While glorying in his horrid feat,
The Serpent skulks to his retreat.
Racking with pain, the Horse retires;
Darts to the stream to cool his fires:
In vain; the cooling waters give
No healing power to bid him live:
Then rushes where his fellows throng,
Writhes the astonished herd among,
And dies, this counsel on his tongue.
"My comrades, see me dearly earn
"The wisdom you with ease may learn.
"If prudent, you will never roam;
"Safety and peace both dwell at home.
"Your hoofs innumerous far had scared
"The subtle beast with sting prepared;
"And subtler man himself, we find,
"Can snare alone our straying kind.
"Remember, then, your strength must be
"In friendship and in unity:
"And vainly they for pleasure rove,
"Who break the bonds of social love."
FROM THE PORT-FOLIO OF NEARCHUS.
SCHOOL SCENES RE-VISITED:
To taste that joy which all delight to taste,
And after-thought ne'er sighs o'er as misplaced;
When years had flown, I saw, with musing mien,
A Stranger tread the Academic Green.
The village slept in morn's young lustre grey;
The dewy grass in twinkling stillness lay;
Nor careless whistle of the early swain,
Nor drowsy horse-bells of the labouring wain,
Nor cow-boy's carol, (borne from copse unseen,
The fitful gale's own melodies between,)
Broke the soft silence of the tranquil scene.
Lo! how, with 'wildered and still changing pace,
Now faltering foot-falls in the verdure trace
His devious path-and now his steps pursue
With eager haste, and dash, the scattered dew:
While, ever restless-seeming thought, by turns,
His cheek, yet youthful, blanches both and burns!
O! why that paly tint, and mantling glow?
What mingled feelings in his bosom flow?
Whence the expression of that tear-filled eye?
That pensive look of tender interest why,
As, loitering long amid the beauteous scene,
He still, still treads the Academic Green?
Those scenes among his early childhood strayed;
That roof his shelter; on that turf he played.
Yon sacred portal still each sabbath day,
Had duly oped for him to praise and pray:
Each neighbouring mansion, and each cottage low,
Whose panes were glittering in the matin glow,
Had oft received him; and he now was come,
Where all was kindred still, and all was home.
BEHOLD the youth, whose brow has just began
To wear the mingled mien of nobler man!
While, conscious-glowing with his ripening powers,
Bright Science leads him to her cultured bowers;
And Fancy's ever rainbow-varied ray,
And Hope's sweet smiles, around him dart and play;
Sorrow perchance some rising joys may chill,
Yet Life's best bliss is his, augmenting still.
Changed is his mind!—for he could once peruse
With tasteless apathy a Milton's muse:
And he could slight That Book, in mercy given,
Whose words, life-beaming, light the path to Heaven.
No light its leaves among he then could see,
Nor mark its grand, sublime simplicity:
No import vast, unspeakable, appeared,
The sacred strains if e'er he read, or heard;
From grateful reverence rose no trembling prayer,
Nor seemed his own eternal interests there!
Bright as the dawning of the orient day,
Fair as the soft hues kindled by the ray,
When, glory bursting from the curtained night,
A new creation glows upon the sight;
And trees, plants, flowers, their sparkling vestures raise,
Glistening resplendent with a dewy blaze;
So, mildly lustrous, on his altered eye,
From manhood's dawn when childish shadows fly, -By TRUTH dispelled-as mists from morning rollKindling beneath that day-star of the soul,
The Sacred Scriptures beam; and pearls divine,
(Like orbs forth starting from the night-clouds,) shine,
-Rayless till then,-and flash from every line.
True, radiant ever as the orbs that lie
Profusely studded in the glittering sky,
Those pearls of life had shone-yet ne'er till now,
To him e'en glimmered their celestial glow.
True, Nature's sweets, ere smiled the joyous day,
Lived, though unkindled by the rising ray:
Yet, ere the shadowy veil of night had flown,
Those myriad sweets lay valueless, unknown:
No gem could twinkle in the dew-drop fair,
Amid' the gloom-though still the gem was there;
And hues on hues were embryo beauties vain,
Had day's blest dawning streamed not o'er the plain.
Pure as that dawn, and lustrous as its fire,
The light, the glow, that now his thoughts inspire.
Yes, 'tis a holy transport fills the youth,
As break thy rays around, O sacred TRUTH!
The deathless lightnings of thy hallowed flame
Dart to his soul, and thrill his throbbing frame;
Rush, all impassioned, to his heaven-ward eyes,
-There melt, in silent, tearful extacies.
By Thee upborne, in thought his spirit soars
Far through blue ether to the empyreal shores;
Regions of worlds enraptured walks among,
And joins the angels' throne-surrounding song.
By Thee, he sees those worlds anear him roll,
And still their loftier, greater, sees-his SOUL.
Approaching HIM, that awe-fraught soul who made,
Worlds, systems' selves, awhile revolve in shade!
-Earth binds the Spirit then-its wish denies-
Or, like the lark just fluttering on the rise,
Trembling 'twould strive to reach its kindred skies.
THE CONTRASTS.
Albert.-Matin Scenery.
THE sun looked out, and morning smiled;
The dews were fresh, the air was mild:
And, pensively as ALBERT roved,
Arose the thoughts most ALBERT loved:
Thoughts, the young bosom, pure as his,
Must ever love-a source of bliss,
Drawn from the laughing earth and sky,
When, ruddy from the orient, fly
The day-star's heralds, all unfurled
Their banners, to relume a world.
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