husband and her sons, and insulted often by her unfeeling neighbors, who came to laugh at her devotion and ridicule her hopes. For these, as well as for some who visited her for kinder purposes, she had but one answer - she wished them all like her; prayed that they might only be as happy as herself. When told what she had seen was a mere dream and a delusion, she said it did not signify to tell her that she had seen it, and it was the recollection of it that made her nights so short and her days so happy. "And what does it signify," she added, "that they swear at me, and tell me I am a foolish old woman - don't I know how happy I am?" During the many years that she survived, the minister of the parish saw her frequently, and found little variation in her feelings, none in her firm adherence to the tale she at first had told; and the persuasion that what she had seen was a blessed reality, sufficient to make her happy in every extreme of earthly wretchedness. And he saw her die, as she had lived, in holy, calm, and confident reliance on her Savior's promises. To what I have written, I could find much to add, having notes of all that passed during the protracted years of this devoted woman's life. But my purpose is not to make a story. I have witnessed only to what I saw, and repeated only what my ear has listened to. And I have repeated it but to prove that the happiness which all men seek, and most complain they find not, has sometimes an abode. where we should least expect to find it. This is an extreme case; extreme in mental enjoyment, as in external misery. But it is true. And if it be so, that a being debarred the most common comforts of life, almost of the light and air of heaven, suffering, and incapable even to clothe herself, or cleanse her unsightly dwelling, could yet pass years of so much happiness, that her warmest expression of gratitude to her benefactors was to wish them a portion as happy as her own, what are we to say to those, who, amid the overflow of earthly good, make the wide world resound with their complainings? How are we to understand it, that, while blessings are showered around us as the summer rain, there is so little real happiness on earth? Because we seek it not aright - we seek it where it is not, in outward circumstance and external good, and neglect to seek it, where alone it dwells, in the close chambers of the bosom. We would have a happiness in time, independent of eternity; we would have it independent of the Being whose it is to give; and so we go forth, each one as best we may, to seek out the rich possession for ourselves. But disappointment attends every step in the pursuit of happiness, until we seek it where alone it can be found. MUSINGS. SPEAK gently My name, when I rest with the dead; The turf that lies over my head: To bloom o'er the place where I sleep, Whose branches shall over me weep. O, come there, When spring's gentle breezes do play, Sing o'er me a low, mournful lay: At evening, When fragrance floats soft on the air, Then kneel there, And offer thy deep, fervent prayer. Let me die When the sun slowly sinks to his rest; Brightly play round his home in the west: As fades daylight's last trembling ray, So gently My spirit would then pass away. SPARGE ROSAS. Sparge rosas: sprinkle roses Thus Venusia's minstrel taught Where each loving heart reposes, Where its sweetest joys are sought. Sparge rosas: scatter roses Round the dancer's flying feet. They are Venus' chosen symbol, 'Mid the halls where graces meet. Sparge rosas: crown with roses Every head at friendship's feast; Sparge rosas: sprinkle roses Sparge rosas: sprinkle roses; Thorns enough spontaneous grow: Comfort needeth cultivation; Pain and hardship all shall know. Sparge rosas: sprinkle roses, Roses sweet of peace and love; Hate and discard strive to banish, Strive to good the race to move. Sparge rosas: sprinkle roses O'er the silvered brow of age; Let the last of earth they witness Be their life's serenest page. Sparge rosas: sprinkle roses Sparge rosas: sprinkle roses, |