The very lowest of them all Doth act an angel's part, And bear a message home from God And thou may'st hear-as Adam heard When angels talked, at falling eve, The hallowing rush of spirit-wings, Truths such as guide the comet cars As through the cloud the star- The roses making low reply. For the meanest wild-bud breathes to swell, Upon immortal ears— So hear it, thou, in grove or dell !— The music of the spheres. 49.-AN OLD MAN'S IDYLL. RICHARD REALF. [Richard Realf was born at Uckfield, in Sussex, in 1835. His poetical talents attracting the attention of a lady at Brighton, in whose service he resided, she was induced to publish for him a volume of his poems, "Guesses at the Beautiful," by which he obtained some local repute. Since then he appears to have led a roving life; he was with John Brown at Harper's Ferry, was reported dead, returned to England, and after being seen at several places in his native county, suddenly disappeared.] By the waters of Life we sat together, Of the beautiful early summer weather, When skies were purple and breath was praise- By the rivers of Life we walked together, And lighter than any linnet's feather An Old Man's Idyll. And love's sweet miracles o'er us threw A sound that seemed like a marriage chime. In the gardens of Life we strayed together, In the meadows of Life we strayed together, Our hearts, like the lambs, skipped to and fro. Who was with us, and what was round us, O the riches love doth inherit! Laugh at the footsteps of decay. Harms of the world have come unto us, And we hear the tread of the years move by, But my darling does not fear to die, And I am happy in what God wills. 215 So we sit by our household fires together, The Three Fishers. A long adieu !-but where shall fly When every mean and cruel eye Yes, they will mock thy widow's tears, Then will I seek the dreary mound 217 moor. 51.-THREE FISHERS WENT SAILING. THE REV. CHARLES KINGSLEY. [The Rev. Charles Kingsley was born, 1819, at Holme Vicarage, near DartHe was educated at King's College, London, and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He abandoned the law for the Church, and became the rector of Eversley, Hampshire. His writings are very numerous. and include "The Saint's Tragedy," 1848; "Alton Locke," a novel, 1850; "Yeast, a Problem,' 1851; "Westward Ho," a novel; Glaucus, or the Wonders of the Shore;" "Andromeda," and other poems (1858), &c. &c. He is the editor of "Macmillan's Magazine," and professor of Literature in Cambridge University. Still living.] THREE fishers went sailing out into the West, Out into the West as the sun went down; Each thought on the woman who loved him best, And the children stood watching them out of the town: Three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower, And they trimm'd the lamps as the sun went down; Three corpses lie out in the shining sands, In the morning gleam, as the tide went down, And the women are weeping and wringing their hands, For men must work, and women must weep, And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep, And good-bye to the bar and its moaning. 52.-THE MOTHER'S LAMENT. GERALD GRIFFIN. [See page 153.] My darling, my darling, while silence is on the moor, Here, while on this cold shore, I wear out my lonely hours, They bear to the churchyard the youth in their health away, And the hope that stays with me, gives peace to my aged mind. My darling, my darling, God gave to my feeble age A prop for my faint heart, a stay in my pilgrimage: My darling, my darling, God takes back his gift again— And my heart may be broken, but ne'er shall my will complain. 53.-NAPOLEON'S MIDNIGHT REVIEW. MERY AND BARTHELEMY. Ar midnight, from his grave, Stirred by his faithful arms, So grandly rolls that drum, Both they in farthest North |