286 TiMEHRI. 



When legislators keep the law, 

 When banks dispense with bolts and locks, 

 When berries, whortle — rasp— and straw — 

 Grow bigger downwards in the box — 

 ***** 



When lawyers take what they would give. 

 And dodtors give what they would take, — 

 When city fathers eat to live, 

 Save when they fast for conscience sake, — 



****** 



When Cuba's weeds have quite forgot 

 The power of suftion to resist, 

 And claret-bottles harbour not 



Such dimples as would hold your fist 



****** 



Till then let Camming blaze away, 

 And Miller's saints blow up the globe; 

 But when you see that blessed day, 

 Then order your ascension robe ! 



I believe that very little Poetry is read in the Colony. It 

 is a great pity that this should be so. Prose writing, 

 however fine, cannot always give the mind the feeling of 

 relaxation that is so grateful after a day's toil. 



Fi6lion excites ; Biography is apt ^o become wearisome ; 

 History requires concentration ; but Poetry will furnish 

 you with just the necessary amount of interest to enable 

 you to go on reading or to give yourself up to sweet fan- 

 cies — as you may feel inclined. You do not feel bound 

 to finish a poem nor even a verse ; one phrase, nay, one 

 line, may furnish you with an excuse to lay down your 

 book for a few minutes and enjoy a pleasant picture 

 called to life from the great stores of memory by some 

 thought aptly put or some scene briefly sketched. 



Without undervaluing other forms of Poetry, I must 

 confess a preference for the Sonnet. 



