For ages worshipp'd by the Minstrel throng, By rippling brook, in air, and field, and wood, On mountain top, and ridge of billowy flood, Nature! thou dost thy Maker mighty wrong. Hast thou no speech to check the erring song? Glows not thy beauteous cheek with mantling blood Thyself to take His praise, "FIRST FAIR, FIRST GOOD?" Wilt thou this wild delusion still prolong? Vain Idol! this thy folly thou shalt rue: A voice is swelling on the mountain breeze, And echoes loud from yonder azure sky―― "Thy beauty's light shall turn to deadly hue; On all thy charms the kindling flames shall seize, And worshipper and god in ashes lie!" 50. REMOVAL OF SEVERE ILLNESS. Short seem'd the step down to the awful grave, Where ev'ry vig'rous limb all stiffen'd lies, And greedy worms in us hold revelries, While weeds and grasses o'er my bed shall wave. This world of ours, built up so beauteous, brave, Must it be faded ever from my eyes? Shall my dull ear hear no sweet symphonies? And from this dreaded doom can naught me save? Naught sav'd me but thy pow'r, O God of love! I live again: to Thee be all the praise; And let me live with heart on things above, As one, in all things whom thy Spirit sways; So serving Christ, as sure to me 'tis given To see him in a brighter world――in heaven! 51. GOD MAN'S ALL-SUFFICIENT GOOD. Although no blossom'd fig tree deck the field, Nor fruit hangs clust'ring on the joyful vine, To give, when press'd, the spirit-cheering wine, Nor cultur'd ground the needful food doth yield; Although the flocks the fold no longer shield, Nor sheep and goats from rav'nous wolves confine; Although no grazing herds, as once, are mine, And all my gold to robbers is reveal'd; Yet in Jehovah will my soul rejoice, The God of my salvation; songs shall rise To him, whose favor is my treasur'd gold. His bounty forces on my better choice The ever-gladd'ning fruits of paradise, And heav'n's unmeasur'd good, and joys untold. 52. THE DEATH OF REV. DR. I. NICHOLS. In boyhood's prime our four years' course being done In band of numbers unsurpass'd before, All said,――as richest gems we counted o'er,―― "The highest rank Thou, youngest, yet hast won." Again, when now brief interval was run, Our toils renew'd as long a time once more In Harvard's walls, t' acquire the honey'd store.―― Since then just fifty years our lives have spun.―― A few days past I hail'd my birth-day light; Alas, it was thy day of death, my friend, When thy keen eyes were clos'd in deepest night: Yet 'twas thy birth to life without an end! Thy trust be mine――is now my sick-bed pray'r―― In God's own Son, who came our sins to bear. 53. THE VOICE OF NATURE TO POETS.