Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

Their masonry imperishable. All

Life's needful functions, food, exertion, reft,
By nice economy of Providence,

Were overruled to carry on the process,
Which out of water brought forth solid rock.
Atom by atom - thus the mountain grew,
A coral island, ftretching east and weft.

Compared with this amazing edifice,
Raised by the weakest creatures in existence,
What are the works of intellectual man,
His temples, palaces, and fepulchres?
Duft in the balance, atoms in the gale,
Compared with these achievements in the deep,
Were all the monuments of olden time.

[ocr errors]

The Pyramids would be mere pinnacles, The giant ftatues wrought from rocks of granite, But puny ornaments for fuch a pile

As this ftupendous mound of catacombs,

Filled with dry mummies of the builder, worms. JAMES MONTGOMERY.

XXX.

THE MOLE HILL.

ELL me, thou duft beneath my feet,
Thou duft that once hadft breath-
Tell me how many mortals meet,
In this fmall hill of death?

[graphic]

By wafting winds and flooding rains,
From ocean, earth, and sky;
Collected here, the frail remains
Of flumbering millions lie.

The mole that scoops, with curious toil,
Her fubterranean bed,

Thinks not fhe ploughs fo rich a foil,
And mines among the dead.

But oh where'er fhe turns the ground,
My kindred earth I fee;

Once every atom of this mound

Lived, breathed, and felt like me.

Like me, these elder-born of clay
Enjoyed the cheerful light;
Bore the brief burden of a day

And went to rest at night.

Methinks this duft yet heaves with breath,

Ten thousand pulfes beat;

Tell me, in this fmall hill of death,

How many mortals meet?

JAMES MONTGOMERY.

XXXI.

THE RAIN DROP.

[graphic]

HAT if each drop of rain fhould plead,
So fmall a drop as I

W

Can ne'er refresh the thirsty glebe;
I'll tarry in the sky?

What if each little ray at noon

Should in its fountain stay;
Because its feeble light alone
Cannot create a day?

Doth not each rain-drop help to form

The cool refreshing shower;

And every ray

of light to warm

And beautify the flower?

XXXII

THE FALLING LEAF.

[graphic]

EE! the leaves around us falling,
Dry and withered to the ground;
Thus to thoughtlefs mortals calling,
In a fad and folemn found:

"Sons of Adam (once in Eden
Where, like us, ye blighted fell),
Hear the leffon we are reading,
Mark the awful truths we tell.

[ocr errors]

Youth, on length of days prefuming, Who the paths of pleasure tread, View us late in beauty blooming, Numbered now among the dead.

"What though yet no loffes grieve you, Gay with health and many a grace; Let not cloudless skies deceive you, Summer gives to autumn place.

"Yearly in our courfe returning,
Meffengers of shortest stay,

Thus we preach this truth concerning,
Heaven and Earth fhall pass away.

"On the tree of life eternal,

Oh let all our hopes be laid!

This alone, for ever vernal,

Bears a leaf that fhall not fade."

BISHOP HORne.

XXXIII.

THE LAST MAN IN SIR JOHN FRANK

LIN'S EXPEDITION.

I.

HEY have fallen one by one;
The laft, but one, to-day-
God! am I left, alone,

To track this weary way;
My weary way to the River,
The haven where I would be ?
But, alas! heart-ftruck I fhiver

I can never attain the fea!
I am touching his lifeless head,

A waif on this defolate fhore ;
I am kiffing the laft of the dead-
Shall I fee man's face no more?

Cold, Cold, Cold,

But mine hour is not yet told!

[graphic]
« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »