some fear,
And hopes, in spite of pain;
If Winter bellow from the north,
Soon the sweet Spring comes dancing forth,
And Nature laughs again.

What if thine heaven be overcast?
The dark appearance will not last;
Expect a brighter sky;
The god that strings the silver bow,
Awakes sometimes the Muses, too,
And lays his arrows by.

If hindrances obstruct thy way,
Thy magnanimity display,
And let thy strength be seen;
But oh! if Fortune fill thy sail
With more than a propitious gale,
Take half thy canvas in.

_Cowper._

TO PYRRHA.

(_By Horace._)

What youth, O Pyrrha! blooming fair,
With rose-twined wreath and perfumed hair,
Woos thee beneath yon grotto's shade,
Urgent in prayer and amorous glance?
For whom dost thou thy tresses braid,
Simple in thine elegance?
Alas! full soon shall he deplore
Thy broken faith, thy altered mien:
Like one astonished at the roar
Of breakers on a leeward shore,
Whom gentle airs and skies serene
Had tempted on the treacherous deep,
So he thy perfidy shall weep
Who now enjoys thee fair and kind,
But dreams not of the shifting wind.
Thrice wretched they, deluded and betrayed,
Who trust thy glittering smile and Siren tongue!
I have escaped the shipwreck, and have hung
In Neptune's fane my dripping vest displayed
With votive tablet on his altar laid,
Thanking the sea-god for his timely aid.

_Lord Ravensworth._

SENECA.

Seneca was born 7 B.C. and died 65 A.D. His writings were of a
philosophical nature. His character was much doubted. His great
misfortune was to have known Nero, who ordered him to be put to death,
to which he merely replied that he who had murdered his brother and
his mother could not be expected to spare his teacher. He had been
absent from Rome some time, and when he returned to visit his mother
in the country, he was spied, and Nero sent a squad of armed men to
the house to ask him to choose the manner of his death. His fame rests
on his numerous writings, which, with all their faults, have great
merits. His principal works, which are of a philosophical character,
are essays "On Anger," "On Consolation," "On Providence," "On
Tranquillity of Mind," "On the Firmness of the Wise Man," "On
Cle