THE NATURAL DEATH OF LOVE

R ICHARD one month had with his brother been,
And had his guests, his friends, his favourites seen;
Had heard the rector, who with decent force,
But not of action, aided his discourse:
" A moral teacher! " some, contemptuous, cried;
He smiled, but nothing of the fact denied,
Nor, save by his fair life, to charge so strong replied
Still, though he bade them not on aught rely,
That was their own, but all their worth deny,
They call'd his pure advice his cold morality;

SIR OWN DALE .

A GAIN the Brothers saw their friend the priest,
Who shared the comforts he so much increased;
Absent of late — and thus the squire address'd,
With welcome smile, his ancient friend and guest.

" What has detain'd thee? some parochial case?
Some man's desertion, or some maid's disgrace?
Or wert thou call'd, as parish priest, to give
Name to a new-born thing that would not live,
That its weak glance upon the world had thrown,
And shrank in terror from the prospect shown?

THE MAID'S STORY .

Three days remain'd their friend, and then again
The Brothers left, themselves to entertain;
When spake the younger — " It would please me well
To hear thy spinster-friend her story tell,
And our attention would be nobly paid
Thus to compare the Bachelor and Maid "

" Frank as she is, " replied the squire, " nor one
Is more disposed to show what she has done
With time, or time with her; yet all her care
And every trial she might not declare
To one a stranger; but to me, her friend,

THE OLD BACHELOR .

Save their kind friend the rector, Richard yet
Had not a favourite of his brother met;
Now at the Hall that welcome guest appear'd,
By trust, by trials, and by time endear'd;
Of him the grateful squire his love profess'd,
And full regard — he was of friends the best;
" Yet not to him alone this good I owe,
This social pleasure that our friends bestow;
The sex, that wrought in earlier life my woes,
With loss of time, who murder'd my repose,
They to my joys administer, nor vex

THE PRECEPTOR HUSBAND

" Whom pass'd we musing near the woodman's shed,
Whose horse not only carried him but led,
That his grave rider might have slept the time,
Or solved a problem, or composed a rhyme?
A more abstracted man within my view
Has never come — He recollected you. "

" Yes, — he was thoughtful — thinks the whole day long,
Deeply, and chiefly that he once thought wrong;
He thought a strong and kindred mind to trace
In the soft outlines of a trifler's face

Poor Finch! I knew him when at school, — a boy

THE SISTERS .

The morning shone in cloudless beauty bright;
Richard his letters read with much delight;
George from his pillow rose in happy tone,
His bosom's lord sat lightly on his throne:
They read the morning news — they saw the sky
Inviting call'd them, and the earth was dry.

" The day invites us, brother, " said the 'squire;
" Come, and I'll show thee something to admire:
We still may beauty in our prospects trace;
If not, we have them in both mind and face.

'Tis but two miles — to let such women live

THE ELDER BROTHER

" Thanks , my dear Richard; and, I pray thee, deign
To speak the truth — does all this love remain,
And all this joy? for views and flights sublime,
Ardent and tender, are subdued by time.
Speak'st thou of her to whom thou madest thy vows,
Of my fair sister, of thy lawful spouse?
Or art thou talking some frail love about,
The rambling fit, before th' abiding gout? "

" Nay, spare me, Brother, an adorer spare:
Love and the gout! thou wouldst not these compare? "

ADVENTURES OF RICHARD CONCLUDED

" This then, dear Richard, was the way you took
To gain instruction — thine a curious book,
Containing much of both the false and true;
But thou hast read it, and with profit too.

Come, then, my Brother, now thy tale complete —
I know thy first embarking in the fleet,
Thy entrance in the army, and thy gain
Of plenteous laurels in the wars in Spain,
And what then follow'd; but I wish to know
When thou that heart hadst courage to bestow,
When to declare it gain'd, and when to stand

BOYS AT SCHOOL.

W E name the world a school, for day by day
We something learn, till we are call'd away;
The school we name a world, — for vice and pain, —
Fraud and contention, there begin to reign;
And much, in fact, this lesser world can show
Of grief and crime that in the greater grow.
" You saw, " said George, " in that still hated school
How the meek suffer, how the haughty rule;
There soft, ingenuous, gentle minds endure
Ills that ease, time, and friendship fail to cure;

THE BROTHERS.

A T length the Brothers met, no longer tried
By those strong feelings that in time subside:
Not fluent yet their language, but the eye
And action spoke both question and reply;
Till the heart rested, and could calmly feel,
Till the shook compass felt the settling steel;
Till playful smiles on graver converse broke,
And either speaker less abruptly spoke:
Still was there ofttimes silence, silence blest,
Expressive, thoughtful — their emotions' rest;
Pauses that came not from a want of thought,