In this grey old world not often Such a day to us is sent, Yet amidst its purest gladness Comes a thrill of yearning sadness To mar our sweet content. And when life’s full cup o’erflowing With the love which makes our gain, And the rapture surely given As a foretaste of God’s heaven,— ’Tis bliss akin to pain. So in hours of love and sunshine, As in days when storms beat high, We have still a sure voice teaching, Far beyond earth’s wisest preaching, Our immortality. Not until we reach that city Where our loved and lost abide, When Christ greets us at the portal, And we taste the life immortal, We shall be satisfied. TALES FROM SHAKSPERE. By CHARLES LAMB. AS YOU LIKE IT. During the time that France was divided into provinces (or dukedoms, as they were called), there reigned in one of these provinces an usurper, who had deposed and banished his elder brother, the lawful duke. The duke, who was thus driven from his dominions, retired with a few faithful followers to the forest of Arden; and here the good duke lived with his loving friends, who had put themselves into a voluntary exile for his sake, while their lands and revenues enriched the false usurper. And custom soon made the life of careless ease they led here more sweet to them than the pomp and uneasy splendor of a courtier’s life. Here they lived like the old Robin Hood of England, and to this forest many noble youths daily resorted from the court, and did fleet the time carelessly, as they did who lived in the golden age. In the summer they lay along under the fine shade of the large forest trees, marking the playful sports of the wild deer; and so fond were they of these poor dappled fools, who seemed to be the native inhabitants of the forest, that it grieved them to be forced to kill them to supply themselves with venison for their food. When the cold winds of winter made the duke feel the change of his adverse fortune, he would endure it patiently, and say, “These chilling winds which blow upon my body, are true counselors; they do not flatter, but represent truly to me my condition; and though they bite sharply, their tooth is nothing like so keen as that of unkindness and ingratitude. I find that, however men speak against adversity, yet some sweet uses are to be extracted from it, like the jewel, precious for medicine, which is taken from the head of the venomous and despised toad.” In this manner did the patient duke draw an useful moral from everything that he saw; and by the help of this moralizing turn in that life of his, remote from public haunts, he could find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.