TO THE CACTUS SPEC lOSISSI MU S. 69 



Yet while we muse, a bliglit 

 Steals o'er thee, and thy shrinking bosom shows 

 The mournful symptoms of a wan disease. 

 I will not stay to see thy beauties fade. 

 Still must I bear away within my heart 

 Thy lesson of our own mortality, 

 The fearful withering of each blossom'd bough 

 On which we lean, of every bud we fain, 

 Would hide within our bosoms from the touch 

 Of the destroyer. 



So instruct us, Lord ! 

 Thou Father of the sunbeam and the soul. 

 Even by the simple sermon of a flower. 

 To cling to Thee. 



