Chapter 396

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds; And as the mind is pitched, the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touched within us, and the heart replies.

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Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And Learning wiser grow without his books.

_Tirocinium_.

Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a lustre, he that runs may read.

* * * * *

_Retirement_.

Built God a church, and laughed His word to scorn.

* * * * *

How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude! But grant me still a friend in my retreat, Whom I may whisper, Solitude is sweet.

* * * * *

_Conversation_.

A fool must now and then be right, by chance.

* * * * *

_John Gilpin_.

That, though on pleasure she was bent, She had a frugal mind.

* * * * *

To dash through thick and thin.

* * * * *

A hat not much the worse for wear

* * * * *

_Lines to his Mother's Picture_.

O that those lips had language! Life has passed With me but roughly since I heard thee last.

_Walking with God_.

What peaceful hours I once enjoyed? How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching void, The world can never fill.

* * * * *

VERSES, _Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk_.

I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute.

* * * * *

O Solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face?

* * * * *

But the sound of the church-going bell Those valleys and rocks never heard, Never sighed at the sound of a knell, Or smiled when a Sabbath appeared.

* * * * *

How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light.

* * * * *

W. J. MICKLE. 1734-1788.

_The Mariner's Wife_.

His very foot has music in 't As he comes up the stairs.

JOHN LANGHORNE. 1735-1779.

_The Country Justice_.