Be narrow ! -as the bud, the flame, the dart; Think what God doth for man; so mayst But narrow' in thy aim, not at thy heart. thou know How godlike service is, and serve also. DESPAIR. The shadow of a slave who turns his back On the light, and cries, "The universe is black!" WEALTH. Cornelia's jewels; blind old Milton's thought; Job's patience; and the lesson Lazarus taught. "No glimmer of light (I sighed) appears; I SAW a man, by some accounted wise, The Moslem's Fate and the Buddhist's For some things said and done before fears their eyes, "Some pray for wealth, and seem to pray aright; They heap until themselves are out of sight; Yet stand, in charities, not over shoes, "The strife for fame and the high praise of power, Is as a man, who, panting up a tower, Bears a great stone, then, straining all his thews, Heaves it, and sees it make What is the use?. "Should some new star, in the fair evening sky, Kindle a blaze, startling so keen an eye "Who'll care for me, when I am dead and gone? Not many now, and surely, soon, not one; "Spirit of Beauty! Breath of golden lyres ! Perpetual tremble of immortal wires! "Doth not all struggle tell, upon its brow, "Love first, with most, then wealth, dis- That he who makes it is not easy now, tinction, fame, Quicken the blood and spirit on the game. Some try them all, and all alike accuse: 'I have been all,' said one, 'And find that all is none.' What is the use? "In woman's love we sweetly are undone, What is the use? But hopes to be? Vain hope that dost abuse! Coquetting with thine eyes, And fooling him who sighs. What is the use? "Go pry the lintels of the pyramids; Lift the old kings' mysterious coffin-lids— This dust was theirs whose names these stones confuse, These mighty monuments What is the use? 1 ERASTUS W. ELLSWORTH. "Did not he sum it all, whose Gate of Pearls Blazed royal Ophir, Tyre, and Syrian girls, The great, wise, famous monarch of the Though rolled in grandeur vast, What is the use? “O, but to take, of life, the natural good, "Give me a hermit's life, without his beads, His lantern-jawed, and moral-mouthing creeds; Systems and creeds the natural heart abuse. What need of any book, What is the use? "I love, and God is love; and I behold Man, Nature, God, one triple chain of gold, Nature in all sole oracle and muse. What should I seek, at all, What is the use?" Seeing this man so heathenly inclined, Thou dost amaze me that thou dost mistake The wanderingrivers for the fountain lake. Plainly, this world is not a scope for bliss, What man is, in desires, 323 Come, here is work-and a rank fieldbegin. But what and where are we? what now Put thou thine edge to the great weeds |