What dreamy softness in the melting west When Evening sinks in holiness to rest, And the young crescent moon, an argent barque, Drifts up the starry ocean of the dark! And how sublime the black tempestuous cloud, Where thunders shout their prophecies aloud With tongues of fire, that flash from sphere to sphere, While congregated nations quake in fear! How glorious all! how changeless and serene Where generations vanish from the scene. Yet what is Earth in Nature’s wondrous whole, Which mirrors dimly its Creative Soul? Less than ant-hill, even the smallest one, Whose gates thrown back exclude the summer sun. A single grain of sand from out the sea, The deep of Chaos and Eternity, Whose bubbles are The Ages dim and vast, Melting into the dark abysmal Past! A mote in the cerulean space of air, One of the innumerous myriads floating there, Wafted of old from God’s eternal seat, Where stars and suns lie thick as dust around his feet! * * * * * ALONE—ALONE! BY MRS. I. W. MERCUR. “Her friends had one after one departed, and in her mind continually rang the monotonous words, alone, alone!” I am alone, oh God! alone—alone! Yet thousands round me crowd life’s busy mart, Whose ceaseless hum is as a deathless moan Forever falling on my weary heart— I am alone! I am alone—around me press the gay, The light of heart, they who have never known The blight of sorrow, or the sure decay Of every joy the spirit here has known— I am alone! I am alone—yet memory oft doth bring Back the sweet visions of life’s sunny day, Of friends unchanged, who in my early spring With smiles of love illumed my joyous way— I am alone! I am alone—alas! stern death has won Hearts that I cherished, and fond eyes of light; Kind tones are hushed, and brows I gazed upon In life’s full glory greet no more my sight— I am alone! Alone—alone!—for unto me no more The living turn with thought or feeling’s flow. And joy for me I feel on earth is o’er— I never more shall love or friendship know— I am alone! Alone and weary, yet I strive to wear Ever a look of calm, serene repose, And smiling seek to hide each galling care And burning sorrow which my spirit knows— I am alone!