26

LOW, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen.

Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:

Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remembered not.

SHAKSPERE (As You Like It).

27

LAS! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth;
And constancy lives in realms above;
And life is thorny; and youth is vain;
And to be wroth with one we love,
Doth work like madness in the brain.
And thus it chanced, as I divine,
With Roland and Sir Leoline.

Each spake words of high disdain
And insult to his heart's best brother:
They parted-ne'er to meet again!
But never either found another

To free the hollow heart from paining-
They stood aloof, the scars remaining,
Like cliffs which had been rent asunder
A dreary sea now flows between ;-
But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
Shall wholly do away, I ween,

The marks of that which once hath been.

COLERIDGE (Christabel).

28

HESE little firs to-day are things
To clasp into a giant's cap,
Or fans to suit his lady's lap.
From many winters many springs

Shall cherish them in strength and sap,

Till they be marked upon the map, A wood for the wind's wanderings.

All seed is in the sower's hands:

And what at first was trained to spread Its shelter for some single head,Yea, even such fellowship of wands,— May hide the sunset, and the shade Of its great multitude be laid Upon the earth and elder sands.

D. G. ROSSETTI (A Young Fir-Wood).

O

29

TRUTH! O Freedom! how are ye still born

In the rude stable, in the manger nursed! What humble hands unbar those gates of morn Through which the splendors of the New Day burst!

Who is it will not dare himself to trust?

Who is it hath not strength to stand alone? Who is it thwarts and bilks the inward MUST? He and his works, like sand, from earth are

blown.

Shall we not heed the lesson taught of old,
And by the Present's lips repeated still,
In our own single manhood to be bold,
Fortressed in conscience and impregnable will?

We stride the river daily at its spring,
Nor, in our childish thoughtlessness, foresee
What myriad vassal streams shall tribute bring,
How like an equal it shall greet the sea.

O small beginnings, ye are great and strong,
Based on a faithful heart and weariless brain!
Ye build the future fair, ye conquer wrong,
Ye earn the crown, and wear it not in vain.
LOWELL (To W. L. Garrison).

30

MALL service is true service while it lasts:
Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn

not one;

The Daisy, by the shadow that it casts, Protects the lingering dew-drop from the sun. WORDSWORTH (In a Child's Album).