All birds and beasts lie hush'd; sleep steals away
The wild desires of men and toils of day,
And brings, descending through the silent air,
A sweet forgetfulness of human care.-Pope.

In thee, oppressors soothe their angry brow ;
In thee, th' oppress'd forget tyrannic power;
In thee,

The wretch condemn'd is equal to his judge,
And the sad lover to his cruel fair;
Nay, all the shining glories men pursue,
When thou art wanted, are but empty noise.

Steele.

Kind sleep affords The only boon the wretched mind can feel,— A momentary respite from despair.—Murphy.

Rest for the weary—freshness, strength, and rest :
O Sleep! thy balm is to the troubled breast
As time to sorrow. Gently dost thou take
The arrows from the heart about to break,
And with thy stealthy step and quiet eye,
Around thee couch in grateful ministry,
Thy form, as noiseless as the foot of love,
Doth like the spirit of an angel move.—Morris.

Oh! thou best comforter of that sad heart,

Whom fortune's spite assails; come, gentle Sleep, The weary mourner soothe! For well the art

Thou know'st in soft forgetfulness to steep

The eyes which sorrow taught to watch and weep; Let blissful visions now her spirit cheer,

Or lull her cares to peace in slumbers deep, Till from fatigue refresh'd and anxious fear, Hope, like the morning star, once more shall reappear.-Mrs Tighe.

3133. SLEEP: should not be unduly prolonged.

THERE should be hours for necessities,
Not for delights; times to repair our nature
With comforting repose, and not for us
To waste these times.-Shakespeare.

Is there aught in sleep can charm the wise?
To lie in dead oblivion, losing half
The fleeting moments of too short a life;
Fatal extinction of th' enlighten'd soul!
Or else to fevering vanity alive,

Wilder'd, and tossing through distemper'd dreams?
Who would in such a gloomy state remain
Longer than nature craves, when every muse
And every blooming pleasure wait without,

To bless the wildly devious morning walk?

Thomson.

Sloth lay till mid-day, turning on his couch
Like ponderous door upon its weary hinge,
And having roll'd him out with much ado,
And many a dismal sigh, and vain attempt,
He saunter'd out, accoutred carelessly,-
With half-oped, misty, unobservant eye,
Somniferous, that weigh'd the object down
On which its burden hung,-an hour or two,
Then with a groan retired to rest again.
The one, whatever deed had been achieved,
Thought it too little, and too small the praise;
The other tried to think, for thinking so
Answer'd his purpose best, that what of great
Mankind could do had been already done;
And therefore laid him calmly down to sleep.
Pollok.

3138. SMILES.

FULL many a stoic eye and aspect stern
Mask hearts where grief hath little left to learn;
And many a withering thought lies hid, not lost,
In smiles that least befit who wear them most.

Byron.

As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow, While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below, So the cheek may be tinged with a warm sunny smile, Though the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the while. Mocre.

3139. SOCIAL PRAYER.

WITHIN an upper chamber,
At evening of the day,

We gather'd for an hour,

And one said, 'Let us pray.'

We came, with stains of conflict,

With dust of earthly care,
Our hearts were spent and weary,
Till Jesus met us there.

We heard no blare of trumpets,
We saw no blaze of light,
As silently the Master

Came through the summer night.

Yet was that upper chamber

With love Divinely fill'd;

Our hearts grew strong with gladness,
In that dear presence thrill'd.

The air was soft with blessing,
And as we sang the hymn,
Its notes were lifted higher
By listening seraphim.

We told our want and yearning,
We told our lonely pain,
Ere from that upper chamber
We sought the world again.

But sweet and close and tender,
In every tranquil breast,
We bore a thought of Jesus,
Our own, our peace, our rest.
We might have wish'd to linger
A little longer there;
But life is full of duty,

And work is wrought by prayer.
To-day, through strife and passion,
Our eyes shall look above,
Where, in an upper chamber,
Abides the Lord we love.

Margaret E. Sangster.

3140. SOCIETY. Benefit of

WITHOUT good company, all dainties
Lose their true relish, and, like painted grapes,
Are only seen, not tasted.-Massinger.

Man, like the generous vine, supported lives:
The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.
On their own axes as the planets run,
Yet make at once their circle round the sun,
So two consistent motions act the soul,
And one regards itself, and one the whole :
Thus God and nature link'd the general frame,
And bade self-love and social be the same.-Pope.

