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The mean that 'grees with country music best,
The sweet consort of mirth and music's fare,
Obscured life sets down a type of bliss;
A mind content both crown and kingdom is.

ROBERT GREEN, 1550-1592.

BLESSINGS OF A COUNTRY LIFE.

1725.

Far from our debtors; no Dublin letters;
Not seen by our betters.

PLAGUES OF A COUNTRY LIFE.

A companion with news; a great want of shoes;
Eat lean meat or choose; a church without pews;
Our horses away; no straw, oats, or hay;

December in May; our boys run away; all servants at play!

JONATHAN SWIFT, 1667-1723.

XXIV.

Wind and Cloud

A STORM IN AUTUMN.

FROM THE LATIN OF VIRGIL.

HY should I mark each storm and starry sign,

WE

When milder suns in autumn swift decline? Or what new cares await the vernal hour,

When spring descends in many a driving shower,
While bristle into ear the bearded plains,
And the green stalk distends its milky grains?
E'en in mid autumn, while the jocund hind
Bade the gay field the gather'd harvest bind,
Oft have I seen the war of winds contend,
And prone on earth th' infuriate storm descend-
Waste, far and wide, and by the roots uptorn,
The heavy harvest sweep through ether borne!
While in dark eddies, as the whirlwind past,
The straw and stubble flew before the blast.

Column on column prest in close array,
Dark tempests thicken o'er the watery way.
Heaven poured in torrents, rushes on the plain,
And with wide deluge sweeps the floating grain ;
The dikes o'erflow, the flooded channels roar,
Vexed ocean's foaming billows rock the shore:

The Thunderer, thron'd in clouds, with darkness crown'd,
Bares his red arm, and flashes lightnings round.
The beasts are fled; earth rocks from pole to pole-

Fear walks the world, and bows th' astonished soul;
Jove rides with fiery bolt Ceraunia's brow,

Or Athos blazing 'mid eternal snow.

The tempest darkens, blasts redoubled rave,

Smite the hoarse wood, and lash the howling wave.

Translation of W. SOTHEBY.

TO THE RAINBOW.

Loveliest of the meteor train,
Girdle of the summer rain-
Finger of the dews of air,
Glowing vision, fleet as fair;
While the evening shower retires,
Kindle thy unhurting fires,
And among the meadows near,
Thy refulgent pillar rear;
Or amid the dark-blue cloud,
High thine orbed glories shroud;
Or the moisten'd hills between,
Bent in mighty arch be seen;
Through whose sparkling portals wide,
Fiends of storm and darkness ride.

Like Cheerfulness, thou art wont to gaze

Always on the brightest blaze;

Canst from setting suns deduce
Varied gleams and sprightly hues;
And on low'ring gloom imprint
Smiling streaks of gayest tint.

R. SOUTHEY, 1774-1850.

THE WINDY NIGHT.

Alow and aloof,

Over the roof,

How the midnight tempests howl!

With a dreary voice, like the dismal tune
Of wolves that bay at the desert moon;
Or whistle and shriek

Through limbs that creek,
"Tu-who! Tu-whit!"

They cry and flit,

"Tu-whit! Tu-who!" like the solemn owl!

Alow and aloof,

Over the roof,

Sweep the moaning winds amain,

And wildly dash

The elm and ash,

Clattering on the window sash,

With a clatter and patter,

Like hail and rain,

That well might shatter

The dusky pane!

Alow and aloof,

Over the roof,

How the tempests swell and roar!

Though no foot is astir,

Though the cat and the cur

Lie dozing along the kitchen floor;

There are feet of air

On every stair!

Through every hall

Through each gusty door,

There's a jostle and bustle,
With a silken rustle,

Like the meeting of guests at a festival!

Alow and aloof,

Over the roof,

How the stormy tempests swell!

And make the vane

On the spire complain

They heave at the steeple with might and main,

And burst and sweep

Into the belfry, on the bell!

They smite it so hard, and they smite it so well,

That the sexton tosses his arms in sleep,
And dreams he is ringing a funeral knell !

T. B. READ.

A SHOWER.

FROM COWPER'S LETTERS.

It has pleased God to give us rain, without which this part of our country, at least, must soon have become a desert. The meadows have been parched to a January brown, and we have foddered our cattle for some time, as in winter. The goodness and power of God are never, I believe, so universally acknowledged as at the end of a long drought. Man is naturally a self-sufficient animal, and in all concerns that seem to lie within the sphere of his own ability thinks little or not at all of the need he always has of protection and furtherance from above. But he is sensible that the clouds will not assemble at his bidding; and that, though the clouds assemble, they will not fall in showers because he commands them. When, therefore, at last the blessing descends, you shall hear even in the streets the most irreligious and thoughtless with one voice exclaim, "Thank God!" confessing themselves indebted to his favor, and willing, at least so far as words go, to give Him the glory. I can hardly doubt, therefore, that the earth is sometimes parched, and the crops endangered, in order that the multitude may not want a memento to whom they owe them, nor absolutely forget the power on which all depend for all things.

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