MEN call you fair, and you do credit it,
For that yourself ye daily such do see;
But the true fair, that is the gentle wit,

And virtuous mind, is much more prais'd of me: For all the rest, however fair it be,

Shall turn to nought and lose that glorious hue; But only that is permanent and free

From frail corruption, that doth flesh ensue. That is true beauty: that doth argue you

To be divine, and born of heavenly seed; Deriv'd from that fair Spirit, from whom all true And perfect beauty did at first proceed;

He only fair, and what he fair hath made;
All other fair, like flowers, untimely fade.
EDMUND SPenser.

I WOULD give up my bachelor life,
Could I meet with a girl to adore me.
With riches-a home-and a wife-
What a life would be open before me!
My bliss would be triply secure,

And my future unclouded and sunny;
She'd love me for love, I am sure,

Or-if not-she could love me for money! H. S. LEIGH.

Carols of Cockayne. (Chatto and Windus.)

UNFADING BEAUTY.
HEE that loves a rosie cheeke,

Or a corall lip admires,
Or from star-like eyes doth seeke
Fuell to maintaine his fires,
As old time makes these decay,
So his flames must waste away.
But a smooth and stedfast mind,
Gentle thoughts and calme desires,
Hearts with equal love combin'd,

Kindle never-dying fires:
Where these are not I despise
Lovely cheekes, or lips, or eyes.

THOMAS CAREW.

I HAVE heard of reasons manifold Why Love must needs be blind, But this the best of all I hold

His eyes are in his mind.

What outward form and feature are
He guesseth but in part;
But what within is good and fair
He seeth with the heart.

S. T. COLERidge.

'Tis not the lily brow I prize,
Nor roseate cheeks nor sunny eyes,
Enough of lilies and of roses!

A thousandfold more dear to me

The look that gentle Love discloses,That look which Love alone can see. S. T. COLEridge.

She's blooming as May,
Brisk, lively and gay,

The Graces play all round about her;
She's prudent and witty,
Sings wondrously pretty,
And there is no living without her.
MATTHEW PRIOR.

My reason bends to what thy eyes ordain ; For I was born to love, and thou to reign. MATTHEW PRIOK.

THE breezes love the blossom
That gives them sweet perfume;
The roses love the bosom

Whereon they blush and bloom.
The winter loves the robin,

Because it is so true,
And I love you, my darling,
Because-because I do!

F. E. WEATHERLY. Dresden China. (Diprose and Bateman.)

Be it ryght, or wrong, these men among
On women do complayne;
Affyrmynge this, how that it is

A labour spent in vayne,

To love them wele; for never a dele

They love a man agayne:

For late a man do what he can,

Theyr favour to attayne,
Yet, yf a newe do them persue,

Theyr first true lover than

Laboureth for nought; for from her thought He is a banyshed man.

I say not nay, but that all day

It is bothe writ and sayd

That womans faith is, as who sayth,

All utterly decayd;

LOVE.

LOVE is a thing of frail and delicate growth;
Soon checked, soon fostered; feeble, and yet
strong:

It will endure much, suffer long, and bear
What would weigh down an angel's wing to earth,
And yet mount heavenward; but not the less,
It dieth of a word, a look, a thought;
And when it dies, it dies without a sign
To tell how fair it was in happier hours:
It leaves behind reproaches and regrets,
And bitterness within affection's well,
For which there is no healing.

L. E. LANDON.
Poetical Works. (Routledge.)

O GREAT mystery of love,

In which absorbed, loss, anguish, treason's self
Enlarges rapture—as a pebble dropt
In some full wine-cup over-brims the wine!
E. B. BROWNING.
Aurora Leigh. (Smith, Elder, and Co.)

LOVE'S ailing that love only cures.

ARTHUR W. E. O'SHAUGHNESSY. Lays of France. (Chatto and Windus.)

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LOVE'S UNIVERSAL EMPIRE.
His realms are all the lands that lie
Beyond yon distant unknown sky-

Where only freed souls go unseen
To different dooms: his are the green
Of grass, the blue of seas, the red

Of passionate roses,-each frail life
Of rose and bird and slight thing rife

With sunlight is but sweetly led

By him to its sweet life and death.

But, more than all, while ye have breath And rosy relic of the rose

Born with you-men and women, lo Your rich eternal hearts that grow Like widening flowers that cannot close Their leaves-are Love's, to turn and use, And work upon as he may choose.

ARTHUR W. E. O'SHAUGHNESSY. Lays of France. (Chatto and Windus.)

LADIES and lovers, will ye see
How gold hair hath its perjury?

And how the lip may twice or thrice
Undo the soul; and how the heart

May quite annul the heart's own price. Given for many a goodly part

Of heaven? How one love shall be fair, And whole and perfect in the rare Great likeness of an angel,-yea,

And how another, golden-miened, With lovely seeming and sweet way,

Shall come and be but as a fiend To tempt and drag the soul away—

And all for ever? Listen well : This is a lay of heaven and hell : Listen, and think how it shall be With you in love's eternity.

ARTHUR W. E. O'SHAUGHNESSY Lays of France. (Chatto and Windus.)

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Of all the things a man may have
Before he cometh to the grave—

Of all the joys that he may win,
Through any toil or any sin,
This is the richest to possess
One yearned-for hour in loneliness,
Beside one's love, in some fair clime,
In some fair purple Autumn-time.

ARTHUR W. E. O'SHAUGHNESSY.
Lays of France. (Chatto and Windus.)

GOD, in all things that He hath made, Full many a jewel hath inlaid;

For first He hath set all on high That fair enamel of the sky, Brilliant of blue and eke of white ; Then He hath shed the pearl of light, And made that jewel-work the seas: Nor less a gem indeed than these I count His miracle the Rose, To love more precious than all those : But how--a fairer jewel yetIn every woman He hath set,

Her heart, some sort of precious stone;
He shall know perfectly alone

-Who all the stars of heaven can call—

The worth and number of them all.
Most are they given away, or sold
For so much love or so much gold,
Yea, no man knoweth of their cost;
But well I ween that some are lost,
And some are of small worth I say,
And some are broken and cast away.

It is the fairest thing you can,
Ladies, to give this to a man,
This precious jewel that God gave:
One such is all a man may crave.

ARTHUR W. E. O'SHAUGHNESSY.
Lays of France. (Chatto and Windus.)

UPON LOVE:

BY WAY OF QUESTION AND ANSWER.

I BRING ye love. Ques. What will love do? Ans. Like, and dislike ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do? Ans. Stroke ye, to strike ye.

I bring ye love, Ques. What will love do? Ans. Love will be-fool ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do? Ans. Heat ye, to cool ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do? Ans. Love gifts will send ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do? Ans. Stock ye, to spend ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do? Ans. Love will fulfil ye.

I bring ye love. Ques. What will love do? Ans. Kiss ye, to kill ye.

ROBERT HERRICK.

LOVE, WHAT IT IS.

LOVE is a circle, that doth restless move In the same sweet eternity of Love.

ROBERT HERRICK.

A SONG.

To dream by day more than by night-
To see but one sweet face;

To chafe at Time's too rapid flight

To curse his limping pace;

Be faint with joy-be wild with woe,
Be raised the stars above-

To fall as deep the earth below,
This, this it is to love!

As from a fevered sleep to start,
Your eyes around to cast,

In search of aught which to the heart
May realize the past;

A tress of hair-a withered flower-
The fragment of a glove-

Alone remain in that dark hour
Of all your dream of love!

J. R. PLANCHÉ. Songs and Poems. (Chatto and Windus.)