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HYMNS AND POETICAL RECREATIONS.

FAREWELL TO MY ROBIN.

FAREWELL, my Robin-fare thee well;

I've done thee wrong, I fear;

Inviting thee, with tempting bait,

To seek thy breakfast here.

Sating thy simple appetite

With such unwonted feed;

The sweeten'd cake, the moisten'd crumb,
Thou wert not used to need.

And now, to-morrow thou wilt come,
To seek the promis'd store;
And day by day thou wilt return,

But find it never more.

And oh! if ought of human dole,
Thy little bosom share;

If ere the thoughts that mortals think,
Be known to rankle there:

If thou, too, hast a heart to love

What thou must see no more;

A memory never to forget

The things that were before:

Or confidence, or hope, or doubt,
Be things that birds can know;

Or flush of agoniz'd suspense,
Within that bosom glow:

How wilt thou sit through all the day
Upon thy lonely perch ;

Or loiter through the myrtle boughs,
In unavailing search.

Thine eye intent, thine ear upraised,
In silent, sad suspense;

"A sound-Yes-No-It is not that
"Was used to issue thence.

"Colder and colder grows the day,
"And colder blows the wind;
"The fleecy shower is in the cloud,
"The famine is behind.

THE CHURCH FLOOR.

From George Herbert's Poems, 1617.

MARK you the floor? that square and speckled stone, Which looks so firm and strong,

IS PATIENCE.

And th' other black and grave, wherewith each one
Is chequer'd all along,
HUMILITY.

The gentle rising, which on either hand
Leads to the choir above,

IS CONFIDENCE.

But the sweet cement, which in one sure band
Ties the whole frame, is Love
And CHARITY.

OH! here on earth while journeying,
E'en o'er the dewy paths of youth,
I feel the bitter pangs which spring
To soil each draught of hope or truth;
And when I give my soul release,

And linger o'er a sweeter scene,
Sit by a holier light of peace-
Oh! purer than it e'er hath been-
It soars, it trembles-and how blest
The antepast of its long rest.
But short this raptured vision, and
Self, and pride, and lust, the band
That ever torture and dismay,

Hurry it to its kindred clay.

Thus fluctuates this frail soul of mine;

One moment seeks a flight divine;

Then plunges to the depths of sin,

Fettered and bound, till fresher light breaks in.
So shoots upon her foam white wing,

Along her arrowy, transient course,
Then droops and dips when wearying,

To give her fainting flight new force,
Yon restless sea bird-on the wave,
Her house, and home, she finds her grave,

And when on high she flings her form,
There clusters still the gathering storm-
Her's is the heart that flutters for repose,
The sleepless eye that trembles for its close.

R. M.

REVIEW OF BOOKS.

The Geography of the Globe, &c. By J. D. Butler. Harvey and Darton.

1826.

THE person who should discover a new method of teaching Geography, would do worthy service to the times, and win the thanks of all the teachers and all the learners in the kingdom, who have gone on learning and teaching, hitherto, without coming to the expected result of knowing. There are few of us who remember to have worn out the corners of half a dozen Goldsmiths and Guthries, but must remember also how few were the ideas, and how confused the knowledge that remained from this consumption of printed paper: and yet when it comes to our turn to teach geography to our children, we are forced to begin in the same way, because, to the best of our knowledge, there is no other way. Impressed with this need of improvement, our attention is always arrested by the annunciation of any new geographical publication, and we sent for Mr. Butler's as soon as we saw it advertised. We find, however, that it presents nothing new, and offers no improvement on the old system of teaching Geography. It leaves us to commit to memory a pell-mell of names and circumstances, that, learned through every year of our lives from seven to seventeen, as it most likely will be, will not leave on the mind any thing of a connected, map-like perception of the arrangement of places and their concomitants, on the surface of the globe. We do not mean to depreciate this book as what it is, it is particularly well arranged, and will justly take precedence of those now in use of