The forced contempt that curls the lip,
The sneer of hate, the laugh of scorn,
Could we these false disguises strip,

Would show a heart by misery torn :
The galling yoke of grief is borne,
Heaviest, by those who madly sip

False pleasure's cup, with hearts forlorn.

And I have seen light pleasure fling
Her net o'er many a generous mind,
Entranced within her magic ring;

While youth on pleasure's couch reclined,
In converse gay with wit refined,
Unconscious that guilt's deadly sting,

E'en there, his inmost soul might find.

The weal or wo, wherein we dwell,
The mind doth for itself create ;

And forms within the heaven or hell,

That makes, or mars, our changeful state:

Virtue alone can ope the gate

Of lasting joy, can grief repel,

Or meet, unmoved, the storms of fate.

EXCITEMENT.

Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds. SHAKSPEARE.

If thou, in body to the earth allied,

Would'st in base joys thy sordid pleasures find, Go, wallow in the sty; and quench the pride Of lofty thought, thy high aspiring mind,

In low and sensual pleasures, such as bind Yon heedless revellers, in folly's den. Excitement dost thou need? Go, seek it then

In strenuous thought, intent all truth to know; In action seek it, mid thy fellow men ;

In virtuous feeling find it; raise the low, Direct the erring, dry the tears that flow, And bid thy light, the light of virtue, shine: So shalt thou need nor feast, nor sparkling wine, Thy thought to feed, or bid thy fancy glow.

The Junior Sophister has learned, at length,
That license is not freedom; that control,
Howe'er ungrateful to the youthful soul,
Gives aim to effort, and to action strength:
For painful doubt, he seeks the known relief
Of settled truth, in well assured belief:
Reverence hath won submission in his mind
To rightful power. The College honors now
Though late despised, he fears not to avow
Meet objects of desire; nor fails to find

The Clubs' mysterious brotherhood assert
Its kindling power o'er feelings else inert,
Ambition rousing, with high hopes combined,
That long o'er life their potent sway exert.

INFLUENCE OF MIND ON MATTER.

Mind is the ruling power, that moulds at will

The world of matter, finding in its forms
But outward images of inbred thought.

External nature borrows half its grace

From mind, which, kindled by its native fires,
Projects abroad the beauty it admires.

To sorrow's leaden eye, creation's face

Is clothed in gloom, and discontent retires Sullen from loveliest scenes; while tempests bring But nobler music, on their sounding wing,

To hearts attuned to harmony within.

Hence earth is what man makes it; to the low,

The weak, the sordid, one wide den of wo,

Of base compulsion, and ignoble sin;

But lovely to the good, and to the wise,
Whose souls its seeming din can harmonize,
Clothed in the beauty happy thoughts bestow.

To such, all earth is lovely; and this frame

Of things created, whether great or small,

From insect atoms to earth's pendent ball, Each hath its charm and glory, each its claim,

Its scope, its purpose, its peculiar aim,

Its form of beauty, seen alike in all
Wrought by that hand divine, which can educe
From forms unnumbered never ending use:
Nor use alone His purposes proclaim,
But pleasure and endearments, that infuse
The sense of beauty, and the heart inflame
With love of nature, grace with grandeur joined :
Hence Taste, and Plastic Art, the tuneful Muse,
And each fine issue of the polished mind.

II.

Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me
With stinted kindness;- purifying thus
The elements of feeling and of thought.

WORDSWORTH.

Where'er we turn, the Beautiful is still

Within and round us; seen in hill and dale,

In waving wood, deep glen, and cottaged vale, In quiet lake, broad stream, and sparkling rill; In dew-gemmed meadows, vocal with the trill

Of wild wood warblers, pouring on the gale Their joyous throats; felt livelier in the flow Of pure affections, cherished in the glow

Of manly thoughts, and feelings that incline To vituous deeds; nor seen more lovely, clear, In beauty's smile, than pity's generous tear.

These mould the ductile thoughts, thegraceful shrine

Of Taste adorn, and beauty's arbour rear,

Sky-lighted, mantled with the clustering vine.

III.

A truth, which through our being then doth melt,
And purifies from self.

BYRON.

Who loves not beauty? beauty in the grass,

The grain, the grove, in gently winding streams, The moon's mild ray, and morning's rosy beams. Brighter in living forms, the moving mass

Of insect life, bird, beast, with beauty teems: Nor rests it here; the human face divine

Blends grace of form with beauties of the mind, Deep thought with generous feeling, reason joined With warm emotion: hence all charms combine Highest in virtuous action; hence the grace Loveliest of earthly forms, gives willing place To moral beauty, where pure virtues shine; And hence, in happy bosoms, beauty's fruit Is hope, joy, love, devotion, from one root.

THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS.

The high-born soul,

Disdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wing
Beneath its native quarry.

AKENSIDE.

Love is Devotion with a milder name;

And Piety but turns that love from earth To highter hopes, and joys of nobler birth. Lovely, not less than sacred, is the flame