From strange restraints and idle rules,
The tyrant discipline of schools,

The childish thought will roam;
And tears will struggle in his eye,
Whilst he remembers with a sigh,
The comforts of his home.

The emancipating hour is come,
The long-expected years!

And still he shares the common doom,

The slave of hopes and fears. Young Love before his eager eyes. Presents a promised paradise,

But still the sullen fiend Delay,

Or bars him on his onward way

To scenes so seeming fair;

Or he may reach the wish'd-for seat,.
And when he thinks his joys compleat,,
Find Disappointment there.

So he remembers with a sigh
The careless days of infancy!.

Maturer manhood now arrives,.
And other thoughts come on;
But with the baseless hopes of youth
Its generous warmth is gone.
Cold calculating cares succeed,
The timid thought, the wary deed,
The dull realities of truth.
Back on the past he turns his eye,
Remembering, with an envious sigh
The faery dreams of youth.

So reaches he the latter stage
Of this our mortal pilgrimage,
With feeble step and slow;
New ills his latter stage await,
And old experience learns too late,

That all is vanity below.
Life's vain delusions are gone by,
Its idle hopes are o'er ;
Yet age remembers with a sigh,
The days that are no more.

R.

HOPE.

Man hath a weary pilgrimage-
As thro' the world he wends,
Yet gentle Hope on every stage,
The comforter, attends.

And if the toil-worn traveller droops,

With heaviness opprest,

She cheers his heart, and bids him see

The diftant place of rest.

To school the little exile goes,

And quits his mother's arms;

What then shall soothe his earliest woes, When novelty has lost its charms ? Condemned to suffer thro' the day Restraints that no rewards repay,

And cares where love has no concern;

If memory still the present sours,

Hope lightens as she counts the hours

That hasten his return.

Youth comes, and eager fancy hails
The long-expected days :

Youth comes, and he is doom'd to prove
The fears and jealousies of love,

And all its long delays.

But when the passions with their might Afflict the doubtful breast,

Hope bids him yet expect delight,

And happiness, and rest.

When manhood comes with troubles rife,

And all the toils and cares of life

Usurp the busy mind,

Where shall the tir'd and harrass'd heart

Its consolation find.

Hope doubts not yet the meed to obtain

Of difficulties past,

And looks beyond the toils of gain

To wealth enjoy'd at last.

So to his journey's latter stage
His pilgrim feet attain,
And then he finds in wiser age
That earthly cares are vain.

Yet Hope the constant friend remains
Who sooth'd his troubles past,
Tho' oft deceiving and deceived
The truest friend at last.

By Faith and Hope in life's last hour
Are life's last pangs relieved,
They give the expectation then.

That cannot be deceived..

R..