ON THE

FIRST LEAF OF MISS J.'s ALBUM.

WHAT thoughts, beyond the reach of thought
To guess what they may be,

Shall in succession here be brought

From depths no eye can see!

Those thoughts are now upon their way,

Like light from stars unseen,

Though, ere they reach us, many a day

And year may intervene :

Thoughts, which shall spring in friendship's breast, Or genius touch with fire;

Thoughts, which good angels may suggest,

Or God himself inspire.

Such, o'er these pages pure and white,

By many a willing hand,

Be writ in characters of light,

And here unfading stand!

That she who owns the whole may find,

Reveal'd in every part,

The trace of some ingenuous mind,

The love of some warm heart.

TO MARY.

MARY!-it is a lovely name,
Thrice honour'd in the rolls of fame,
Not for the blazonry of birth,
Nor honours springing from the earth,
But what evangelists have told

Of three, who bare that name of old:
-Mary, the mother of our Lord,

Mary, who sate to hear his word,

And Mary Magdalen, to whom

Christ came, while weeping o'er his tomb; These to that humble name supply

A glory which can never die.

Mary! my prayer for you shall be,

- May you resemble all the three

In faith, and hope, and charity.

SHORT-HAND.

STANZAS ADDRESSED TO E. P.

THESE lines and dots are locks and keys,
In narrow space to treasure thought,
Whose precious hoards, whene'er you please,
Are thus to light from darkness brought.

On the small tablet of your heart,
By heaven's own finger be engraved,
Within, without, through every part,
The "words whereby you must be saved."

There the bright pages of GOD's book,
In secret characters may lie,
Where you alone have power to look,
While hid from man and angel's eye.

Could nature's mysteries all be found,
Unbosom'd, where the billows roll,
In flowers embroider'd o'er the ground,
By stars emblazon'd round the pole ;-

Less were the sum of truth reveal'd,

Through heaven, and earth, and sea express'd, Than would be written, sign'd, and seal'd, Once and for ever, in your breast.

1828.

THE BLANK LEAF.

FAIR page! the eye that looks on thee
Ere long shall slumber in the dust,
And wake no more, until it see
The resurrection of the just:
-May He, to whom that eye belongs,
Join their assembly and their songs.

Whose is that eye?-Just now 'tis mine, But, reader! when thou look'st 'tis thine.

1825.

THE GNAT.

Written with Pencil round an Insect of that kind, which had been accidentally crushed, and remained fixed on a blank page of a Lady's

Album.

LIE here embalm'd, from age to age;
This is the album's noblest page,
Though every glowing leaf be fraught
With painting, poetry, and thought;
Where tracks of mortal hands are seen,
A hand invisible hath been,

And left this autograph behind,
This image from the' eternal Mind;
A work of skill, surpassing sense,
A labour of Omnipotence;

Though frail as dust it meet thine eye,
He form'd this gnat who built the sky

Stop-lest it vanish at thy breath,
This speck had life, and suffer'd death.

1832.