III.

nind! be ye both united,

ck, mind and heart as man and wife,

strength and beauty plighted,

precious fruits in perfect Christian life!

of feeling,

pirit steeling

the wrongs and troubles of this earth,

ng and steady,

pirit ready

ty or to love where love is worth,

ve the life begun at second birth!

The Common Complaint.

TYRANNIC Circumstance! whose jealous power

Guards every turn, and watches every hour,
With secret influences controlling still

The conduct, and the spirits, and the will,
Alas, that each of us is seen a slave,

In fetters from the cradle to the grave!

What?-am I free? each natural bent within,

Inherited infirmity and sin,

The brain, the disposition, and the shape,

And new-hatch'd passion, slumbering or agape
With tastes inclined for normal peace or strife,

These warp the man, and mould his heart and life!

What?-am I free? each artifice without,

Wherein convention hedges us about,

Family likenesses of make and mind,

Habit, example, usage harsh or kind,

And every tone and temper all around,

These link the chain to keep the freeman bound!

Poor Gulliver, the giant of the skies,

Is tied to earth by countless petty ties ;
Helpless in head and body, hands and feet,
Worried by pigmies with their arrowy sleet,
Humbled to wants, and cowed by disesteem,
And seeing things around as in a dream,
Prostrate he lies,-with all his wit and power

Made captive to the trifles of the hour!

Answered.

AND yet,-What is this ruthless Circumstance?
A stolid Fate? or trivial thing of Chance?
What, O thou discontented, is this Power
Guiding thy way, and guarding every hour?
Is it aught else than GoD's paternal care,-
His Providence o'erruling everywhere,

His kind and mighty and mysterious Will

That fix'd thee where thou art, and holds thee still?

O blind and ignorant,-who dost not know

That all our checks and trials here below,

Our inner crosses, and our outer cares,

Our wants, temptations, sorrows, fears, and snares,

ointment and the strife

d break the rest of life,

and ordered from above

and profoundest Love!

s?-Yes! for thou art bound

everything around;

ay any creature live,

is time and talents give,

n amidst a world of Loss,

forth, and bear—a cross!

choose: the lot is cast for thee:

in Duty's path to be;

nce striving for the best,

aven to care for all the rest.