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THE MOUNTAIN FORGE.

From thirty to sixty, fair, plain, red, and pale,

Of every description all flocked to the sale.

The auctioneer then in his labors began,
And called out aloud, as he held up a man,
"How much for a bachelor-who wants to buy?"
In a twink every maiden responded, “ I—I.”
In short, at a hugely extravagant price,
The bachelors all were sold off in a trice;

And forty old maidens, some younger, some older,
Each lugged an old bachelor home on her shoulder.

THE MOUNTAIN FORGE.-BY T. IRWIN.

N the gloomy mountain's lap
Lies the village, dark and quiet;

All have passed their labor-nap,
And the peasant, half-awaking,
A blind, yawning stretch is taking,
Ere he turns to rest again;
There is not a sound of riot,
Not a sound save that of pain,

Where some aged bones are aching;

Lo! the moon is in the wane-
Even the moon a drowse is taking.

By the blossomed sycamore,

Filled with bees when day is o'er it,
Stands the Forge, with smoky door;
Idle chimney, blackened shed-
All its merry din is dead;
Broken shaft and wheel disused

Strew the umbered ground before it,
And the streamlet's voice is fused
Faintly with the cricket's chirrup,
As it tinkles clear and small
Round the glooming hearth and wall,
Hung with rusty shoe and stirrup.

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142

THE MOUNTAIN FORGE.

Yes, the moon is in the wane;

Hark! the sound of horses tramping
Down the road with might and main;

Through the slaty runnels crumbling,
Comes a carriage, swinging, rumbling;
Round the steep quick corner turning,
Plunge the horses, puff'd and champing;
Like the eyes of weary ghosts,

The red lamps are dimly burning.

Now 'tis stopt-and one springs down,
And cries unto the sleeping town-
"Ho! for a blacksmith-ho! awake!
Bring him who will his fortune make—
The best, the best the village boasts!"

Up springs the brawny blacksmith now,
And rubs his eyes, and brushes off
The iron'd sweat upon his brow,
Hurries his clothes and apron on,
And calls his wife and wakes his son,
And opes the door to the night air,
And gives a husky cough;

Then hastens to the horses standing

With drooping heads and hotly steaming,
And sees a dark-eyed youth out-handing

A sweet maiden, light and beaming.

He strikes a lusty shoulder-blow:

"Four shoes," he cries," are quickly wanting;'

His face is in an eager glow.

"Take my purse and all that's in its

Heart, if you in twenty minutes

Fit us for the road." The smith

Looks at the wearied horses panting,

Then at the clustering gold;

And thinks, as he falls to his work,
He dreams-a mind-dream, rusty murk,
That this is but a fairy myth,

A tale to-morrow to be told.

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THE MOUNTAIN FORGE.

But now the forge-fire spirts alive

To the old bellows softly purring, In the red dot the irons dive;

Brighter and broader it is glowing,

Stronger and stronger swells the blowing;
The bare armed men stand round and mutter
Lowly while the cinders stirring-
Ho! out it flames 'mid sparkles dropping,
Splitting, glittering, flying, hopping;
Heavily now the hammers batter,
All is glaring din and clatter.

Now the forge is in a glow,

Bellows roaring, irons ringing;
Three are made, and blow on blow
Sets the patient anvil singing;
"Another shoe-another, hark ye,"

Ra-ra, ra-ra, ra-ra-rap;

Split the ruddy sheddings sparky,

Ra-ra, ra-ra, ra-ra-rap;

Strikes the quick and lifted hammer

On the anvil bright and worn;
While amid the midnight there,
Beyond the noisy streaming glare,

With a yellow misty glamor,

Looks the moon upon the corn.

On the hill-road, moving nigher,
Hurries something dimly shooting,
Glances from two eyes of fire:

"Haste, O haste!" they're working steady;
Cries the blacksmith, "now they're ready."

Pats the pawing horses, testing

On the ground their iron footing;

Helps the lady, lightly-resting

On his black arm up the carriage; Takes the gold with doubt and wonder-And as o'er the stones and gorses Tramp the hot pursuing horses,

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144

NECESSITY OF RELIGION.

Cries with voice of jolly thunder,

"Trust me, they won't stop the marriage!"

Scarce a minute's past away

When, O magic scene! the village
Lies asleep all hushed and gray;

But hark! who throng again the street
With roaring voices, brows of heat?
Come they here the town to pillage?
No. Across the road, o'erthrown,
Carriage creaks and horses moan;
"Blacksmith, ho!" the travellers cry—
Not a taper cheers the eye;
While a-top a distant hill

Flushed with dawn-light's silent warning,
Speed the lovers toward the morning,

With a rapid right good-will;

While behind that father fretting,

The pale night-sick moon is setting.

G

NECESSITY OF RELIGION.-VICTOR HUGO.

ENTLEMEN, it is not because I would prevent religious

instruction, but because I would prevent the union of Church and State, that I oppose this bill. So far from wishing to proscribe religious instruction, I maintain that it is more essential at this day than ever. The more a man grows, the more he ought to believe. As he draws nearer to God, the better ought he to recognize His existence. It is the wretched tendency of our times to base all calculations, all efforts, on this life only,—to crowd everything into this narrow span. In limiting man's end and aim to this terrestrial and material existence, we aggravate all his miseries by the terrible negation at its close. We add to the burthens of the unfortunate the insupportable weight of a hopeless hereafter. God's law of suffering we convert, by our unbelief, into hell's law of despair. Hence these deplorable social convulsions.

That I am one of those who desire-I will not say with sincerity merely, but with inexpressible ardor, and by all possible means

of

NECESSITY OF RELIGION.

145

But the first and How do our finite

-to ameliorate the material condition of the suffering classes in this life, no one in this Assembly will doubt. greatest of ameliorations is to impart hope. miseries dwindle in the presence of an infinite hope! Our first duty, then, whether we be clergymen or laymen, bishops or legislators, priests or writers, is not merely to direct all our social energies to the abatement of physical misery, but, at the same time, to lift every drooping head toward Heaven-to fix the attention and the faith every human soul on that ulterior life, where justice shall preside, where justice shall be awarded! Let us proclaim it aloud to all, No one shall unjustly or needlessly suffer! Death is restitution: The law of the material world is gravitation; of the moral world, equity. At the end of all, re-appears God. Let us not forgetlet us everywhere teach it-There would be no dignity in life, it would not be worth the holding, if in death we wholly perish. All that lightens labor and sanctifies toil,--all that renders man brave, good, wise, patient, benevolent, just, humble, and, at the same time, great, worthy of intelligence, worthy of liberty,—is to have perpetually before him the vision of a better world, darting its rays of celestial splendor through the dark shadows of this present life.

For myself, since chance will have it that words of such gravity should at this time fall from lips of such little authority, let me be permitted here to say, and to proclaim from the elevation of this tribune, that I believe, that I most profoundly and reverently believe, in that better world. It is to me more real, more substantial, more positive in its effects, than this evanescence which we cling to and call life. It is unceasingly before my eyes. I believe in it with all the strength of my convictions; and, after many struggles and much study and experience, it is the supreme certainty of my reason, as it is the supreme consolation of my soul!

I desire, therefore, most sincerely, strenuously, and fervently, that there should be religious instruction; but let it be the instruction of the Gospel, and not of a party. Let it be sincere, not hypocritical. Let it have heaven, not earth, for its end!

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