Seek'st thou the plashy brink

Of weedy lake or marge of river wide, Or where the rocking billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean-side?

There is a power whose care

Teaches thy way along that pathless coast The desert and illimitable air

Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned,

At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end;

Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend Soon o'er thy sheltered nest.

Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven

Hath swallowed up thy form; yet on my heart
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart.

He who from zone to zone

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone,

Will lead my steps aright.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

THE FATHERLAND.

Where is the true man's fatherland?
Is it where he by chance is born?
Doth not the yearning spirit scorn
In such scant borders to be spanned?
O yes! his fatherland must be

As the blue heaven wide and free!

Is it alone where freedom is,

Where God is God and man is man?
Doth he not claim a broader span
For the soul's love of home than this?
O yes! his fatherland must be
As the blue heaven wide and free.

Where'er a human heart doth wear
Joy's myrtle-wreath or sorrow's gyves,
Where'er a human spirit strives
After a life more true and fair,
There is the true man's birthplace grand,
His is a world-wide fatherland!

Where'er a single slave doth pine,
Where'er one man may help another,-
Thank God for such a birthright, brother,-
That spot of earth is thine and mine!
There is the true man's birthplace grand,
His is a world-wide fatherland !

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

HYMN.

O thou, in all thy might so far,
In all thy love so near,

Beyond the range of sun and star,
And yet beside us here,-

What heart can comprehend thy name,
Or, searching, find thee out,
Who art within, a quickening flame,
A presence round about?

Yet though I know thee but in part,
I ask not, Lord, for more:
Enough for me to know thou art,
To love thee and adore.

O sweeter than aught else besides,
The tender mystery

That like a veil of shadow hides
The light I may not see!

And dearer than all things I know

Is childlike faith to me,

That makes the darkest way I go

An open path to thee.

FREDERICK LUCIAN HOSMER.

III.

Brothers.

O brother man, fold to thy heart thy brother! Where pity dwells the peace of God is there; To worship rightly is to love each other, Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer. Worship.

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.