But death o'er man's expiring light,
Lets fall irrevocable night!

Once in the narrow house of clay,
"To dumb forgetfulness a prey,"
Ne'er does the voice of Love pervade
The deep interminable shade!

Then come, and e'er the stern behest
Of Fate forbids us to be blest,

While Beauty warms, and Passion glows,
Haste, let us snatch the short-liv'd Rose.

Let doating greybeards ring in vain
Dull changes on the moral strain,
Their prudent maxims nought avail,

Our hearts repeat a warmer tale.

To love then, Laura, let us give
The little span we have to live;
Our moments swift as arrows fly,
And wing'd like them with destiny.

ΤΟ

A VERY YOUNG LADY.

WHY thus decline my troubled eyes,
If hither their mild lustre bending
Those azure orbs to meet me rise?
Why thus with thee conversing, dies
My voice, in broken murmurs ending?

Yet, dawning from my looks distrest,
Yet, wooing in the coy expression
Of falt'ring sounds that half supprest
In sighs ill stifled breathe the rest,

Read-ah too dear! the fond confession.

In vain! what these soft tumults show,
From thee, yet new to love, is hidden;
Untaught thy wishes yet to know;

If sighs ascend, if blushes glow,

What means the sigh, the blush unbidden ?

LINES*

WRITTEN IN A GARDEN SEAT.

Ir Mirth alone to thee be dear,
If Sorrow ne'er thy heart refin'd,

If Frolic Youth thy bosom cheer,
And Spirits light, and Fortune kind :

No longer let thine eye peruse

What here inscrib'd thy glance may see;
For I this artless verse would choose,

Unmark'd by mortals blest like thee.

But, stranger, at the touch of pain

If e'er thy heart was doom'd to thrill,

If Melancholy ever deign

To steep thy soul in slumbers still;

* The two foregoing poems were published four or five years ago

in an elegant little collection entitled English Lyrics. Editor.

If harsh unkindness e'er for thee

Prepar'd that keen envenom'd dart, Which tenderness can seldom flee,

And left it rankling in thy heart;

Thee would I greet with kindliest lay,

Would like thee that others mourn,

say

And chide thee soft, if chide I may,

And bid thee bear what I have borne.

Thy sacred griefs had but been known, One heart at least, had felt for thee, And made thy sorrows all its own.

1.

COME, dusky shadows of the night,
Companions of the midnight hour;
Sleep binds his fillet o'er my brow,

And silence guards the lonely bow'r : Ah, come! this restless mind engage, Soothe it with retrospective bliss,

Recall the joys of early life,

And all the present gloom dismiss.

G

2.

Give me one golden minute back

Of those when prosp'rous fortune smil❜d, When friendship smooth'd each passing care, And pleasure's 'witching voice beguil'd : Call back those dreams of fond romance, That lull'd me with their specious name, With faith's firm pledge, with honor's vow, Love's soft deceit and transient flame.

3.

Dreary and toilsome is the path

When life's aerial schemes are flown, When kind illusions cheat no more,

And sober Reason claims her own:

Burns then the ardent patriot's fire ?
Avails the stoic's boasted aid?

Alas! hear godlike Brutus mourn

How "Virtue's self was but a shade."

5.

The world's wide desart* I survey

With fainting step, and cheerless breast;

* 66 J'envisage avec effroi ce vaste désert du monde," &c.

J. J. ROUSSEAU.