'What shall we do?'
Says the little boy to the little girl,
'I will kiss you!'

CLXXI

_THE AGE OF CHILDREN HAPPIEST_

_if they had still wit to understand it_

Laid in my quiet bed in study as I were
I saw within my troubled head a heap of thoughts appear,
And every thought did show so lively in mine eyes,
That now I sigh'd, and then I smiled, as cause of thoughts did rise.
I saw the little boy, in thought how oft that he
Did wish of God, to 'scape the rod, a tall young man to be,
The young man eke that feels his bones with pain opprest,
How he would be a rich old man, to live and lie at rest!
The rich old man that sees his end draw on so sore,
How would he be a boy again to live so much the more.
Whereat full oft I smiled, to see how all those three,
From boy to man, from man to boy, would chop and change degree.

_Earl of Surrey_

CLXXII

_THE NOBLE NATURE_

It is not growing like a tree
In bulk, doth make man better be;
Or standing long an oak three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere;
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night--
It was the plant and flower of Light.
In small proportions we just beauty see;
And in short measures life may perfect be.

_B. Jonson_

CLXXIII

_THE RAINBOW_

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The child is father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

_W. Wordsworth_

INDEX OF WRITERS

Allingham, W., XLIV, LVII, LXXXI
Arnold, M., XXXIV

Barbauld, A. L., LXI
Barnefield, R., LXXXIII
Barnes, W., XXI, LXX, CLXIX
Beddoes, T. L., CXXIV
Blake, W., I, LXXIX
Bourne, V., CL
Browning, E. B., CLXI
Browning, R., XXVII, L, LXXVIII
Bruce, M., XXX
Bryant, W. C., CXLI
Byron, Lord, CLXVI

Campbell, T., LXVII, LXXXVIII, LXXXIX, XCI, CVI, CXXI, CXXIII
Chatterton, T., CXVIII
Cibber, C., LXIX
Clare, J., CLIX
Coleridge, S. T., IV, XXIX, XXXVIII, CLXV
Cornwall, B., VI, XLIII, LVIII
Cowley, A., LXII
Cowper, W., XIII, XXXVI, XLIX, LXXV, XC, CXXII, CXXVII, CXXXVIII,
CXL, C