has it,) we shall dress as well as we can, according to our condition in life. He who has clothed the earth so beautifully, and has given us to perceive and enjoy it, can never have intended that we should not bring into exercise, in connection with the clothing of ourselves, the perception of the beautiful implanted in our natures. It must be a strange taste which prefers the untasteful for its own sake. It is not natural. Leave people to their choice, and ninety-nine out of a hundred will choose as an associate, other things being equal, the best (in the best sense of the word) dressed person. If I were to put another petition in the prayer book, it should be somewhat as follows: From all slatterns, from all slovens, Good Lord, deliver us ! There is a land, of every land the pride, Where shall that land, that spot of earth be found ? SWEET ANNIE FAY. The pride of the village was sweet Annie Fay, This could not last always: young Love flitted by, Young Willie was missing one morning in June, He could not be found; and rumor had said 38 TO A SISTER. TO A SISTER. Yes, dear one, to the envied train Of those around thy homage pay ; To think of him that's far away? For many years I may not see ; My sister dear, remember me? But not in fashion's brilliant hall, and fair, O, think not, think not of me there; But when the thoughtless crowd is gone, And hushed the voice of senseless glee, And all is silent, still, and lone, And thou art sad, remember me. Remember me — but, loveliest, ne'er When, in his orbit fair and high, Rides proudly up the blushing sky; At moonlight on that lonely lea, And all her dews, remember me. Remember me, I - but not And sunshine smiles in every flower ; But when the fallen leaf is sear, And withers sadly from the tree, And o'er the ruins of the year, Cold autumn weeps, remember me. Remember me - but choose not, dear, The hour when, on the gentle lake, The sportive wavelets, blue and clear, Soft rippling to the margin, break; But when the deafening billows foam In madness o'er the pathless sea, Then let thy pilgrim fancy roam Across them, and remember me. Remember me - but not to join, If haply some thy friends should praise ; 'Tis far too dear, that voice of thine, To echo what the stranger says. They know us not but shouldst thou meet Some faithful friend of me and thee, Softly, sometimes, to him repeat My name, and then remember me. Remember me - not, I entreat, In scenes of festal week-day joy, For then it were not kind or meet That thought thy pleasure should alloy ; |