A LOVER'S PUNISHMENT.

Oh, if my love offended me,

And we had words together, To show her I would master bc, I'd whip her with a feather!

If then she, like a naughty girl,
Would tyranny declare it,
I'd give my pet a cross of pearl,
And make her always wear it.

If still she tried to sulk and sigh,
And threw away my posies,
I'd catch my darling on the sly,
And smother her with roses!

Who here sojourneth only for a purchase,
Risk all the riches of his years of toil,
And his God-vouch'd inheritance of heaven,
For one light momentary taste of love?

Festus. It is so; and when once you know the sport

The crowded pack of passions in full cry-
The sweet deceits, the tempting obstacles-
The smile, the sigh, the tear, and the em-
brace-

All the delights of love at last in one,
With kisses close as stars in the milky way,
In at the death you cry, though 'twere your

own!

Student. Upon my soul, most sound morality!

Like to the stamen in the flower of life,

Till for the time we well-nigh grow all love; And soon we feel the want of one kind heart To love what's well, and to forgive what's ill, In us, that heart we play for at all risks.

Student. How can the heart, which lies embodied deep

In blood and bone, set like a ruby eye
Into the breast, be made a toy for beauty,
And, vane-like, blown about by every wanton
sigh?

How can the soul, the rich star-travell'd stranger,

ment?

Festus. Oh! everything is thought ofbut not then.

And-judgment-no! it is nowhere in the field.

Student. Slow-paced and late arriving, still it comes.

I cannot understand this love; I hear
Of its idolatry, not its respect.

Festus. Respect is what we owe; love what we give.

And men would mostly rather give than pay.
Morality's the right rule for the world.
Nor could society cohere without

Virtue and there are those whose spirits walk

Abreast of angels and the future, here.
Respect and love thou such.

Bailey.

LOVE NOT A FADING, EARTHLY FLOWER. Our love is not a fading, earthly flower:

Its winged seed dropp'd down from Paradise,

And, nursed by day and night, by sun and shower,

Doth momently to fresher beauty rise: To us the leafless autumn is not bare,

Nor winter's rattling boughs lack lusty

green.

Our summer heats make summer's fulness, where

No leaf, or bud, or blossom may be seen: For nature's life in love's deep life doth lie,— Love, whose forgetfulness is beauty's death, Whose mystic key these cells of thou and I Into the infinite freedom openeth, And makes the body's dark and narrow grate The wide-flung leaves of Heaven's palaceJ. R. Lowell.

gate.

The youth, and found it at the happy hour, Just when the damsel kneel'd herself to pray. Wrapp'd in devotion, pleading with her God: Sweet was the thought!

But sweeter still the kind remembrance came, That she was flesh and blood, form'd for himself,

The plighted partner of his future life.
And as they met, embraced, and sat, em-
bower'd

In woody chambers of the starry night,
Spirits of love about them minister'd,
And God, approving, bless'd the holy joy!
Pollok.