AN OCCASIONAL HYMN. Through shades and solitudes profound Bewildering meteors glare around, Welcome, thrice welcome, to his eye, When forth she sallies through the sky, Thus mortals, blind and weak, below The world's a wilderness of woe, Till mild Religion, from above, The messenger of heavenly love, Then guilty passions wing their flight, Religion's yoke is soft and light, Ambition, pride, revenge depart, She makes the humble contrite heart Beyond the narrow vale of time, To scenes eternal, scenes sublime, At her approach the grave appears Her voice the watching cherub hears Baptized with her renewing fire, Rise when the host of Heaven expire, "THE JOY OF GRIEF." — OSSIAN. Sweet the hour of tribulation, And the tear of resignation nave you felt the kind emotion Soft as Evening o'er the ocean, Have you lost a friend, a brother? Heard a father's parting breath? Till she seem'd to wake from death / Have you felt a spouse expiring Watch'd the lovely soul retiring Did not grief then grow romantic, Did you not, with fervour frantic, f Yes! but, whea you had resign'd her, Anua left—she left behind her. But before the green moss peeping In that grave the infant sleeping Horror then, your heart congealing, Can you call to mind the feeling ;— From that gloomy trance of sorrow, How unwelcome was the morrow, Sunk in self-consuming anguish, No, the tortured nerve will languish, O'er the yielding brow of Sadness One soft pang of tender gladness While the wounds of woe are healing, 'Tis the solemn feast of feeling, Pensive memory then retraces Lives in former times and places, |