EPITAPH ON AN OLD MAID. EST, gentle traveler, on life's toilsome way; Pause here awhile; yet o'er this lifeless clay No weeping, but a joyful tribute pay. For this green nook, by sun and showers made warm, Yet, ere the spirit gained a full release, From earth, she had attained that land of peace, Where seldom clouds obscure, where tempests cease. No chosen spot of ground she called her own; She reaped no harvest in her spring-time sown, Yet always in her path some flowers were strown. No dear ones were her own peculiar care, And loving more the heart to give than lend, She had her joys; 'twas joy to live, to love, She had her griefs; but why recount them here— The heart-sick loneness, the onlooking fear, The days of desolation, dark and drear. Since every agony left peace behind, And every loss sublimed some low desire, Englishwoman's Journal. COUSIN JANE. WHAT do people think of her? Old Cousin Jane, With a sallow, sunken cheek, Brows no longer smooth and fair, Sad to be so old and plain, What do we all think of her? Quieting the children's noise, K* What do angels think of her? Bearing calmly every cross, Finding gain, though seeking loss, Would that thinking oft of her— Might our inward vision clear, FULL many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Thomas Gray. PATIENCE and abnegation of self, and devotion to others, This was the lesson a life of trial and sorrow had taught her. So was her love diffused, but, like some odorous spices, Suffered no waste nor loss, though filling the air with aroma. Other hope had she none, nor wish in life, but to follow Meekly, with reverent steps, the sacred feet of her Saviour. From Evangeline-Part ii. AND thou, when thou seest the sparrow fall, goodly ship suffer wreck, do not forget that we see merely a portion of the history; that its last chapter rests in the bosom of Eternal Love! Let us meekly wait. Chronicles of the Schonberg Cotta Family. From an "Extra Leaf on Daughter-full Houses." FORSAKEN, but patient one! misknown and mistreated! Think not of the times when thou hadst hope of better than the present are, and repent the noble pride of thy heart never! It is not always our duty to marry, but it is always our duty to abide by right, not to purchase happiness by loss of honor, not to avoid unweddedness by untruthfulness. Lonely, unadmired heroine! in thy last hour, when all life and the by-gone possessions and scaffoldings of life shall crumble in pieces, ready to fall down, in that hour thou wilt look back on thy untenanted life; no children, no husband, no wet eyes will be there; but in the empty dusk, one high, pure, angelic, smiling, beaming figure, godlike and mounting to the godlike, will hover, and beckon thee to mount with her. Mount thou with her; the figure is thy virtue. Jean Paul Friedrich Richter. IF THOU COULDST KNOW. think if thou couldst know, O soul that will complain Our burden and our pain; How just our anguish brings We seek for now in vain, I think thou wouldst rejoice and not complain. I think if thou couldst see Truth's efforts crossed and vexed, Life's purpose all perplexed If thou couldst see them right, I think that they would seem all clear, and wise and bright. And yet thou canst not know, And yet thou canst not see; If thou couldst trust, poor soul, In Him who rules the whole, Thou wouldst find peace and rest; Wisdom and sight are well, but Trust is best. SOLITUDE OF SINGLE WOMEN IT up her is a condition to which a single woman must make mind, that the close of her days will be more or less solitary. Yet there is a solitude which old age feels to be as |