M Maidenhood. AIDEN! with the meek brown eyes, Thou, whose looks outshine the sun, Gazing with a timid glance Then, why pause with indecision, Seest thou shadows sailing by, Hearest thou voices on the shore, O thou child of many prayers! Life hath quicksands, life hath snares! Like the swell of some sweet tune, Childhood is the bow where slumber'd Gather, then, each flower that grows, TWO Interpretation of The Term " Gentleman." "WO great errors, coloring, or, rather, discoloring, severally, the minds, of the higher and lower classes, have sown wide dissension and wider misfortune through the society of modern days. These errors are in our modes of interpreting the word "gentleman." Its primal, literal, and perpetual meaning is, "a man of pure race," well bred, in the sense that a horse or dog is well bred. The so-called higher classes, being generally of purer race than the lower, have retained the idea and the convictions associated with it, but are afraid to speak it out, and equivocate about it in public; this equivocation mainly proceeding from their desire to connect another meaning with it, and a false one,-that of "a man living in idleness on other people's labor," —with which idea the term has nothing whatever to do. The lower classes, denying vigorously, and with reason, the notion that a gentleman means an idler, and rightly feeling that the more any one works the more of a gentleman he becomes and is likely to become, have nevertheless got little of the good they otherwise might from the truth, because with it they wanted to hold a falsehood—namely, that race was of no consequence; it being precisely of as much consequence in man as in any other animal. The nation cannot truly prosper till both these errors are finally got quit of. Gentlemen have to learn that it is no part of their duty or privilege to live on other people's toil. They have to learn that there is no degradation in the hardest manual or the humblest servile labor when it is honest; but that there is degradation, and that deep, in extravagance, in bribery, in indolence, in pride, in taking places they are not fit for, or in coining places for which there is no need. It does not disgrace a gentleman to become an errand boy or a day laborer, but it disgraces him much to become a knave or a thief; and knavery is not the less knavery because it involves large interests, nor theft the less theft because it is countenanced by usage, or accompanied by failure in undertaken duty. It is an incomparably less guilty form of robbery to cut a purse out of a man's pocket, than to take it out of his hand on the understanding you are to steer his ship up the channel when you do not know the soundings. On the other hand, the lower orders, and all orders, have to learn that every vicious habit and chronic disease communicates itself by descent; and that by purity of birth the entire system of the human body and soul may be gradually elevated, or, by recklessness of birth, degraded, until there shall be as much difference between the well bred and ill bred human creature (whatever pains be taken with their education) as between a wolf hound and the vilest mongrel cur. And the knowledge of this great fact ought to regulate the education of our youth and the entire conduct of the nation.-Ruskin. Ode To Manhood. High midsummer has come, midsummer mute The sun is high in heaven, the skies are bright And full of blessedness, High hope and wild endeavor Have fled or sunk forever, Only the swifter seasons onward press, And every day that goes Is a full scented, full-blown garden rose, And every hour brings its own burden sweet Wherefrom the visible landscape calm and clear I miss the unbounded hope of old, The freshness and the glow of youth; I miss the fever and the fret, The luminous haze of gold. I see a mind clearer and calmer yet, A more unselfish love, a more undoubted truth; More gracious shows and fair, than that I miss. She may not spend her common skill about the outward part, But showers beauty, grace and light upon the brain and heart; She may not choose ancestral fame his pathway to illume The sun that sheds the brightest day may rise from mist and gloom; Should fortune pour her welcome store, and useful gold abound, He shares it with a bounteous hand, and scatters blessings round; The treasure sent is rightly spent, and serves the end designed, When held by Nature's gentleman,-the good, the just, the kind. He turns not from the cheerless home where sorrow's offspring dwell; He'll greet the peasant in his hut-the culprit in his cell; He stays to hear the widow's plaint of deep and mourning love; He seeks to aid her lot below, and prompt her faith above: The orphan child, -the friendless one, -the luckless or the poor, Will never meet his spurning frown, or leave his bolted door; His kindred circles all mankind-his country all the globe, An honest name his jeweled star, and truth his ermine robe. He wisely yields his passions up to reason's firm control; His pleasures are of crimeless kind, and never taint the soul; He may be thrown among the gay and reckless sons of life, But will not love the revel scene or heed the brawling strife. He wounds no breast with jeer or jest, yet bears no honey'd tongue; He's social with the gray-haired one, and merry with the young; He gravely shares the council speech, or joins the rustic game, And shines as Nature's gentleman in every place the same. No haughty gesture marks his gait, no pompous tone his word, No studied attitude is seen, no palling nonsense eard; He'll suit his bearing to the hour,-laugh, listen, learn, or teach, With joyous freedom in his mirth, and candor in his speech: He worships God with inward zeal, and serves him in each deed; He would not blame another's faith, nor have one martyr bleed; Justice and Mercy form his code, -he puts his trust in Heaven; His prayer is, "If the heart mean well, may all else be forgiven!" Though few of such may gem the earth, yet such rare gems there are, Each shining in his hallowed sphere, as virtue's polar star; Though human hearts too oft are found all gross, corrupt and dark, Yet, yet some bosoms breathe and burn, lit by Promethean spark; There are some spirits nobly just, unwarped by pelf or pride, Great in the calm, but greater still when dashed by adverse tide. They hold the rank no king can give, no station can disgrace; Nature puts forth her gentleman, and monarchs must give place. -Eliza Cook. H! say not thou art all alone OH Not All Alone. Upon this wide, cold-hearted earth. Sigh not o'er joys forever flownThe vacant chair, the silent hearth. Why should the world's unholy mirth Though many a fervent hope of youth The brighter hopes that now are thine- From many a pure unsullied page - For while such themes thy thoughts engage, Oh! how canst thou be all alone! Not all alone; the lark's rich note, As mounting up to heaven she sings; The thousand silvery sounds that float Above, below, on morning's wings; The softer murmurs twilight brings- To soothe, subdue, and sanctify; To lift thy grateful thoughts on high, Not all alone; a watchful eye That notes the wandering sparrow's fall; A saving hand is ever nig A gracious Power attends thy call, When sadness holds thy heart in thrall, Is oft his tenderest mercy shown; Seek then, the balm vouchsafed to all, And thou canst never be alone! -Alaric A. Watts. FA Middle Age. AIR time of calm resolve-of sober thought! How art thou changed! once to our youthful eyes And a weak tottering step as marks of eld. To lull its meaner fears in easy sleep. -James Hedderwick. |