From the mountain, and ere day
Bear a lamb or kid away;
Or the crafty, thievish fox
Break upon your simple flocks.
To secure yourself from these
Be not too secure in ease;
So shall you good shepherds prove,
And deserve your master's love.
Now, good night! may sweetest slumbers
And soft silence fall in numbers1
On your eye-lids! so farewell;
-Thus I end my evening's knell.

27

THOMAS CAREW.-Born, 1589; Died, 1639. He was a gentleman the Privy Chamber, and “ Taster-Geucral" to Charles I.

UNFADING BEAUTY.
HE that loves a rosy cheek,
Or a coral lip admires,
Or from star-like eyes doth seek
Fuel to maintain his fires ;
As old Time makes these decay,
So, his flames? must melt away.
But a smooth and steadfast mind,
Gentle thoughts, and calm desires,
Hearts with equal love combined,
Kindle never-dying fires :
Where these are not, I despise
Lovely cheeks, or lips, or eyes.

I numbers, harmonious sounds.

! flames, affection.

R. HERRICK.-Born, 1591 ; Died, 1674. Robert Herrick was an English vicar, and was ejected by Cromwell, but reinstated by Charles II. His poems show an elegant fancy, but are often disfigured by the forced quaintness in fashion in his day.

SONG.

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a flying ;
And this same flower that smiles to-day,

To-morrow will be dying.
The glorious Lamp of Heaven, the Sun,

The higher he's a getting
The sooner will his race be run,

And nearer he's to setting.
That age is best which is the first,

When youth and blood are warmer ;
But being spent, the worse and worst

Times still succeed the former,

What, were ye born to be

An hour or half's delight,

And so to bid good-night?
'Twas pity Nature brought ye forth
Merely to show your worth,

And lose you quite.
But you are lovely leaves, where we

May read how soon things have

Their end, though ne'er so brave :* And after they have shown their pride Like you, a while, they glide

Into the grave.

30

THE COUNTRY LIFE.

SWEET country life, to such unknown
Whose lives are others, not their own,
But, serving courts and cities, be
Less happy, less enjoying thee:

-Thou never plough’st the ocean's foam
To seek and bring rough pepper home;
Nor to the Eastern Indi dost rove
To bring from thence the scorchèd clove ;
Nor, with the loss of thy loved rest,
Bring'st home the ingotfrom the west :3
No! thy ambition's masterpiece*
Flies no thought higher than a fleece;
Or how to pay thy hinds, and clear
All scores, and so to end the year :
But walk'st about thine own dear bounds,
Not envying others' larger grounds;
For well thou know'st'tis not th' extent
Of land makes life, but sweet content.
When now the cock, the ploughman's horn,
Calls forth the lily-wristed morn,
Then to thy cornfields thou dost go,
Which though well soild, yet thou dost know
That the best compost for the lands
Is the wise master's feet and hands :
There at the plough thou find’st thy team,
With a hind whistling there to them;
And cheer'st them up, by singing how
The kingdom's portion is the plough:
This done, then to th' enamelld meads?
Thou go'st, and as thy foot there treads,
Thou seest a present God-like power
Imprinted in each herb and flower;
And smell'st the breath of great-eyed kine
Sweet as the blossoms of the vine :
Here thou behold'st thy large sleek neat®
Unto the dew-laps up in meat;:

a

And as thou look’st, the wanton steer, 10
The heifer, cow, and ox draw near,
To make a pleasing pastime there :-
These seen, thou go'st to view thy flocks
Of sheep, safe from the wolf and fox,
And find'st their bellies there as full
Of short sweet grass, as backs with wool;
And leav'st them, as they feed and fill-
A shepherd piping on a hill.

11

For sports, for pageantry, and plays,
Thou hast thy eves12 and holydays;
On which the young men and maids meet
To exercise their dancing feet,
Tripping the comely country round,
With daffodils aud daisies crown'd.
Thy wakes,18 thy quintels,14 here thou hast,
Thy May-poles15 too with garlands graced,
Thy morris-dance, 16 thy Whitsun-ale, 17
Thy shearing-feasts which never fail,

12

10 steer, a young ox.
11 pageantry, shows, processions.
eves, the evenings before a holi-

on the back, as it turned swiftly

round with his blow. 15 May-poles, poles set up on May