Your mother more than widowed grief has known:
Yes, sharper pangs than those who mourn the dead,
Seized on my breaking heart, when first I knew
My lover, husband-oh, my earthly all-
Was dead to virtue; when I saw the man
My soul too fondly loved, transformed to brute.
Oh, it was then I tasted gall and wormwood!

4. Then the world looked dreary: fearful clouds
Quick gathered round me: dark forebodings came:
The grave, before, was terror; now it smiled:

I longed to lay me down in peaceful rest,

There to forget my sorrows. But I lived,

And, oh, my God! what years of woe have followed!

I feel my heart is broken. He who vowed

To cherish me-before God's altar vowed

Has done the deed. And shall I then upbraid him—
The husband of my youthful days-the man

To whom I gave my virgin heart away?
Patient I'll bear it all.

5. Peace, peace, my heart!

"Tis almost o'er. A few more stormy blasts,

And then this shattered, broken frame will fall,

And sweetly slumber where

The wicked cease from troubling,

And the weary are at rest.

XCVI.-BINGEN ON THE RHINE.

MRS. NORTON.

1. A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,

There was lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of woman's tears;
But a comrade stood beside him, while his life-blood ebbed away,
And bent, with pitying glances, to hear what he might say.
The dying soldier faltered, as he took that comrade's hand,
And he said, "I never more shall see my own, my native land:
Take a message, and a token, to some distant friends of mine,

For I was born at Bingen-at Bingen on the Rhine.

2. "Tell my brothers and companions, when they meet and crowd around

To hear my mournful story in the pleasant vineyard ground,

That we fought the battle bravely, and when the day was done,

Full many a corse lay ghastly pale, beneath the setting sun.

And midst the dead and dying, were some grown old in wars,
The death-wound on their gallant breasts, the last of many scars:
But some were young-and suddenly beheld life's morn decline;
And one had come from Bingen-fair Bingen on the Rhine!

3. "Tell my mother that her other sons shall comfort her old age,
And I was aye a truant bird, that thought his home a cage:
For my father was a soldier, and even as a child

My heart leaped forth to hear him tell of struggles fierce and wild;
And when he died, and left us to divide his scanty hoard,

I let them take whate'er they would, but kept my father's sword,
And with boyish love I hung it where the bright light used to shine,
On the cottage-wall at Bingen-calm Bingen on the Rhine!

4. "Tell my sister not to weep for me, and sob with drooping head, When the troops are marching home again, with glad and gallant tread But to look upon them proudly, with a calm and steadfast eye,

For her brother was a soldier too, and not afraid to die.

And if a comrade seek her love, I ask her in my name

To listen to him kindly, without regret or shame;

And to hang the old sword in its place (my father's sword and mine), For the honor of old Bingen-dear Bingen on the Rhine!

5. "There's another-not a sister: in the happy days gone by, You'd have known her by the merriment that sparkled in her eye: Too innocent for coquetry,-too fond for idle scorning,

Oh! friend, I fear the lightest heart makes sometimes heaviest mourning Tell her the last night of my life (for ere the moon be risen

My body will be out of pain-my soul be out of prison),

I dreamed I stood with her, and saw the yellow sunlight shine
On the vine-clad hills of Bingen—fair Bingen on the Rhine!

6. "I saw the blue Rhine sweep along-I heard, or seemed to hear
The German songs we used to sing, in chorus sweet and clear;
And down the pleasant river, and up the slanting hill,

The echoing chorus sounded, through the evening calm and still;
And her glad blue eyes were on me as we passed with friendly talk
Down many a path beloved of yore, and well-remembered walk,
And her little hand lay lightly, confidingly in mine:

But we'll meet no more at Bingen-loved Bingen on the Rhine!"

7. His voice grew faint and hoarser, his grasp was childish weak, –

His eyes put on a dying look,-he sighed and ceased to speak:
His com ade bent to lift him, but the spark of life had fled,—
The soldier of the Legion, in a foreign land—was dead!

And the soft moon rose up slowly, and calmly she looked down
On the red sand of the battle-field, with bloody corpses strown:
Yea, calmly on that dreadful scene her pale light seemed to shine,
As it shone on distant Bingen-fair Bingen on the Rhine!

XCVII.-NEW ENGLAND AND THE UNION.

S. S. PRENTISS.

1. GLORIOUS New England! thou art still true to thy ancient fame, and worthy of thy ancestral honors. On thy pleasant valleys rest, like sweet dews of morning, the gentle recollections of our early life; around thy hills and mountains cling, like gathering mists, the mighty memories of the Revolution; and far away in the horizon of thy past gleam, like thy own bright northern lights, the awful virtues of our pilgrim sires! But while we devote this day to the remembrance of our native land, we forget not that in which our happy lot is cast.

2. We exult in the reflection, that though we count by thousands the miles which separate us from our birthplace, still our country is the same. We are no exiles meeting upon the banks of a foreign river, to swell its waters with our homesick tears. Here floats the same banner which rustled above our boyish heads, except that its mighty folds are wider, and its glittering stars increased in number.

3. The sons of New England are found in every State of the broad republic! In the East, the South, and the unbounded West, their blood mingles freely with every kindred current. We have but changed our chamber in the paternal mansion; in all its rooms we are at home, and all who inhabit it are our brothers. To us the Union has but one domestic hearth; its household gods are all the same. Upon us, then, peculiarly devolves the duty of feed. ing the fires upon that kindly hearth; of guarding with pious care those sacred household gods.

4. We cannot do with less than the whole Union; to us it admits of no division. In the veins of our children

flows northern and southern blood: how shall it be scparated?—who shall put asunder the best affections of the heart, the noblest instincts of our nature? We love the land of our adoption; so do we that of our birth. Let us ever be true to both; and always exert ourselves in maintaining the unity of our country, the integrity of the re public. Accursed, then, be the hand put forth to loosen the golden cord of union! thrice accursed the traitorous lips which shall propose its severance!

1.

7. Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time:
8. Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwreck'd brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

9. Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate:
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

XCIX.-AFFECTATION IN THE PULPIT.

IN man or woman,-but far most in man,
And most of all in man that ministers
And serves the altar,-in my soul I loathe
All affectation. 'T is my perfect scorn:
Object of my implacable disgust.

WILLIAM COWPER

What !-will a man play tricks,-will he indulge
A silly, fond conceit of his fair form,

And just proportion, fashionable mien,

And pretty face,-in presence of his God?
Or will he seek to dazzle me with tropes,
As with the diamond on his lily hand,
And play his brilliant parts before my eyes,
When I am hungry for the bread of life?
He mocks his Maker, prostitutes and shames
His noble office, and, instead of truth,
Displaying his own beauty, starves his flock!
Therefore, avaunt all attitude, and stare,
And start theatric, practised at the glass!
I seek divine simplicity in him

Who handles things divine; and all besides,

Though learned with labor, and though much admired

By curious eyes and judgments ill-informed,

To me is odious as the nasal twang
Heard at conventicle, where worthy men,
Misled by custom strain celestial themes
Through the pressed nostril, spectacle-bestrid.