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In low and sensual pleasures, such as bind Yon heedless revellers, in folly's den. Excitement dost thou need? Go, seek it then

In strenuous thought, intent all truth to know; In action seek it, mid thy fellow men ;

In virtuous feeling find it; raise the low, Direct the erring, dry the tears that flow, And bid thy light, the light of virtue, shine: So shalt thou need nor feast, nor sparkling wine, Thy thought to feed, or bid thy fancy glow.

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The Junior Sophister has learned, at length,
That license is not freedom; that control,
Howe'er ungrateful to the youthful soul,
Gives aim to effort, and to action strength:
For painful doubt, he seeks the known relief
Of settled truth, in well assured belief:
Reverence hath won submission in his mind
To rightful power. The College honors now
Though late despised, he fears not to avow
Meet objects of desire; nor fails to find

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The Clubs' mysterious brotherhood assert Its kindling power o'er feelings else inert, Ambition rousing, with high hopes combined, That long o'er life their potent sway exert.

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External nature borrows half its grace

From mind, which, kindled by its native fires,
Projects abroad the beauty it admires.

To sorrow's leaden eye, creation's face

Is clothed in gloom, and discontent retires Sullen from loveliest scenes; while tempests bring But nobler music, on their sounding wing,

To hearts attuned to harmony within.

Hence earth is what man makes it; to the low,

The weak, the sordid, one wide den of wo,

Of base compulsion, and ignoble sin;

But lovely to the good, and to the wise,
Whose souls its seeming din can harmonize,
Clothed in the beauty happy thoughts bestow.

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To such, all earth is lovely; and this frame

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Of things created, whether great or small, From insect atoms to earth's pendent ball, Each hath its charm and glory, each its claim,

Its scope, its purpose, its peculiar aim,
Its form of beauty, seen alike in all
Wrought by that hand divine, which can educe
From forms unnumbered never ending use:
Nor use alone His purposes proclaim,
But pleasure and endearments, that infuse
The sense of beauty, and the heart inflame
With love of nature, grace with grandeur joined:
Hence Taste, and Plastic Art, the tuneful Muse,
And each fine issue of the polished mind.

II.

Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me
With stinted kindness; - - purifying thus
The elements of feeling and of thought.

WORDSWORTH.

Where'er we turn, the Beautiful is still

Within and round us; seen in hill and dale,
In waving wood, deep glen, and cottaged vale,
In quiet lake, broad stream, and sparkling rill;
In dew-gemmed meadows, vocal with the trill

Of wild wood warblers, pouring on the gale
Their joyous throats; felt livelier in the flow
Of pure affections, cherished in the glow

Of manly thoughts, and feelings that incline To vituous deeds; nor seen more lovely, clear,

In beauty's smile, than pity's generous tear.

These mould the ductile thoughts, thegraceful shrine

Of Taste adorn, and beauty's arbour rear,

Sky-lighted, mantled with the clustering vine.

III.

A truth, which through our being then doth melt,
And purifies from self.

BYRON.

Who loves not beauty? beauty in the grass,
The grain, the grove, in gently winding streams,
The moon's mild ray, and morning's rosy beams.
Brighter in living forms, the moving mass

Of insect life, bird, beast, with beauty teems:
Nor rests it here; the human face divine

Blends grace of form with beauties of the mind, Deep thought with generous feeling, reason joined With warm emotion: hence all charms combine Highest in virtuous action; hence the grace Loveliest of earthly forms, gives willing place. To moral beauty, where pure virtues shine; And hence, in happy bosoms, beauty's fruit Is hope, joy, love, devotion, from one root.

THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS.

The high-born soul,

Disdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wing
Beneath its native quarry.

AKENSIDE.

Love is Devotion with a milder name;

And Piety but turns that love from earth To highter hopes, and joys of nobler birth. Lovely, not less than sacred, is the flame

Of pure devotion: earth, like heaven, may claim
Its portion of true bliss, when pure hearts know
Love's fervid truth, in virtue's generous glow.
The good and fair from kindred fountains rise,
Commingling gently, as they onward flow,
In dews of love, exhaling to the skies.

Heaven is but earth sublimed; and man may trace Emblems of holiness, and power divine,

In earth-born loveliness of form and face,
Where youth in meekness kneels at virtue's shrine.

THE TRUTH OF NATURE.

Truth is immortal: time and change but prey
On shows and shadows, insubstantial things,
Which, life-like oft, and specious to the eye,
Are false and hollow yet within.

True thought, and genuine feeling never die :
Inborn and glowing, from the teeming heart
And mind impregnate, into life they start,
In forms of beauty that can time defy.
Whate'er the task true genius may essay,
Sculpture, or music, or the poet's lay,
By pen, by pencil, or if voiced on high

By tongue of orator inspired, whose sway,
The listening crowd, with willing hearts, obey,
Whate'er the form, if strength of thought be there,
And genial warmth, to nature's impulse true,

Feelings are roused, which time's rude hand must spare,
A truth revealed, no age can e'er subdue,

With earth coeval, and her date to share.

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