea!
The blue, the fresh, the ever free!

* * * * *

I never was on the dull, tame shore,
But I loved the great sea more and more.

* * * * *

ALFRED TENNYSON.

_Locksley Hall_.

He will hold thee, when his passion shall have
spent its novel force,
Something better than his dog, a little dearer
than his horse.

I will take some savage woman, she shall rear
my dusky race.

*