THERE _is_ a Heaven, or here, or there,— A Heaven there is, for me and you, Where bargains meet for purses spare, Like ours, are not so far and few. Thuanus’ bees go humming through The learned groves, ’neath rainless skies, O’er volumes old and volumes new, Within that Book-man’s Paradise! There treasures bound for Longepierre Keep brilliant their morocco blue, There Hookes’ _Amanda_ is not rare, Nor early tracts upon Peru! Racine is common as Rotrou, No Shakespeare Quarto search defies, And Caxtons grow as blossoms grew, Within that Book-man’s Paradise! There’s Eve,—not our first mother fair,— But Clovis Eve, a binder true; Thither does Bauzonnet repair, Derome, Le Gascon, Padeloup! But never come the cropping crew That dock a volume’s honest size, Nor they that “letter” backs askew, Within that Book-man’s Paradise! ENVOY. Friend, do not Heber and De Thou, And Scott, and Southey, kind and wise, _La chasse au bouquin_ still pursue Within that Book-man’s Paradise? BALLADE OF A FRIAR. (Clement Marot’s _Frère Lubin_, though translated by Longfellow and others, has not hitherto been rendered into the original measure of _ballade à double refrain_.) SOME ten or twenty times a day, To bustle to the town with speed, To dabble in what dirt he may,— Le Frère Lubin’s the man you need! But any sober life to lead Upon an exemplary plan, Requires a Christian indeed,— Le Frère Lubin is _not_ the man! Another’s wealth on his to lay, With all the craft of guile and greed, To leave you bare of pence or pay,— Le Frère Lubin’s the man you need! But watch him with the closest heed, And dun him with what force you can,— He’ll not refund, howe’er you plead,— Le Frère Lubin is _not_ the man! An honest girl to lead astray, With subtle saw and promised meed, Requires no cunning crone and grey,— Le Frère Lubin’s the man you need! He preaches an ascetic creed, But,—try him with the water can— A dog will drink, whate’er his breed,— Le Frère Lubin is _not_ the man! ENVOY. In good to fail, in ill succeed, Le Frère Lubin’s the man you need! In honest works to lead the van, Le Frère Lubin is _not_ the man! BALLADE OF NEGLECTED MERIT. {194} I HAVE scribbled in verse and in prose, I have painted “arrangements in greens,” And my name is familiar to those Who take in the high class magazines; I compose; I’ve invented machines; I have written an “Essay on Rhyme”; For my county I played, in my teens, But—I am not in “Men of the Time!”