orm which conscious worth is gracing,
A face where hope, the lines effacing
Of thought and care, bestowed, in truth,
To the quick eyes' imperfect tracing
The look and air of youth.

* * * * *

The signal given, with hasty strides
The sailors line their ships' dark sides,
Their anchors weighed, and from the shore
Each stately vessel slowly bore.
High o'er the deep and shadowed flood,
Upon his deck their leader stood,
And turned him to departed land,
And bowed his head and waved his hand.
And then, along the crowded strand,
A sound of many sounds combined,
That waxed and waved upon the wind,
Burst like heaven's thunder, deep and grand;
A lengthened peal, which paused, and then
Renewed, like that which loathly parts,
Oft on the ear returned again,
The impulse of a thousand hearts.
But as the lengthened shouts subside,
Distincter accents strike the ear,
Wafting across the current wide
Heart-uttered words of parting cheer:
"Oh, shall we ever see again
Those gallant souls across the main?
God keep the brave! God be their guide!
God bear them safe through storm and tide!
Their sails with favoring breezes swell!
O brave Columbus, fare thee well!"--_Ibid._

THE NAVIGATOR AND THE ISLANDS.

MATURIN MURRAY BALLOU, American author. Compiler of "Pearls of
Thought" and similar works. Born in Boston, Mass., April 14, 1822.
From "Due South," published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston,
1887.

The name of Columbus flashes a bright ray over the mental darkness of
the period in which he lived, for the world was then but just awakening
from the dull sleep of the Middle Ages. The discovery of printing
heralded the new birth of the republic of letters, and maritime
enterprise received a vigorous impulse. The shores of the Mediterranean,
thoroughly explored and developed, had endowed the Italian states with
extraordinary wealth, and built up a very respectable mercantile marine.
The Portuguese mariners were venturing farther and farther from the
peninsula, and traded with many distant ports on the extended coast of
Africa.

To the west lay what men supposed to be an illimitable ocean, full of
mystery, peril, and death. A vague conception that islands hitherto
unknown might be met afar off on that strange wilderness of waters was
entertained by some minds, but no one thought of venturing in search of
them