At night t' th' heath-bells purple hood they fly,

And like to princes in their slumbers lie, Secure from rain, and dropping dues, aud all In silken beds and roomy painted hall.

So merrily they spend their summer day, Now in the corn-fields, now in the new-mown hay,

One almost fancies that such happy things, With coloured hoods, and richly burnished wings,

Are fairy folk, in splendid masquerade Disguised, as if of mortal folk afraid ;Keeping their joyous pranks a mystery still, Lest glaring day should do their secrets ill.

MERCY.

Clare.

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath it is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal
power

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A PART FOR EVERY ONE.

The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.
But mercy is above this sceptre sway:
It is enthroned in the heart of kings;
It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest
God's

When mercy seasons justice. Therefore,

man,

Though justice be thy plea, consider thisThat in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy; And that same prayer should teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy.

Shakespeare.

A PART FOR EVERY ONE.

True, therefore doth heaven divide The state of man in divers functions, Setting endeavours in continual motion; To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, Obedience: for so work the honey bees; Creatures that, by rule in nature, teach The art of order to a peopled kingdom.

A PART FOR EVERY ONE.

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They have a king, and officers of sorts; Where some like magistrates, correct at home;

Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;
Which pillage they, with merry march, bring
home

To the tent-royal of their emperor,
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale

The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,
That many things having full reference
To one consent, may work contrariously;
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Fly to one mark;

As many several ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams run in one self sea;
As many lines close in the dial's centre;
So many a thousand actions once afoot,
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat.

Shakespeare.

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SONNET.

SONNET

ON HIS BLINDNESS.

When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,

And that one talent which is death to hide,

Lodged with me useless, though my

soul more bent

To serve wherewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest He, returning, chide;

'Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?'

I fondly ask; but patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies;-"God doth not

need

Either man's work, or his own gifts;

who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best;

his state

Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without

rest;

They also serve, who only stand and wait.

Millon.

SLAVERY.

SLAVERY.

O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,

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Might never reach me more. My ear is pain'd,

My soul is sick, with every day's report
Of wrong and outrage, with which earth is
fill'd.

There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart,
It does not feel for man; the natural bond
Of brotherhood is severed as the flax
That falls asunder at the touch of fire.
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin

Not colour'd like his own; and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy

cause

Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interposed
Make enemies of nations, who had else
Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys;
And, worse than all, and most to be deplored
As human nature's broadest; foulest blot,