Man in society is like a flower

Blown in its native bed: 'tis there alone

His faculties, expanded in full bloom,

Shine out-there only reach their proper use. Cowper.

3141. SOCIETY. Choosing

BETTER where awful mountains rise
With raging tigers dwell,
Than share the halls of Paradise

With men who merit hell. -Oierntal.

3142. SOCIETY. Effect of worldly

SOCIETY itself, which should create
Kindness, destroys what little we had got:
To feel for none is the true social art
Of the world's stoics,-men without a heart.
Byron.

3143. SODOM. Destruction of

GET ye up from the wrath of God's terrible day!
Ungirded, unsandall'd, arise, and away!
'Tis the vintage of blood, 'tis the fulness of time,
And vengeance shall gather the harvest of crime !

The warning was spoken; the righteous had gone,
And the proud ones of Sodom were feasting alone;
All gay was the banquet; the revel was long,
With the pouring of wine and the breathing of song.

'Twas an evening of beauty; the air was perfume,
The earth was all greenness, the trees were all bloom;
And softly the delicate viol was heard,
Like the murmur of love, or the notes of a bird.

And beautiful maidens moved down in the dance,
With the magic of motion and sunshine of glance;
And white arms wreathed lightly, and tresses fell
free

As the plumage of birds in some tropical tree.

Where the shrines of foul idols were lighted on high, And wantonness tempted the lust of the eye;

I hate its noise and stiff parade, its blank
And empty forms, and stately courtesy,
Where between bows and blows, a smile and stab,
There's scarce a moment. Soldiers always live
In idleness or peril: both are bad.-Proctor.
There shall they rot-ambition's honour'd fools!
Yes, honour decks the turf that wraps their clay!
Vain sophistry! in these behold the tools,

The broken tools, that tyrants cast away
By myriads, when they dare to pave their way
With human hearts-to what?-a dream alone.

Byron.

3145. SOLITARY. Christ's sympathy with the

O THOU who diedst to give us life,

Full well to Thee is known The cross and all the inner strife

Of those who weep alone,

And 'neath their burden well-nigh faint; The aching heart's unspoken plaint

Finds echo in Thine own. - Gerhardt.

3146. SOLITUDE. Benefits of
SOLITUDE is sometimes best society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.
Milton.

Wisdom's self

Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude:
She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,
That in the various bustle of resort
Were all too ruffled.-Milton.

3147. SOLITUDE: delightful only to the good. AH! wretched and too solitary he Who loves not his own company!

He'll feel the weight of it many a day, Unless he calls in sin or vanity

To help to bear it away.-Cowley.

3148. SOLITUDE. Longing for

I WANT to be alone, to find some shade,
Some solitary gloom; there to shake off
These harsh tumultuous cares that vex my life,-
This sick ambition on itself recoiling;
And there to listen to the gentle voice,
The sigh of peace-something, I know not what,
That whispers transport to my heart.-Thomson.

3149. SOLITUDE: no real relief in sorrow.
IF solitude succeed to grief,
Release from pain is slight relief;
The vacant bosom's wilderness

Might thank the pain that made it less.
We loathe what none are left to share ;-
E'en bliss 'twere woe alone to bear:
The heart once left thus desolate
Must fly at last, for ease, to hate.-Byren.

3150. SOLITUDE. Painfulness of

IN solitude
What happiness? Who can enjoy alone?
Or, all enjoying, what contentment find?
Milton.

Unhappy he! who from the first of joys,
Society, cut off, is left alone
Amid this world of death.-Thomson.

O Solitude! where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?
Better dwell in the midst of alarms
Than reign in this horrible place.

I am out of humanity's reach,

I must finish my journey alone; Never hear the sweet music of speech: I start at the sound of my own.-Couper.

How use doth breed a habit in a man!
The shadowy desert, unfrequented woods,
I better brook than flourishing peopled towns:
There I can sit alone, unseen of any,
And to the nightingale's complaining notes
Tune my distresses and record my woes.
Shakespeare.

Thrice happy he who by some shady grove,
Far from the clamorous world, doth live his own;
Though solitary, who is not alone,

But doth converse with that eternal love.

