THE WONDERS OF THE LANE.

51

To mountain-winds the famished fox

Complains that Sol is slow,

O'er headlong steeps and gushing rocks
His royal robe to throw.

But here the lizard seeks the sun,
Here coils, in light, the snake:
And here the fire-tuft hath begun

Its beauteous nest to make.

Oh! then, while hums the earliest bee
Where verdure fires the plain,

Walk thou with me, and stoop to see
The glories of the lane!

For oh! I love these banks of rock,

This roof of sky and tree,

These tufts, where sleeps the gloaming clock,

And wakes the earliest bee!

As spirits from eternal day

Look down on earth, secure,

Look here, and wonder, and survey

A world in miniature.

A world not scorned by Him who made
E'en weakness by His might;

But solemn in IIis depth of shade

And splendid in His sight.

ELLIOTT.

SPRING POINTING TO GOD.

LOOSED from the bands of frost, the verdant ground
Again puts on her robe of cheerful green,
Again puts forth her flowers; and all around,
Smiling, the cheerful face of spring is seen.

Behold the trees new-deck their withered boughs; Their ample leaves the hospitable plane,

The taper elm, and lofty ash disclose;

The blooming hawthorn variegates the scene.

(The lily of the vale, of flowers the queen,

Puts on the robe she neither sewed nor spun: The birds on ground, or on the branches green, Hop to and fro, and glitter in the sun.

Soon as o'er eastern hills the morning peers,
From her low nest the tufted lark upsprings;

And cheerful singing, up the air she steers;

Still high she mounts, still loud and sweet she sings.

On the green furze, clothed o'er with golden blooms,

That fill the air with fragrance all around,

EFFECTS OF SPRING.

The linnet sits, and tricks his glossy plumes,

While o'er the wild his broken. notes resound.

53

While the sun journeys down the western sky,
Along the greensward, marked with Roman
mound,

Beneath the blithesome shepherd's watchful eye,
The cheerful lambkins dance and frisk around.

Now is the time for those who wisdom love,
Who love to walk in virtue's flowery road,
Along the lovely paths of spring to rove,

And follow Nature up to Nature's God.

BRUCE.

EFFECTS OF SPRING.

THE great Sun,

Scattering the clouds with a resistless smile,
Came forth to do thee homage; a sweet hymn
Was by the low winds chanted in the sky;
And when thy feet descended on the earth,
Scarce could they move amid the clustering flowers