Deelish! Deelish! my woe for ever that I could not sever coward flesh from fear. His chair I put aside when the young cock cried, and I was afraid to meet my dear. THE PRIEST'S BROTHER. Thrice in the night the priest arose From broken sleep to kneel and pray. Thrice he went to the chamber cold, Thrice lay the old priest down to sleep All through the dark, till dawn was pale, At last the red cock flaps his wings The priest before the altar stands, "Most Just and Merciful, set free The mass is over-still the clerk Kneels pallid in the morning glow. "Benediction, that I may rest, For all night did the banshee weep." The priest raised up his hands and blest"Go now, my child, and you will sleep." The priest went down the vestry stair, "Brother," he said, "you have gained me peace, But why so long did you know my tears, And say no mass for my soul's release, To save the torture of all those years?" "God rest you, brother," the good priest said, "No years have passed-but a single night." He showed the body uncoffinèd, And the six wax candles still alight. The living flowers on the dead man's breast "God save your soul from a night so long." GEORGE SIGERSON. (1839-) GEORGE SIGERSON, M.D., F.R.U.I., was born at Holyhill, close to the town of Strabane, in 1839. The family is of Norse extraction. George Sigerson's early lessons in classics were received from the Rev. William Hegarty, who died P.P. of Strabane. He afterward attended a school in Letterkenny taught by Dr. Crerand, a man of exceptional ability and culture; and subsequently he was under the tuition of two brothers named Simpson, in Derry. His college course was chiefly pursued in Paris, where he studied under Claude Bernard, Duchenne, Charcot, Ranvier, Ball, and Béhier, all master minds in the medical world. Duchenne inspired his first effort as a writer on medical subjects, and Charcot's Diseases of the Nervous System' found in him an able translator and editor. His biological work interested Charles Darwin, and Professor Tyndall considered that his 'Microscopic Researches on the Atmosphere,' (Dublin, 1873) revealed the true nature of the organisms whose presence he himself had detected. His medical and scientific works, too numerous to mention here, have won for him recognition from learned societies on the Continent as well as in England. In Dublin, where he resides, besides having a large medical practice, he holds the chair of biology in the Catholic University College, and is a fellow of the Royal University of Ireland. But it is not as a master of medicine, however distinguished, that Dr. Sigerson is known to most of his countrymen. They know more of him as a trenchant leader-writer on the old Irishman, to which Isaac Butt also contributed; as a powerful land reformer in his masterly study of 'Land Tenures and Land Classes of Ireland' (read by Mr. Gladstone in proof, and having some of its principles embodied in the Land Act of 1870); as translator of the music of the old Gaelic tongue into modern verse; and as an original poet of great power and charm. Dr. Sigerson married a Miss Varian of Cork, herself a poetess of considerable merit. · To Two Centuries of Irish History,' edited by the Right Honorable James Bryce, Dr. Sigerson contributed a study on the work of the independent Irish Parliament. Having, when a student, given some versions of the Munster poets (second series), he in 1897 produced an Irish anthology, 'Bards of the Gael and Gall: Done into English after the Modes and Meters of the Gael.' He has also prepared an analysis, with metrical examples, of the 'Carmen Paschale' of Sedulius, the first Saint of Erin and her only epic poet. Other work-professional, scientific, and literary-has appeared in periodicals. He is President of the National Literary Society. "As an original poet," says Dr. Douglas Hyde in A Treasury of Irish Poetry, Dr. Sigerson is perhaps most distinctly a lyrist, as is natural to one who has come under the native Irish spell. Many of his songs are written, like the Gaelic ones, to Irish airs, and most of them lend themselves naturally to music. The noble characteristics of Irish verse, which he has acquired from his life-long acquaintance with the Gaelic poets, tinge his own verses very appreciably-especially the smoothness, the desire for recurrent or even interwoven vowel sounds, and the love of alliteration, and when wholly natural and devoid of any obtrusiveness, as they are here, possess in themselves a subtle charm which is very Irish." THE LOST TRIBUNE. TO THE MEMORY OF ISAAC BUTT. Farewell! the doom is spoken. All is o'er. With giant might of mind and mold of form To brave the haughty, and rebuke the proud But strong to weep, to heed an infant's care, The secret of his greatness, there behold! Mark yonder peasants who, in dumb despair, See, where yon massive dungeon walls surround These were his clients. Their defender he One chiefly served he, with chivalric faith; One chiefly loved he, with devoted soul; His shield was spread between her breast and scathe; Her fallen banner from the dust he raised, And proud advanced it, with uplifted brow, Farewell to all of personal joy that came Whose immortality on earth began; Of that enlargement which the mind receives, But not farewell to him who hath outgrown In every heart, and shall henceforth be known THE VISION OF VIANDS. From the Irish of Aniar Mac Conglinne1 (Twelfth Century). In a slumber visional, Sudden shone on me: 1The Vision of Mac Conglinne,' edited by Professor Kuno Meyer and David Nutt. London: Nutt, 1894. The Irish meter is reproduced. This curious poem evidently suggested passages in 'The Land of Cokaigne.' Compare the first two stanzas with these verses: "Up a river of sweet milk Again, compare with the third, fourth and fifth stanzas these verses: "There is a well fair abbey Of white monks and of grey: |