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By all thy dower of lights and fires;
By all the eagle in thee, all the dove;
By all thy lives and deaths of love;

By thy large draughts of intellectual day;
And by thy thirsts of love more large than they;
By all thy brim-filled bowls of fierce desire;

By thy last morning's draught of liquid fire;

By the full kingdom of that final kiss

That seized thy parting soul, and sealed thee His;

By all the heaven thou hast in Him

(Fair sister of the seraphim);

By all of Him we have in thee,
Leave nothing of my self in me.
Let me so read thy life, that I
Unto all life of mine may die.

TWO WENT UP INTO THE TEMPLE TO PRAY.

TWO went to pray? O rather say

One went to brag, the other to pray:

One stands up close and treads on high,
Where the other dares not send his eye.

One nearer to God's altar trod,
The other to the altar's God.

HENRY VAUGHAN.

(1621-1695).

The Works of Henry Vaughan, "Silurist", fill four volumes of the Fuller Worthies Library, edited by Dr. A. B. Grosart, 1871; they also appear in the Muses' Library, edited by Mr. E. K. Chambers, 1896. His Sacred Poems have been reprinted also in the Aldine Poets, 1847, edited by the Rev. H. F. Lyte, and his Secular Poems have been edited by Mr. J. R. Tutin, Hull, 1893. The first three selections are found in Silex Scintillans, 1650; the next in Part II. of the same title, 1655; and the last from Thalia Rediviva, 1678.

THE RETREAT.

[APPY those early days, when I

HAPPY

Shined in my angel-infancy!

Before I understood this place
Appointed for my second race,
Or taught my soul to fancy ought
But a white, celestial thought;
When yet I had not walked above
A mile or two from my first love,
And looking back-at that short space–
Could see a glimpse of His bright face;
When on some gilded cloud or flower
My gazing soul would dwell an hour,
And in those weaker glories spy
Some shadows of eternity;

Before I taught my tongue to wound
My conscience with a sinful sound,
Or had the black art to dispense,
A several sin to every sense,
But felt through all this fleshly dress
Bright shoots of everlastingness.
O how I long to travel back,
And tread again that ancient track!
That I might once more reach that plain,
Where first I left my glorious train;

From whence the enlightened spirit sees
That shady city of palm trees.

But ah! my soul with too much stay
Is drunk, and staggers in the way!
Some men a forward motion love,
But I by backward steps would move;
And when this dust falls to the urn,
In that state I came, return.

THE WORLD.

I

SAW Eternity the other night,

Like a great ring of pure and endless light, All calm, as it was bright;

And round beneath it Time in hours, days, years,

Driven by the spheres

Like a vast shadow moved; in which the world And all her train were hurled.

Y

PEACE.

My soul, there is a country

Far beyond the stars,

Where stands a winged sentry

All skilful in the wars;

There, above noise and danger,

Sweet Peace sits crowned with smiles,

And One born in a manger

Commands the beauteous files.

He is thy gracious friend,

And, O my soul awake!

Did in pure love descend

To die here for thy sake,
If thou canst get but thither,

There grows the flower of peace,

THEY

The rose that cannot wither,
Thy fortress and thy ease.
Leave then thy foolish ranges,

For none can thee secure,
But One, who never changes,
Thy God, thy life, thy cure.

BEYOND THE VEIL.

HEY are all gone into the world of light!
And I alone sit lingering here;

Their very memory is fair and bright,
And my sad thoughts doth clear.

It glows and glitters in my cloudy breast,
Like stars upon some gloomy grove,

Or those faint beams in which this hill is drest,
After the sun's remove.

I see them walking in an air of glory,

Whose light doth trample on my days:
My days, which are at best but dull and hoary,
Mere glimmering and decays

O holy Hope! and high Humility,

High as the heavens above!

These are your walks, and you have showed them me, To kindle my cold love.

Dear, beauteous Death! the jewel of the just,

Shining no where, but in the dark;

What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust;

Could man outlook that mark!

He that hath found some fledged bird's nest, may know

At first sight if the bird be flown;

But what fair well or grove he sings in now,

That is to him unknown.

And yet as angels in some brighter dreams
Call to the soul, when man doth sleep,

So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes,
And into glory peep.

If a star were confined into a tomb,

The captive flames must needs burn there;
But when the hand that locked her up, gives room,
She'll shine through all the sphere.

O Father of eternal life, and all

Created glories under Thee!

Resume Thy spirit from this world of thrall

Into true liberty.

Either disperse these mists, which blot and fill
My perspective-still-as they pass:
Or else remove me hence unto that hill,
Where I shall need no glass.

THE CHOSEN PATH.

WELCOME, pure thoughts and peaceful hours,

Enriched with sunshine and with showers!

Welcome fair hopes and holy cares,

The not-to-be-repented shares

Of time and business; the sure road
Unto my last and loved abode!
O supreme bliss!

The circle, centre, and abyss
Of blessings, never let me miss

Nor leave that path, which leads to Thee,
Who art alone all things to me!

I hear, I see, all the long day,

The noise and pomp of the 'broad way';
I note their coarse and proud approaches,

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