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THE STREET MUSICIAN; OR, POWER OF MUSIC.

When, looking eagerly around,
He spied far off, upon the ground,
A something shining in the dark,
And knew the glow-worm by his spark.

So, stooping down from hawthorn top,
He thought to put him in his crop.
The worm, aware of his intent,
Harangued him thus, right eloquent:

"Did you admire my lamp," quoth he,
"As much as I your minstrelsy,
You would abhor to do me wrong,
As much as I to spoil your song;
For 'twas the self-same Power divine,
Taught you to sing, and me to shine;
That you with music, I with light,
Might beautify and cheer the night."

The songster heard this short oration,
And warbling out his approbation,
Released him, as my story tells,
And found a supper somewhere else.

Hence jarring sectaries1 may learn
Their real interest to discern;

That brother should not war with brother,
And worry and devour each other;

But sing and shine by sweet consent,
Till life's poor transient night is spent ;
Respecting, in each other's case,
The gifts of nature and of grace.

Those Christians best deserve the name,2
Who studiously make peace their aim :-
Peace, both the duty and the prize

Of him that creeps and him that flies.

1. Sectaries, what?

265

COWPER.

2. What name?

III. THE STREET-MUSICIAN; OR, THE POWER OF MUSIC. "ONE of the most pure and innocent pleasures which we can enjoy we owe to music. It possesses the power of charming our ears, soothing our passions, affecting our hearts, and influencing our propensi

ties. How often has music dissipated our gloom, quickened the vital spirits, and ennobled our sentiments! An art so pleasing and useful well deserves our attention; and calls upon us to employ it to the glory of our beneficent Creator."-Sturm.

AN Orpheus!' an Orpheus!-he works on the crowd,
He sways them with harmony merry and loud;
He fills with his power all their hearts to the brim-
Was aught ever heard like his fiddle and him?

What an eager assembly! what an empire is this!
The weary have life, and the hungry have bliss ;
The mourner is cheer'd, and the anxious have rest;
And the guilt-burthen'd soul is no longer opprest.

That errand-bound 'prentice was passing in haste—
What matter! he's caught—and his time runs to waste-
The newsman is stopp'd, though he stops on the fret,"
And the half-breathless lamplighter-he's in the net!

The porter sits down on the weight which he bore ;
The lass with her barrow wheels hither her store ;-
If a thief could be here, he might pilfer at ease;
She sees the musician, 'tis all that she sees!

That tall man, a giant in bulk and in height,
Not an inch of his body is free from delight;
Can he keep himself still, if he would? oh, not he!
The music stirs in him like wind through a tree.

Mark that cripple,—but little would tempt him to try
To dance to the strain and to fling his crutch by !—
That mother, whose spirit in fetters is bound,
While she dandles the babe in her arms to the sound.

Now, coaches and chariots! roar on like a stream;
Here are twenty souls happy as souls3 in a dream:
They are deaf to your murmurs-they care not for you,
Nor what ye are flying, nor what ye pursue!

WORDSWORTH.

1. Who was Orpheus?

2. What is meant by stops on the fret?

fret? |

3. Souls, what case?

ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE.

267

IV. ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. "FOR the first few years of our terrestrial apprenticeship, we have not much work to do; but, boarded and lodged gratis, are set down mostly to look about us over the workshop and see others work, tili we have understood the work a little and can handle this or that."Carlyle.

Derivations.

Etymology.

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YE distant spires, ye antique towers!
That crown the watery glade,
Where grateful Science still adores
Her Henry's holy shade ;'

And ye that from the stately brow
Of Windsor's heights the expanse below
Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,

Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among,
Wanders the hoary Thames along

His silver-winding way.

Ah, happy hills, ah, pleasing shade,
Ah, fields beloved in vain,2

Where once my careless

A stranger yet to pain!

childhood strayed,

I feel the gales that from ye blow

A momentary bliss bestow,

As waving fresh their gladsome wing,

My weary soul they seem to soothe,
And redolent of joy and youth,

To breathe a second spring.

Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen
Full many a sprightly race,
Disporting on thy margent green

The paths of pleasure trace,
Who foremost now delight to cleave,
With pliant arm thy glassy wave?

The captive linnet which enthral?
What idle progeny succeed

To chase the rolling circle's speed,
Or urge the flying ball ?

While some on earnest business bent,
Their murm'ring labours ply,

'Gainst graver hours that bring constraint To sweeten liberty:

Some bold adventurers disdain
The limits of their little reign,

And unknown regions dare descry;
Still as they run they look behind,
They hear a voice in every wind,
And snatch a fearful joy.

Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed,
Less pleasing when possess'd ;*
The tear forgot as soon as shed,
The sunshine of the breast;
Their's buxom health, of rosy hue;
Wild wit, invention ever new;

And lively cheer, of vigour born;
The thoughtless day, the easy night,
The spirits pure, the slumbers light,
That fly th' approach of morn.

Alas! regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day;

Yet see how all around them wait
The ministers of human fate,

And black misfortune's baleful train. Ah! show them where in ambush stand, To seize their prey, the murd'rous band, Ah! tell them they are men!

These shall the fury passions tear,5
The vultures of the mind,
Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear,

And Shame that skulks behind;
Or pining Love shall waste their youth,
Or Jealousy with rankling tooth,

That inly gnaws the secret heart;
And Envy wan, and faded Care,
Grim-visaged comfortless Despair,
And Sorrow's piercing dart.

THE FLIGHT OF TIME.

Ambition this shall tempt to rise,
Then whirl the wretch from high,
To bitter scorn a sacrifice,
And grinning infamy.

The stings of falsehood those shall try,
And hard unkindness' altered eye,

That mocks the tear it forced to flow;
And keen Remorse with blood defiled,
And moody madness laughing wild,
Amidst severest woe.

Lo, in the vale of years beneath
A grisly troop are seen,

The painful family of death,

More hideous than their queen :
This racks the joints, this fires the veins,
That every labouring sinew strains,
Those in the deeper vitals rage;
Lo, poverty, to fill the band,
That numos the soul with icy hand;
And slow consuming age.

To each his sufferings; all are men,
Condemned alike to groan;

The tender for another's pain,

The unfeeling for his own.

Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
Since sorrow never comes too late,

And happiness too swiftly flies;
Thought would destroy their Paradise-
No more ;—where ignorance is bliss,
"Tis folly to be wise.

1. The establishment to which Eton owes all its importance is its College, founded by Henry VI. in 1440. That monarch, by whom it was liberally endowed, intended it principally for the education of" poor and indigent boys" destined for the Church.

2. Why in vain ?

269

GRAY.

3. The exact meaning of careless here?

4. What is less pleasing when possessed? 5. "I do not know that anv poet, ancient or modern, has given so complete a picture of the passions in so short a compass."-Wakefield. 6. What queen?

V. THE FLIGHT OF TIME.

"WHATEVER We see on every side, reminds us of the lapse of time and the flux of life. The day and night succeed each other; the rotation of seasons diversifies the year; the sun rises, attains the meridian, declines, and sets; and the moon every night changes its form."Johnson.

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