But might the

prayer within my breast

Make others blest, as I am blest;

And might my joy in thanking Thee
Make for all hungry souls a plea :.

Then would I praise and Thee adore,
And ever thank Thee, more and more
Rejoicing, if Thou would'st but bless
Thy creatures for my thankfulness.

"MULTUM DILEXIT."

SHE sat and wept beside His feet; the weight
Of sin oppress'd her heart; for all the blame,
And the poor malice of the worldly shame,
To her was past, extinct, and out of date,
Only the sin remain'd, -the leprous state;
She would be melted by the heat of love,
By fires far fiercer than are blown to prove
And purge the silver ore adulterate.

She sat and wept, and with her untress'd hair
Still wiped the feet she was so blest to touch;
And He wiped off the soiling of despair

From her sweet soul, because she loved so much.

I am a sinner, full of doubts and fears,

Make me a humble thing of love and tears.

1848.

NOTES BY THE EDITOR.

SONNET I.

THE first sketch of this sonnet was sent by the Author in a letter to his mother, when it had been proposed to him to write an Essay on his father's life and genius.

Aliter

SONNET X, page 12, lines 3, 4.

And tinged by time like patch of snow in May
In hollow cove for winter left to wait.

SONNET XIII, page 15.

This sonnet, with that on Freedom, page 49, are variations, and, as the Editor thinks, improvements upon those bearing the same name in the first volume,-if, indeed, they be not the original sketches.

SONNET XIV, page 16.

On this sonnet the author observes: "It was written in haste, and contains little more than a general hint, or perhaps a few turns of phrase."

SONNET XXIII, page 25.

The last six lines of this sonnet are thus expressed in what appears to be the first copy:

Far otherwise the creed of her that made
'This brief memorial of two noble lives.

Though she sustained the penalty of wives
Unwisely wedded, woe did not degrade
Her faith in good which cannot be achieved,
Yet surely is, because it is believed.

Another variation is as follows:

The simple woman that hath written here
This brief memorial of her parents dear
Confutes a doctrine that she never knew ;
A good not found by keen anatomy,
Nor decomposed by fiery chemistry,
By force of mere believing she makes true.

Aliter

SONNET XXXII, page 34.

Once thou wast fair-God knows how long ago;
Yet some there are to whom thy fixed idea,
Even now is fresh as sea-born Cytherea.
The waves of time, still ebbing as they flow,
Behind them leave the quiet tints that glow
On each successive billow. Years on years,
Nor all varieties of mirth and tears,
Can make hearts ignorant of what they know.
Once thou wert fair, and still art fair to me;
Though fifty summers faded since we met,
Thy timid glance I cease not yet to see,
And thy young voice I never can forget.
Though all the world should say that thou art old,
To me thou still art young-thy true self I behold.