Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.” Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood Look'd one black dot against the verge of dawn, Avilion. - Avalon, in Middle-Age romance, is the name given to an ocean-island not far from the "terrestrial paradise." It is represented as the abode of King Arthur and his fairy sister, Morgan le Fay, and of Oberon, the king of the fairies, in medieval mythology. In the following sonnet the writer indicates that to him, at least, the poetry of the Old Testament is of a higher order than even Homer's verse,” and that the other famous Greek and Latin authors have not the power of the "hallowed bards" of Judah. He could hardly have come to this conclusion without a thorough knowledge of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the ancient classics. That he had explored this wide field of literature his writings show conclusively, and that he was a traveller in Greece and Italy is evident from the fact that many of his poems were written under the direct inspiration of scenes and sights connected with pagan history and religion. A SONNET. AUBREY DE VERE. Let those who will, hang rapturously o'er Repeat, with flashing eye, the sounds that pour The temperate grief of Job; the artless strain To study literature profitably we must learn that a few subjects constantly reappear on the pages of the poet, the dramatist, the novelist. Among these are the joys and sorrows of human life, the personal relations of humanity. History is human life on a larger scale, — not merely personal, though that is included in it, but national, - and so Life, Death, and the Hereafter have been the great thèmes upon which the thoughts of men have labored, and they have given expression to these thoughts in a few lasting forms that constitute the grandeur and the glory of every civilized land. What has man's desire to express his thoughts compelled him to do? To invent language and the materials necessary for preserving the spoken words in written forms. And what is the result? All nations have poets; to carve his thoughts in stone, sculptors; to paint his thoughts on canvas, — artists; to build his thoughts into architectural forms, cathedral builders; to invent musical instruments and a musical notation, organ U ists; "to speak with the tongues of angels," - orators. And the highest thought ever expressed in any of these forms - what is it but the worship of God? of Him who created us, redeemed us, sanctified us? Man is a worshipping creature and he must fulfil the end for which he was created. The highest form of literature produced by any nation is the embodiment of its religion. Homer's writings, the Hebrew Scriptures, and the New Testament must, therefore, hold the foremost rank as literary models, the first embodying the religion of the Greeks, the second that of the Jews, and the third that of Christendom. The farther we carry our studies in literature the more we shall be convinced "How little inventiveness there is in man. But this very discovery is one of the best means of teaching us to discriminate between good literature and bad; between the great books and the little ones; between high art, low art, and no art, in writing; between the ideal and the real. 1 James Russell Lowell, "The Cathedral." INDEX OF AUTHORS. ÆSCHYLUS. Prometheus Bound (Plumptre's Trans.), 62. ANACREON. Cupid Stung, 183; The Cheat of Cupid, 187; Cupid Be- nighted, 188. ARNOLD, SIR EDWIN. Cupid Stung (Trans. from Anacreon), 183. BACKUS, M. L. On Latmos, 38. A Legend of Ancient Greece, 23. A Musical Instrument, 138; Cupid BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN. From the Iliad, Book VIII., 147. CHAUCER, Geoffrey. COWPER, WIlliam. The Manciple's Tale, 25. From the Iliad, Book VIII., 146. DE VERE, AUBREY. A Sonnet, 288. DOMMETT, ALFRED. A Christmas Hymn, 229. EURIPIDES. Iphigenia in Aulis, 107; From the Troades, 19. GOETHE. Prometheus, 81; Iphigenia in Tauris, 114. HERRICK, ROBERT. The Cheat of Cupid, 187. HESIOD. The Creation of Pandora, 88; Bacchus and Ariadne, 204. HUNT, LEIGH. Cupid Swallowed, 190; The Dryads, 196. HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL. The First Fan, 226. HOMER. A Hymn to Ceres, 45; From the Iliad, Book VIII., 145. INGELOW, JEAN. Persephone, 46. ONSON, BEN. Hymn to Diana (from Cynthia's Revels), 35; Discourse KEATS, JOHN. Saturn and Thea (from Hyperion), 56; A Sonnet on 291 LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE. Iphigenia, 112. LILY, JOHN. Cupid and Campaspe, 186. LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL. Prometheus, 70; The Finding of the Lyre, LONGFELLOW, HENRY W. Hymn to the Night, 12; Endymion, 33; En- MILTON, JOHN. From L'Allegro, 134; From Il Penseroso, 134; On the MACE, FRANCES L. The Seven Days, 216; Easter Morning, 257. SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE. Unbound, 84. To Night, 13; The Cloud, 41; Prometheus SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM. Song from Henry VIII., 135. STOCK, ELIOT. Cupid's Decadence, 191. TENNYSON, ALFRED. Tithonus, 17; Demeter and Persephone, 50; Enone, WETHERLY, FREDERICK E. Sir Cupid, 190. WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM. Laodameia, 128. YOUNG, W. W. There came Three Queens from Heaven, 103. |