< Page:Woman in the Nineteenth Century 1845.djvu
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APPENDIX.
179
| Thou who in early years feelest awake |
| To finest impulses from nature's breath, |
| And in thy walk hearest such sounds of truth |
| As on the common ear strike without heed, |
| Beware of men around thee. Men are foul, |
| With avarice, ambition and deceit; |
| The worst of all, ambition. This is life |
| Spent in a feverish chase for selfish ends, |
| Which has no virtue to redeem its toil |
| But one long, stagnant hope to raise the self. |
| The miser's life to this seems sweet and fair; |
| Better to pile the glittering coin, than seek |
| To overtop our brothers and our loves. |
| Merit in this? Where lies it, though thy name |
| Ring over distant lands, meeting the wind |
| Even on the extremest verge of the wide world. |
| Merit in this? Better be hurled abroad |
| On the vast whirling tide, than in thyself |
| Concentred, feed upon thy own applause. |
| Thee shall the good man yield no reverence; |
| But, while the idle, dissolute crowd are loud |
| In voice to send thee flattery, shall rejoice |
| That he has scaped thy fatal doom, and known |
| How humble faith in the good soul of things |
| Provides amplest enjoyment. O my brother, |
| If the Past's counsel any honor claim |
| From thee, go read the history of those |
| Who a like path have trod, and see a fate |
| Wretched with fears, changing like leaves at noon, |
| When the new wind sings in the white birch wood. |
| Learn from the simple child the rule of life, |
| And from the movements of the unconscious tribes |
| Of animal nature, those that bend the wing |
| Or cleave the azure tide, content to be, |
| What the great frame provides,—freedom and grace. |
| Thee, simple child, do the swift winds obey, |
| And the white waterfalls with their bold leaps |
| Follow thy movements. Tenderly the light |
| Thee watches, girding with a zone of radiance, |
| And all the swinging herbs love thy soft steps.” |
DESCRIPTION OF ANGELA, FROM “FESTUS.”
| “ | I loved her for that she was beautiful, |
| And that to me she seemed to bo all nature |
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