How sweet in such scenes to be straying,
While the wild woods their charms are displaying;
'Tis nature invites to taste such delights;
Let's please her by promptly obeying :

She spreads a rich feast for whoever will taste,
And her chalice bears nectar that never can waste.

THE DRAGON FLY.

(LIBELLULA.)

DARTING o'er the glassy stream,
See the libellula play ;

Shines his lustre in the beam,
As he holds his airy way.

Now aloft he proudly towers,

Springing from the water's breast;

Now he glides to willowy bowers,
Or upon the rush finds rest.

Daily through the sultry tide,

Thus his buoyant sport's renew'd;

Daily where the streamlets glide,

Thus his winged prey's pursued.

Light now o'er the lily's head,
Waves his flickering pinions fleet,
Sylphid of the watery glade,

Borne his radiant mate to meet.

MARTYRDOM OF THE MACCABEES.

STERNLY Antiochus decreed

The temple of the living God,
And all his worshippers to smite,
And trample with the common sod.

Through various trials, deep and long,

Had Israel still her faith maintain'd; Though oft her altar's fire was quench'd, And oft her blood the temple stain'd.

He saw her faithful, and his wrath
Kindling with fiercer fury burn'd;

He long'd to extirpate the tribes,

And see their fanes and shrines o'erturn'd.

The wish'd-for season seem'd as come,—
He held their leader in his power,
And pour'd out threatenings deep and dire,
To make his ardent spirit cower.

But vain were threats; the gallant youth
Met the stern sentence undismay'd;
Nor would his laws, his faith abjure,
Though torture all her arts essay'd.

His mother and his brethren then
Were call'd the dreadful scene to view;
But yet they blench'd not, all resolv'd
To pass the bloody ordeal through.

God gave him courage and support,
E'en while the torturer reft his tongue,
Each active member cleft, and fierce
His live flesh on the furnace flung.

The fiend glar'd in the king's dread eye,

When turn'd to mock the next born brother;

More fell his fate! yet God he blest
Thus died another and another;

Till at the seventh the tyrant stopt,
Thinking the youth he might allure,
By offering pardon, friendship, wealth,
If he would Israel's God abjure.

The mother saw the specious wile,
And though maternal love beat high,

She bade him trust the better life,

And like his faithful brethren die.

He spurn'd the graceless tyrant's gifts,
And warn'd him of the dreadful doom
Awaiting foes of God and man,

In worlds remote beyond the tomb.

Then bade the torturer execute
His office without more delay;

Well pleas'd to change this storm-fraught scene For realms of bliss and endless day.

Firmly he died-the mother died
Firm as her sons, as faithful too:
God was their stay, their hope, and still
Supported them the trial through.—

How dread the persecutor's lot,
No hope his spirit to sustain !
While those who die for Israel's God,
In bliss with Him shall ever reign.

EVENING-A SONNET.

(From the Latin.)

'Tis Summer's eve-and lo! this pleasant strand
Imbibes the balmy treasures of the sky;
Whilst broken shines yon watery arch on high,
Tinging with mellow light the humid land.
The soul rejoices as the frame is fann'd

E

By the fresh scented gales that wanton by:
Pale fungi here in pearly clusters lie,

There crown'd with herbage green the meads expand.

Shook by the show'r from yonder huge tree's shade,

In slow-worn furrows glides the silvery snail;

The glowworm trims his bright torch in the glade, And trembling dews light up his pathway pale; Whilst faintly flashing o'er the far-off sky, Innocuous lightnings spread their fires and die.

THE LILY OF THE VALLEY.

(CONVALLARIA MAJALIS.)

IN modest verdant mantle veil'd,

The trembling lily rears her head, Lovelier thus half from view conceal'd, Than were her charms more boldly spread.

A thousand gaudier flowers are round,
That seem to court the roving eye;
But ah! they're trampl'd to the ground,
And unregretted left to die.

Who wanders through the lonely vale,
And sees the bending lily there,
But stoops to pluck the flow'ret pale,
And hold it as a treasure rare?