Oh how more sweet is bird's harmonious moan, Or the hoarse sobbings of the widow'd dove,

Than those smooth whisperings near a prince's throne,

Which good make doubtful, do the ill approve!
Oh how more sweet is Zephyr's wholesome breath,
And sighs embalm'd, which new-born flowers un-
fold,

Than that applause vain honour doth bequeath!

How sweet are streams to poison drank in gold! The world is full of horror, troubles, slights; Woods' harmless shades have only true delights. Drummond.

Pleasant were many scenes, but most to me
The solitude of vast extent, untouch'd
By hand of art; where Nature sow'd herself,
And reap'd her crops; whose garments were the
clouds;

Whose minstrels, brooks; whose lamps, the moon and stars;

Whose organ-choir, the voice of many waters; Whose bouquets, morning dews; whose heroes,

storms;

Whose warriors, mighty winds; whose lovers, flowers;

Whose orators, the thunderbolts of God;
Whose palaces, the everlasting hills;
Whose ceiling, heaven's unfathomable blue;
And from whose rocky turrets battled high,
Prospect immense spread out on all sides round;

Lost now between the welkin and the main-
Now wall'd with hills that slept above the storm.
Pollok

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar :
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
Byron.

3152. SOLITUDE: the nurse of woe.

THE silent heart which grief assails
Treads soft and lonesome o'er the vales,
Sees daisies open, rivers run,
And seeks (as I have vainly done)
Amusing thought, but learns to know
That solitude's the nurse of woe.-Parnell.

There oft is found an avarice in grief;
And the wan eye of sorrow loves to gaze
Upon its secret hoard of treasured woes
In pining solitude.-Mason.

3153. SOLITUDE. True

To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;

Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean-
This is not solitude; 'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores
unroll'd.

But midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,

And roam along, the world's tired denizen,

With none who bless us, none whom we can bless; Minions of splendour shrinking from distress! None that, with kindred consciousness endued, If we were not, would seem to smile the less Of all that flatter'd, follow'd, sought, and sued; This is to be alone; this, this is solitude !—Byron. No 'tis not here that solitude is known; Through the wide world he only is alone Who lives not for another.-Rogers.

3154. SOLITUDE. Uses of

THERE have been holy men who hid themselves Deep in the woody wilderness, and gave

Their lives to thought and prayer, till they outlived
The generation born with them, nor seem'd
Less aged than the hoary trees and rocks
Around them; and there have been holy men
Who deem'd it were not well to pass life thus.
But let me often to these solitudes
Retire, and in Thy presence reassure
My feeble virtue. Here its enemies,

The passions, at Thy plainer footsteps shrink
And tremble, and are still. O God! when Thou
Dost scare the world with tempests, set on fire
The heavens with falling thunderbolts, or fill,
With all the waters of the firmament,

The swift dark whirlwind that uproots the woods
And drowns the villages; when, at Thy call,
Uprises the great deep, and throws himself
Upon the continent, and overwhelms
Its cities--who forgets not, at the sight
Of these tremendous tokens of Thy power,
His pride, and lays his strifes and follies by?
Oh, from these sterner aspects of Thy face
Spare me and mine, nor let us need the wrath
Of the mad unchain'd elements to teach
Who rules them. Be it ours to meditate,
In these calm shades, Thy milder majesty,
And to the beautiful order of Thy works
Learn to conform the order of our lives.

Bryant.

3155. SON. Training a

WHEN his reason yieldeth fruit, make thy child thy friend;

For a filial friend is a double gain, a diamond set in gold.

As an infant, thy mandate was enough, but now let

him see thy reasons;

Confide in him, but with discretion; and bend a

willing ear to his questions.

More to thee than to all beside, let him owe good counsel and good guidance!

Let him feel his pursuits have an interest, more to thee than to all beside.

Watch his native capacities; nourish that which

suiteth him the readiest;

And cultivate early those good inclinations wherein thou fearest he is most lacking:

Is he phlegmatic and desponding? let small successes comfort his hope;

Is he obstinate and sanguine? let petty crosses accustom him to life:

Showeth he a sordid spirit? be quick, and teach him generosity:

Inclineth he to liberal excess? prove to him how hard it is to earn.

Gather to thy hearth such friends as are worthy of honour and attention,