EPITAPHS.

An epitaph must be made fit for the person for whom it is made; for a man to say all the excellent things that can be said upon one, and call that his epitaph, is as if a painter should make the handsomest piece he can possibly make, and say 'twas my picture. It holds in a funeral sermon.

Selden.

ORIGIN OF THE STAMMERING OF MOSES.

The old Rabbins, those poets of religion, report of Moses, that when the courtiers of Pharaoh were sporting with the child Moses, in the chamber of Pharaoh's daughter, they presented to his choice an ingot of göld in one hand, and a coal of fire in the other; and that the child snatched at the coal, thrust it into his mouth, and so singed and parched his tongue, that he stammered ever after. And certainly it is infinitely more childish in us, for the glittering of the small glow-worms and the charcoal of worldly possessions, to swallow the flames of hell greedily in our choice: such a bit will produce a worse stammering than Moses had: for so the accursed and lost souls have their ugly and horrid dialect -they roar and blaspheme, blaspheme and roar for ever. And suppose God should now at this instant send the great archangel with his trumpet to summon all the world to judgment, would not all this seem a notoricus,

visible truth, a truth which you will then wonder that every man did not lay to his heart, and preserve there in actual pious and effective consideration? Let the trumpet of God perpetually sound in your ears, surgite mortui, et venite ad judicium: place yourselves, by meditation every day, upon your death-bed, and remember what thoughts shall then possess you; and let such thoughts dwell in your understanding for ever, be the parent of all your resolutions and actions. The doctors of the Jews report, that when Absalom hanged upon the oaks by the hair of the head, he seemed to see under him hell, gaping wide.

Jeremy Taylor.

OUR RAIMENT IS THE LORD'S.

Joshua the high-priest stood before the angel, clothed, not with righteousness, but with filthy rags. Sin upon him, and Satan by him, and this before the angel! What must he do? Go away? No, there he must stand! Can he speak for himself? Not a word; guilt had made him dumb! Had he nothing clean? No! But his lot was to stand before Jesus Christ, that maketh intercession for transgressors; and the Lord said, "the Lord rebuke thee, Satan!" But is Joshua now quit? No; he standeth yet, nor can he clear himself. How then? Why, the Lord clothes him with change of raiment. The iniquity was his own; the raiment was the Lord's. Bunyan.

FINE SPECIMEN OF EULOGY.

How was he honoured in the midst of the people, on his coming out of the sanctuary! He was as the morning star in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon at the full; as the sun shining upon the temple of the Most High, and as the rainbow giving light in the bright clouds, and as the flower of roses in the spring of the year; as lilies by the rivers of waters, and as the frankincense-tree in summer; as fire and incense in the censer and as a vessel of gold set with precious stones; as a fair olive-tree budding forth fruit, and as a cypress which groweth up to the clouds. When he put on the robe of honour, and was clothed with the perfection of glory, when he went up to the holy altar, he made the garments of holiness honourable. He himself stood by the hearth of the altar, compassed with his brethren round about, as a young cedar in Libanus; and as palm-trees compassed they him about.

On the High Priest Simon, the son of Onias.
-Wisdom of Solomon. Quoted by
Burke in his "Sublime and Beautiful."

TO DAFFODILS.

Fair daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attain'd his noon;

Stay, stay,
Until the hast'ning day

Has run

But to the even-song:

And having pray'd together, we
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay as you;

We have as short a spring;

As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you or any thing:
We die,

As your hour do; and dry
Away,

Like to the summer's rain,

Or as the pearls of morning dew,

Ne'er to be found again.

Herrick.

TO PRIMROSES, FILLED WITH MORNING DEW.

Why do ye weep, sweet babes? Can tears

Speak grief in you,

Who were but born

Just as the modest morn

Teem'd her refreshing dew?

Alas! you have not known that shower

That mars a flower,

Nor felt the unkind

Breath of a blasting wind;

Nor are ye worn with years,

Or warp'd as we,

Who think it strange to see

Such pretty flowers, like to orphans young,
Speaking by tears before ye have a tongue.

Speak, whimp'ring younglings, and make known
The reason why

Ye droop and weep:

Is it for want of sleep,
Or childish lullaby?

Or that ye have not seen as yet

The violet?

Or brought a kiss

From that sweet heart to this?

No, no; this sorrow shown

By your tears shed,

Would have this lecture read

"That things of greatest, so of meanest worth, Conceiv'd with grief are, and with tears brought forth."

Herrick.

SUNSHINE THROUGH CLOUDS.

*

* Hard it is

To imitate a false and forgéd bliss;

Ill may a sad mind forge a merry face,
Nor hath constrainéd laughter any grace.

Chapman.