Lifting alike thy head

Of placid beauty, feminine yet free,
Whether with foam or pictured azure spread
The waters be.

What is like thee, fair flower,

The gentle and the firm? thus bearing up
To the blue sky that alabaster cup
As to the shower?

Oh love is most like thee,

The love of woman quivering to the blast
Thro' every nerve, yet rooted deep and fast
Midst life's dark sea.

And faith-oh is not faith
Like thee too, lily, springing into light
Still buoyantly above the billow's might
Thro' the storm's breath?

Yes, linked with such high thoughts,
Flower, let thine image in my bosom lie!
Till something there of its own purity
And peace be wrought.

Something yet more divine

Than the clear pearly virgin lustre shed
From off thy breast upon the river's bed

As from a shrine.

Mrs. Hemans.

FLOWERS are the alphabets of angels, wherewith they write on hills and plains mysterious

truths.

Mrs. Child.

ALETTE stooped, and plucked a beautiful water-lily which grew in the river on whose banks she stood; she showed it to Susanna, as she continued with a thoughtful smile,

The flowers of love and hope we gather here,
Shall yet bloom for us in the home of God;
They shed not their last fragrance o'er our bier,
They lie not withered on the cold grave sod.

Frederika Bremer.

A LOVING heart can give life and soul to dead and senseless things.

Ibid.

TRUE delicacy discovers itself most plainly in little things; though indeed what we call trifles are not always so insignificant.

J. E. Lons.

CELESTIAL love, with the affections of good and truth and the perceptions thence derived, and at the same time with the delights of these affections and the thoughts thence derived, may be compared to a tree with beautiful branches, leaves, and fruits; the life's love is that tree, the branches with the leaves are the affections of good and truth with their perceptions, and the fruits are the delights of the affections with their thoughts. Swedenborg.

LET us remember that the first years of man must make provision for the last; never let us place any dependence on the morrow, but resolutely embrace the present day, calling to mind at every eve that the season for sowing seed for the harvest of eternity is one day less.

Lavater.

THERE is in every mind a tendency, though perhaps differently inclined, to what is great and excellent. Happy they who know their own peculiar bent, who have been blessed with opportunities of giving it the proper culture and polish, and are not restrained or cramped in the liberty of showing it and declaring it to others. Smith's Life of Longrims.

THE mind, in proportion as it is expanded, exposes a larger surface to impression.

Reid.

THE heart of a good man resembles the cocoanut, which, though hard without, contains refreshing water and delicious food within.

Indian Author.

MAN is dear to man; the poorest poor

Long for some moments in a weary life

When they can know and feel that they have been
Themselves the fathers and the dealers-out

Of some small blessings-have been kind to such
As needed kindness: for this single cause,
That we have all of us a human heart.

Such pleasure is to one kind being known,
My neighbor, when with punctual care each week
Duly as Friday comes, tho' press'd herself
By her own wants, she from her store of meal
Takes one unsparing handful for the scrip

Of this old mendicant; and from the door
Returning with exhilarated heart,

Sits by her fire, and builds her hopes in heaven.
"Old Cumberland Beggar"-Wordsworth.

BENEFICENCE is the most exquisite luxury, and the good man after all is the genuine epicure. Bishop Horne.

PRACTICE flows from principle, for as a man thinks, so will he act.

Ibid.

BE charitable; religion has humanity for a basis, and they who are not charitable cannot be Christians.

Ganganelli.

HAPPINESS is promised not to the learned but to the good.

Bishop Wilson.

Ir ever you should have been a sufferer from ingratitude, do not permit the recollection to harden your heart.

Countess Dowager of Carlisle.

WHEN you shall contemplate necessity struggling with modesty, endeavor to oblige in a way that shall meet the wish half-way, and save the blush of request.

Ibid.

Fix your eye habitually on immortality, to pass more lightly through the pangs of mortality.

Ibid.

UNCONSTRAINED worship when it is genuine is spiritual, living, lucid, and joyful worship; spiritual because there is in it spirit from the Lord; living because there is in it life from the Lord; lucid because there is in it wisdom from the Lord; and joyful because there is in it heaven from the Lord.

Swedenborg.

fear to offend

By fearing God is meant to him, and to offend him is sin; and this is not of fear but of love: who that loveth any one, doth not fear to do him harm, and the more he loveth him the more he feareth it? Without this fear, love is lifeless and superficial, appertaining to the thought only, and not to the will.

Ibid.

A DESIRE to please our beneficent Creator should be the grand motive of all our actions.

Gilpin.

E