194 Machinery: [FE. 



economists, and they will discover, sud Minerva, that they have only 

 to retrace their steps for the last forty years ; and if that will not re- 

 move all grievances, let them, as legislators, lay a firm and strong hand 

 upon machinery. The country can never be in a safe or a sound state 

 while the people are in a state of pauperism. Let them return to their 

 estates and abide there, and abandon the foolish ambition of figuring in 

 Courts and London drawing-rooms. Let them, finally, provide for their 

 own families from their own resources, and cease to be grasping for 

 place, and then they will be ready enough to lend their powerful aid to 

 check public extravagance by clipping the source of it taxation. It is 

 all in their own hands, and high time it is that they should think of the 

 poor, not vaguely as men like themselves, but as placed by the laws of 

 eternal Providence, specifically under their protection. 



TO A SPIRIT OF THE PAST. 



ONCE, and yet once again, 

 While my full heart beats heavily along 1 , 

 Will I to thee awake a gentle strain, 



A melancholy song. 



For though thou art far away, 

 Like a bright star in th' enamelled skies, 

 Still on my soul there gleams one sunny raj, 



Whose home is in thine eyes. 



And in the silent hour, 

 When the heart communes with itself alone, 

 Thy voice falls on my ear with that deep power 



That dwells in every tone. 



Then, like a magic scene, 

 Memory recals her treasures of the past ; 

 Raising the shadows of what once hathibeen, 



'Ere life was overcast. 



And then, thou true of heart ! 

 I bless thee for the tears that thou hast shed, 

 When, like a seraph, peace thou didst impart 



To the uncomforted. 



I bless thee for the wrong, 

 Thou hast endured for my unworthy sake, 

 From those who found thy stedfast love too strong, 



For pride or power to break. 



I bless thee for thy truth, 

 Thy faith thy constancy, and gentleness ; 

 The light that shone upon thy early youth, 



Each smile, and each caress. 



But more than all, I yet 



Must bless thee for thy long-tried love for me 

 Bright as the pearl that in its shell is set 



In the unfathomable sea ! R. F. W. 



