THE MANIAC MAID.

"Trust in the LORD with all thy heart; and lean not to thine own understanding." PROV. iii. 5.

"My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction." PROV. iii. 11.

A MANIAC maiden sought the strand :
Her lover had left for a foreign land;

His country's high call had challenged her claim,
And he went to fight for his country's fame.
But woe to his hopes! and woe to his pride!
He fell where gallant foemen died.

The storm was out; the sea dashed high;
The blackened tempest drove along the sky;
But she tarried not for the sea-bird's scream,
And she hurried on by the lightning's gleam;
And she thought of her lover's bloody grave,
And plunged her in the foaming wave.

The storm was hushed; — the morn was clear;
But the maid was gone from her parents' cheer:
They searched on the hill, they sought on the shore,
But the maid was lost; - they saw her no more;
They heard not her grief, they knew not her wrong;
For the wild winds howled her requiem song.

DIES IRÆ.*

DIES iræ, dies illa

Solvet sæclum in favillâ,

Teste David cum Sibyllâ. †

* “A Latin hymn describing the final judgment of the world. It is ascribed to Thomas de Calano, a Minorite, who lived in the thirteenth century. It is a beautiful poem, belonging to those early Christian songs, which combine the smoothness of rhyme with the gravity of Latin verse. This powerful poem makes a part of the Requiem (the Mass for the souls of the dead); and it is one of the highest and most difficult tasks for the composer to compose music adapted to the awful solemnity of the subject." AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA.

We have adjoined to the hymn a literal translation of it. It is to be observed that no translation from a dead into a vernacular language can equal the original, since, in the vernacular, every word presents at once a single and definite meaning, while in the reading of a dead language imagination is allowed more liberty; and, besides, the words of a dead language are free from those detractive associations of commonness or familiarity, which appertain to many of even those words in a vernacular, which are employed in poetical composition. The Latin language, moreover, from its etymology, is altogether superior to our own, in its facilities for the composition of solemn and stately rhythm.

+ There is doubt whether this line was in the original poem; but, being ancient, and long in use, it is retained by the Roman Catholic Church in the hymn as used in the Mass for the dead. It is difficult to determine what is the exact meaning of the line. By "David" may be intended JESUS CHRIST, and the phrase "cum Sibylla " may imply only the absolute certainty of his testimony. Instances of a similar sense of these terms may be found. If by "David" a reference is made to the Psalms, the passage is probably Psalm cii. 25, 26; and by "the Sibyl” would be understood some passage well known at the time, when this hymn was composed, in one of the Sibylline books so numerous in the early periods of Christianity. But the interpretation, which has seemed most plausible and satisfactory, is, that the word "Sibyl" is used

THE DAY OF WRATH.*

THE day of wrath, that unknown day, †
Will worlds in ashes melt away;

So David and the Sibyl say.

generically or abstractly, as meaning the Sibyls,— all those books among the heathen or gentile nations, which were supposed to convey a true knowledge of futurity; and that the term "David" is used in a similar sense, as the whole Christian or Divine Revelation. So that the meaning will be, -All true prophetical records, in the Church and among pagans, testify unanimously, that this world will be destroyed, and man be judged. In this sense the line conveys a mighty argument, and brings "the day of wrath" before our notice as a subject of serious truth and most solemn interest.

*"HYMN TO THE DEAD.

"THAT day of wrath, that dreadful day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
What power shall be the sinner's stay?
How shall he meet that dreadful day?

When, shrivelling like a parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll;
When louder yet, and yet more dread,
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead!

Oh! on that day, that wrathful day,
When man to judgment wakes from clay,
Be THOU the trembling sinner's stay,
Though heaven and earth shall pass away!"

LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. CANTO Vi.

+ St. Matt. xxiv. 36. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man,

no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando Judex est venturus,
Cuncta stricte discussurus ! *

Tuba, mirum spargens sonum
Per sepulchra regionum,
Coget omnes ante thronum.

Mors stupebit et natura,
Cum resurget creatura,
Judicanti responsura.

Liber scriptus proferetur, †
In quo totum continetur
Unde mundus judicetur.

Judex ergo cum sedebit,
Quidquid latet apparebit,
Nil inultum remanebit.

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus,

Cum vix justus sit securus?

*Heb. xii. 12. "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." Hag. ii. 6.

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books. - Rev. xx. 12.

1 Pet. iv. 18. "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?"

How will the universe then quake,

When comes the Judge account to take,
Earth, heaven, all things, so strict to shake!

The trumpet spreads its awful tone
Deep through the tombs of every zone,
And gathers all before the throne. *

Death will be dumb, and nature fear,
When raised the creature shall appear,
To answer to the Judge severe.

The book full-written will be spread,
Which holds all thought, or done, or said,
To judge the world, both quick and dead. †

The Judge will sit, and man arraign,
Each hidden thing he will explain,
No sin shall unavenged remain. ‡

What shall I, wretched man, then plead?
What patron ask to intercede,

When scarce the righteous win their meed?

* Or: Scatters the trump its awful sound,

Through earth's dark graves it heaves the ground,

And summons all the throne around.

† 2 Tim. iv. 1. "The LORD JESUS CHRIST shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom," &c. See also the Apostles' Creed.

Matt. xxv. 31-46.