tained

In that obscure sojourn; while in my flight Through utter and through middle darkness

borne,

With other notes than to the Orphean lyre,
I sung of Chaos, and eternal Night;
Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture
down

The dark descent, and up to reascend,
Though hard and rare! Thee I revisit safe,
And feel thy sovereign vital lamp; but thou
Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop serene hath quenched their
orbs,

Or dim suffusion veiled. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt
Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,
Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief
Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling
flow,

Nightly I visit; nor sometimes forget

Those other two equaled with me in fate
(So were I equaled with them in renown),
Blind Thamyris, and blind Mæonides,
And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old;
Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and, in shadiest covert hid,
Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the
year

Seasons return; but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or, flocks or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me; from the cheerful ways of

men

Of nature's works, to me expunged and razed,

And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out! So much the rather thou, celestial Light! Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers

Irradiate; there plant eyes; all mist from

thence

Purge and disperse; that I may see and tell Of things invisible to mortal sight.

66

JOHN MILTON.

WHATEVER IS, IS BEST." KNOW, as my life grows older, And mine eyes have clearer sight, That under each rank Wrong, somewhere There lies the root of Right.

That each sorrow has its purpose,

By the sorrowing oft unguessed,
But as sure as the sun brings morning,
Whatever is, is best.

I know that each sinful action,

As sure as the night brings shade,
Is sometime, somewhere, punished,
Tho' the hour be long delayed.

I know that the soul is aided
Sometimes by the heart's unrest,.
And to grow means often to suffer;
But whatever is, is best.

I know there are no errors

In the great Eternal plan,
And all things work together
For the final good of man.
And I know when my soul speeds onward
In the grand, eternal quest,

I shall say, as I look earthward,
Whatever is, is best.

ANONYMOUS.

0

AR in a wild, unknown to public view, From youth to age a reverend hermit grew.

The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell, His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well. Remote from men, with God he passed his days,

To find if books, or swains, report it right (For yet by swains alone the world he knew, Whose feet came wandering o'er the nightly dew),

He quits his cell; the pilgrim-staff he bore, And fixed the scallop in his hat before; Then, with the rising sun a journey went,

That vice should triumph, virtue vice obey;
This sprung some doubt of Providence's sway;
His hopes no more a certain prospect boast,
And all the tenor of his soul is lost.
So when a smooth expanse receives impressed
Calm nature's image on its watery breast,
Down bend the banks, the trees depending
grow,

And skies beneath with answering colors glow;

But, if a stone the gentle sea divide,
Swift ruffling circles curl on every side,
And glimmering fragments of a broken sun,
Banks, trees, and skies, in thick disorder run.
To clear this doubt, to know the world by
sight,

But when the southern sun had warmed the day,

A youth came posting o'er a crossing way:
His raiment decent, his complexion fair,
And soft in graceful ringlets waved his hair;
Then near approaching, "Father, hail!" he
cried.

And, "Hail, my son!" the reverend sire replied.

Words followed words, from question answer flowed,

And talk of various kinds deceived the road; Till each with other pleased, and, loath to part,

While in their age they differ, join in heart. Thus stands an aged elm in ivy bound,

Thus useful ivy clasps an elm around.
Now sunk the sun; the closing hour of day
Came onward, mantled o'er with sober gray;
Nature, in silence, bid the world repose,
When, near the road, a stately palace rose.
There, by the moon, through ranks of trees
they pass,

The changing skies hang out their sable clouds;

A sound in air presaged approaching rain, And beasts to covert scud across the plain. Warned by the signs, the wandering pair retreat

with grass.

It chanced the noble master of the dome
Still made his house the wandering stranger's
home;

Yet still the kindness, from a thirst of praise,
Proved the vain flourish of expensive ease.
The pair arrive; the liveried servants wait;
Their lord receives them at the pompous gate;
The tables groan with costly piles of food,
And all is more than hospitably good.
Then, led to rest, the day's long toil they
drown,

around;

Its owner's temper, timorous and severe, Unkind and griping, caused a desert there. As near the miser's heavy door they drew, Fierce rising gusts with sudden fury blew; The nimble lightning, mixed with showers, began,

And o'er their heads loud rolling thunders ran; Here long they knock, but knock or call in vain,

woe;

His cup was vanished; for in secret guise, The younger guest purloined the glittering prize.

As one who spies a serpent in his way,
Glittering and basking in the summer ray,
Disordered stops to shun the danger near,
Then walks with faintness on, and looks with
fear,

So seemed the sire, when, far upon the road,
The shining spoil his wily partner showed.
He stopped with silence, walked with trem-
bling heart,

ed,

In one so rich, a life so poor and rude;
And why should such, within himself he cried,
Lock the lost wealth a thousand want beside?
But what new marks of wonder soon take
place

In every settling feature of his face,
When, from his vest, the young companion
bore

That cup the generous landlord owned before, And paid profusely with the precious bowl The stinted kindness of his churlish soul. But now the clouds in airy tumult fly;

part;