SERIO-COMIC VERSE. 609 



Wandering and weak are all our prayers, 

 And fleeting half the gifts we crave ; 



Love only, cleansed from sins and cares, 

 Shall live beyond the grave. 



Strengthen our love, Lord, that we 

 May in Thine own great love believe 



And, opening all our soul to Thee, 

 May Thy free gift receive. 



All powers of mind, all force of will, 

 May lie in dust when we are dead, 



But love is ours, and shall be still, 

 When earth and seas are fled. 



III. SEEIO-COMIC VEESE. 



" NUMA POMPILIUS." 



A Lay of Ancient Rome. 



Junior Sophs' Exam., 

 Cambridge, December 1851, 



WELL is thee ! King Numa, 



Within thy secret cave, 

 Where thy bones are ever moistened 



By sad Egeria's wave ; 

 None now have power to pilfer 



The treasure of thy tomb, 

 And reveal the institutions 



And secret Eites of Eome. 

 O blessed be the Senate 



That stowed those books away, 

 Curst be the attempt of Niebuhr 



To drag them into day ; 

 Light be the pressure, Numa, 



Around thy watery bed, 

 May no perplexing problems 



Infest thy kingly head ! 

 2 R 



