Chapter 74
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds; And as the mind is pitched, the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touched within us, and the heart replies.
Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And Learning wiser grow without his books.
_Tirocinium_.
s.h.i.+ne by the side of every path we tread With such a l.u.s.tre, he that runs may read.
_Retirement_.
Built G.o.d a church, and laughed His word to scorn.
How sweet, how pa.s.sing sweet is solitude!
But grant me still a friend in my retreat, Whom I may whisper, Solitude is sweet.
_Conversation_.
A fool must now and then be right, by chance.
_John Gilpin_.
That, though on pleasure she was bent, She had a frugal mind.
To dash through thick and thin.
A hat not much the worse for wear
_Lines to his Mother's Picture_.
O that those lips had language! Life has pa.s.sed With me but roughly since I heard thee last.
_Walking with G.o.d_.
What peaceful hours I once enjoyed?
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void, The world can never fill.
VERSES, _Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk_.
I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute.
O Solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face?
But the sound of the church-going bell Those valleys and rocks never heard, Never sighed at the sound of a knell, Or smiled when a Sabbath appeared.
How fleet is a glance of the mind!
Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light.
W. J. MICKLE.
1734-1788.
_The Mariner's Wife_.
His very foot has music in 't As he comes up the stairs.
JOHN LANGHORNE.
1735-1779.
_The Country Justice_.