Man is all symmetry,

Full of proportions, one limb to another,
And all to all the world besides :

Each part may call the farthest, brother;
For head with foot hath private amity,
And both with moons and tides.

Nothing hath got so far,

But man hath caught and kept it, as his prey. eyes dismount the highest star ;

His

He is in little all the sphere.

Herbs gladly cure our flesh, because that they
Find their acquaintance there.

For us the winds do blow,

The earth doth rest, heav'n move, and fountains flow. Nothing we see, but means our good,

As our delight, or as our treasure. The whole is either our cupboard of food Or cabinet of pleasure.

The stars have us to bed;

Night draws the curtain, which the sun withdraws :

Music and light attend our head.

All things unto our flesh are kind

In their descent and being; to our mind
In their ascent and cause.

Each thing is full of duty:

Waters united are our navigation;

Distinguished, our habitation;

Below, our drink; above, our meat : Both are our cleanliness. Hath one such beauty? Then how are all things neat!

More servants wait on man

Than he'll take notice of: in ev'ry path

He treads down that which doth befriend him When sickness makes him pale and wan. Oh mighty love! Man is one world, and hath Another to attend him.

Since then, my God, Thou hast

So brave a Palace built, Oh dwell in it,

That it may dwell with Thee at last!

Till then, afford us so much wit

That, as the world serves us, we may serve Thee,

And both thy servants be.

GEORGE HERBERT.

EVENTIDE.

COMES Something down with eventide,
Beside the sunset's golden bars;
Beside the floating scents; beside
The twinkling shadows of the stars.

Upon the river's rippling face,
Flash after flash, the white
Broke up in many a shallow place;
The rest was soft and bright.

By chance my eye fell on the stream-
How many a marvellous power
Sleeps in us-sleeps, and doth not dream!
This knew I in that hour.

For then my heart, so full of strife,
No more was in me stirred;
My life was in the river's life,
And I nor saw nor heard.

I and the river, we were one :
The shade beneath the bank,
I felt it cool; the setting sun
Into my spirit sank.

Was it a moment or an hour?
I know not; but I mourned
When, from that realm of awful power,

I to those fields returned.

THOMAS BUrbidge.

THE DAFFODILS.

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd

A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay :
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay

In such a jocund company :

I gazed and gazed-but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought :

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

WORDSWORTH.

THE RAINBOW.

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky :

So was it when my life began ;

So is it now I am a man ;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die !

The Child is father of the Man ;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

WORDSWORTH.