In either hand the hastening angel caught
  Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
  Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
  To the subjected plain; then disappeared. 
  They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
  Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
  Waved over by that naming brand; the gate
  With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms. 
  Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon;
  The world was all before them, where to choose
  Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. 
  They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
  Through Eden took their solitary way.

MILTON.

V.

HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

* * * * *

A PSALM OF LIFE.

  Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
    Life is but an empty dream! 
  For the soul is dead that slumbers,
    And things are not what they seem.

  Life is real!  Life is earnest! 
    And the grave is not its goal;
  Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
    Was not spoken of the soul.

  Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
    Is our destined end or way;
  But to act, that each to-morrow
    Find us farther than to-day.

  Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
    And our hearts, though stout and brave,
  Still, like muffled drums, are beating
    Funeral marches to the grave.

  In the world’s broad field of battle,
    In the bivouac of Life,
  Be not like dumb, driven cattle! 
    Be a hero in the strife!

  Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant! 
    Let the dead Past bury its dead! 
  Act,—­act in the living Present! 
    Heart within, and God o’erhead!

  Lives of great men all remind us
    We can make our lives sublime. 
  And, departing, leave behind us
    Footprints on the sands of time;—­

  Footprints, that perhaps another,
    Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
  A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
    Seeing, shall take heart again.

  Let us, then, be up and doing,
    With a heart for any fate;
  Still achieving, still pursuing,
    Learn to labor and to wait.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

* * * * *

THE GIFTS OF GOD.

      When God at first made man,
  Having a glass of blessings standing by,
  Let us (said he) pour on him all we can: 
  Let the world’s riches, which dispersed lie,
      Contract into a span.

      So strength first made a way;
  Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor, pleasure: 
  When almost all was out, God made a stay,
  Perceiving that, alone, of all his treasure,
      Rest in the bottom lay.

      For if I should (said he)
  Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
  He would adore my gifts instead of me,
  And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature: 
      So both should losers be.