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The rigorous law had grasped him and con- | To the great gods he breathed a prayer, then

demned

To fetters and to darkness.

strove

To calm himself and lose in sleep a while
His useless terrors. But he could not sleep:

The captive's lot His body burned with feverish heat; his

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Grew hot at length and thick, but in his Burst forth the lightnings glanced; the air

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From his sound rest the unfearing child, nor A moment as in sunshine, then was dark; tell Again a flood of white flame fills the cell,

The dangers of their state. On his low Dying away upon the dazzled eye

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THE LAST DAYS OF HERCULANEUM.

227

The soldier's frame was filled, and many a | The deep-driven staple, yells and shrieks thought

with

rage.

Of strange foreboding hurried through his But see! the ground is opening; a blue light Mounts, gently waving, noiseless. Thin and

mind

As underneath he felt the fevered earth Jarring and lifting and the massive walls Heard harshly grate and strain; yet knew he not,

While evils undefined and yet to come Glanced through his thoughts, what deep and cureless wound

Fate had already given. Where, man of

woe,

cold

It seems, and like a rainbow tint, not flame;
But by its lustre on the earth outstretched
Behold the child-ah, lifeless!-his dress
singed,

And over his serene face a dark line
Points out the lightning's track.

The father saw,

Where, wretched father, is thy boy? Thou And all his fury fled; a dead calm fell

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Came bursting from his ears and from his The ground lifts like a sea: he knows it not;

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Once he has touched his garment; how his | All's for the best!

eye

All's for the best! Be man but confiding, Providence tenderly governs the rest,

Lightens with love and hope and anxious And the frail bark of his creature is guiding fear!

Ha! see! he has him now; he clasps him

round,

Kisses his face, puts back the curling locks That shaded his fine brow, looks in his eyes, Grasps in his own those little dimpled hands, Then folds him to his breast, as he was wont To lie when sleeping, and, resigned, awaits Undreaded death.

And death came soon, and swift And pangless. The huge pile sunk down at

once

Into the opening earth. Walls, arches, roof, And deep foundation-stones, all mingling fell.

EDWIN ATHERSTONE.

Wisely and warily, all for the best.

All's for the best! Then fling away terrors; Meet all your fears and your foes in the

van,

And in the midst of your dangers or errors Trust like a child, while you strive like a

man.

All's for the best! Unbiased, unbounded, Providence reigns from the east to the west,

And, by both wisdom and mercy surrounded, Hope and be happy that all's for the best.

MARTIN F. TUPPER.

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My father, when they laid thee down,
And heaped the clay upon thy breast,
And left thee sleeping all alone
Upon thy narrow couch of rest-

All's for the best! Set this in your stan- I know not why-I could not weep:

dard,

Soldier of sadness or pilgrim of love

Who to the shores of despair may have wan

dered,

The soothing drops refused to roll; And oh, that grief is wild and deep Which settles tearless on the soul.

A way-wearied swallow or heart-stricken But when I saw thy vacant chair,

dove.

Thine idle hat upon the wall,

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

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EDMUND WALLER.

1643. An anecdote is told of the scornful countess in later life meeting Waller and asking him when he would again write her such complimentary verses as he once did, to which he replied, "When you are as young, madam, and as handsome, as you were then.' The next object of Waller's admiration was the Lady Sophia Murray, whose charms are rehearsed in Waller's verses under the title of "Amoret." Amoret does not appear to have smiled upon the rich and amorous poet. Before long he married a Miss Mary Breaux (or Bresse), who appears to have been a woman with great domestic virtues and a large family. The poet by this marriage had to encounter the prosaic fact of being the father to thirteen children.

DMUND WALLER was born March 3, 1605, at Coleshill, Hertfordshire. His father was Robert Waller, Esq., of Amersham, Bucks; his mother, Anne, daughter of Griffith Hampden, Esq., of Hampden, Bucks, and aunt of the celebrated John Hampden, who was first cousin of Edmund Waller and also of Oliver Cromwell. Waller was educated at Eton, from whence he proceeded to King's College, Cambridge. It is said that he was returned at the age of sixteen for the borough of Amersham. If so, he must have sat as a silent member until he was of age. His father having died during his childhood, Waller, being the eldest son, succeeded to an estate of three thousand five hundred pounds a year. He married, early in life, Ann, the daughter of Edward Banks, a wealthy citizen of London, by which alliance he greatly aug-years, when the Parliament was reassembled, mented his property. At the age of five and Waller joined the party in opposition to the twenty Waller was left a widower with a son He was supposed to be greatly inand a daughter. Within a short period he fluenced by his connection with the Hampden began to offer his admiration to Lady Doro- family. It was not long before he retreated thea Sydney (eldest daughter of the earl of from his political position, and, on the king Leicester and cousin to the celebrated Sir setting up his standard at Nottingham, Philip Sydney), who is celebrated in his poe- Waller contributed a thousand broad pieces try under the name of "Sacharissa." Lady to the royal chest. In the House of Com-Dorothea scornfully rejected his advances mons he spoke openly on the king's side. and allied herself with Henry, Lord Spencer, After the battle of Edgehill, in 1643, Waller who was created earl of Sunderland, and was was one of the commissioners sent by Parkilled at the battle of Newbury, September, liament to confer with the king at Oxford.

Waller occupied a seat in the House of Commons as the representative of various boroughs for a considerable portion of his life. He sat in Parliaments of James T., Charles I., the Commonwealth, Charles II. and James II. In 1640, after an interruption of twelve

court.

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