As in a wheel, all sinks, to reascend: 
  Emblems of man, who passes, not expires. 
    With this minute distinction, emblems just,
  Nature revolves, but man advances; both
  Eternal, that a circle, this a line. 
  That gravitates, this soars.  Th’ aspiring soul,
  Ardent, and tremulous, like flame, ascends,
  Zeal and humility her wings, to Heaven. 
  The world of matter, with its various forms,
  All dies into new life.  Life born from death
  Rolls the vast mass, and shall for ever roll. 
  No single atom, once in being, lost,
  With change of counsel charges the Most High. 
    What hence infers Lorenzo?  Can it be? 
  Matter immortal?  And shall spirit die? 
  Above the nobler, shall less noble rise? 
  Shall man alone, for whom all else revives,
  No resurrection know?  Shall man alone,
  Imperial man! be sown in barren ground,
  Less privileged than grain, on which he feeds?

* * * * *

  Look Nature through, ’tis neat gradation all. 
  By what minute degrees her scale ascends! 
  Each middle nature joined at each extreme,
  To that above is joined, to that beneath;
  Parts, into parts reciprocally shot,
  Abhor divorce:  what love of union reigns! 
  Here, dormant matter waits a call to life;
  Half-life, half-death, joined there; here life and sense;
  There, sense from reason steals a glimmering ray;
  Reason shines out in man.  But how preserved
  The chain unbroken upward, to the realms
  Of incorporeal life? those realms of bliss
  Where death hath no dominion?  Grant a make
  Half-mortal, half-immortal; earthy, part,
  And part ethereal; grant the soul of man
  Eternal; or in man the series ends. 
  Wide yawns the gap; connection is no more;
  Checked Reason halts; her next step wants support;
  Striving to climb, she tumbles from her scheme.

DR. EDWARD YOUNG.

* * * * *

LIFE.

    FROM “FESTUS,” SCENE “A COUNTRY TOWN.”

  FESTUS.—­ Oh! there is
  A life to come, or all’s a dream.

  LUCIFER.—­ And all
  May be a dream.  Thou seest in thine, men, deeds,
  Clear, moving, full of speech and order; then
  Why may not all this world be but a dream
  Of God’s?  Fear not!  Some morning God may waken.

  FESTUS.—­I would it were.  This life’s a mystery. 
  The value of a thought cannot be told;
  But it is clearly worth a thousand lives
  Like many men’s.  And yet men love to live
  As if mere life were worth their living for. 
  What but perdition will it be to most? 
  Life’s more than breath and the quick round of blood;
  It is a great spirit and a busy heart. 
  The coward and the small in soul scarce do live. 
  One generous feeling—­one great