AN ENGLISH CHRISTMAS HOME.

Eliza Cook.

A LOUD and laughing welcome to the merry Christmas bells;

All hail with happy gladness to the well-known chant that swells ;

We list the pealing anthem chord, we hear the midnight strain,

And love the tidings that proclaim old Christmas back again.

But there must be a melody of purer, deeper sound;

A rich key note whose echo runs through all the music round.

Let kindly voices ring beneath low roof or palace dome,

For those alone are carol chimes that bless a Christmas home.

CHORUS.

Then fill once more, from Bounty's store, red wine, or nut brown foan,

And drink to kindly voices in an English Christmas home.

A bright and joyous welcome to the berries and the leaves,

That hang about our household walls in dark and rustling sheaves.

Up with the holly and the bay, set laurel on the board,

And let the mistletoe look down while pledging draughts are poured.

But there must be some hallowed bloom to garland with the rest,

All, all must bring toward the wreath some flowers of the breast,

For though green boughs may thickly grace; low roof and palace dome,

Warm hearts alone will truly serve to deck a Christmas home.

CHORUS.

Then fill once more, from Bounty's store, red wine, or nut brown foam,

And drink to honest hearts within an English Christmas home.

CHILDHOOD'S WOES.
3. Montgomery.

BUT ah! what light and little things
Are childhood's woes-they break no rest.
Like dew drops on the sky lark's wings,
While slumbering in his grassy nest,
Gone in a moment when he springs
To meet the morn with open breast,
As o'er the eastern hills her banners flow,
And veiled in mist, the valley sleeps below.

EVENING.

Byron.

Ir is the hour when from the boughs
The nightingale's high note is heard;
It is the hour when lover's VOWS

Sound sweet in every whispered word:
And gentle winds and waters near
Make music to the lonely ear.

Each flower the dews have lightly wet,
And in the sky the stars are met,
And on the wave a deeper blue,
And on the leaf a browner hue,
And in the heaven that clear obscure,
So softly dark, and darkly pure,
That follows the decline of day,
As twilight melts beneath the moon away.

HISTORY OF MAN.

From the Russian, translated by Bowring.

WHAT is man's history? Born, living, dying,
Leaving the still shore for the troubled waves
Struggling with storm-winds, over shipwrecks
flying,

And casting anchor in the silent grave.

1

GOD'S WATCHFUL CARE.

Cunningham,

THE insect that with puny wing
Just shoots along one summer ray,
The floweret which the breath of spring
Wakes into life for half a day,
The smallest mote, the tenderest hair,
All feel a Heavenly Father's care.

E'en from the glories of his throne,
He bends to view this earthly ball;
Sees all, as if that all were one;

Loves one, as if that one were all;
Rolls the swift planets in their spheres,
And counts the sinner's lonely tears.

THE BIRD'S NEST.

BEHOLD a bird's nest!

Auon.

Mark it well within, without!
No tool had he that wrought,

No nail to fix, no bodkin to insert,

No glue to join: his little beak was all,

And yet how neatly finished! What nice hand
With every implement and means of art
Could compass such another?

TO THE NIGHTINGALE.

Milton.

O NIGHTINGALE, that on yon bloomy spray
Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still,
Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill,
While the jolly hours lead on propitious May.
Thy liquid notes, that close the eye of day,
First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill,
Portend success in love: O, if Jove's will
Have linked that amorous power to thy soft
lay,

Now timely sing ere the rude bird of hate
Foretell my hopeless doom in some grove nigh;
As thou from year to year hast sung too late
For my relief, yet hadst no reason why.
Whether the Muse or Love call thee his mate,
Both them I serve and of their train am I.

THE CHRISTIAN'S DEATH.

Milman.

Ir matters little at what hour o' the day
The righteous falls asleep; death cannot come
To him untimely who is fit to die ;

The less of this cold earth, the more of heaven;
The briefer life, the earlier immortality.