Part 53

When all things have their trial, you shall find Nothing is constant but a virtuous mind.

Shirley.

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The mountain rill Seeks with no surer flow the far, bright sea, Than my unchanged affections flow to thee.

Park Benjamin.

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I am constant as the northern star; Of whose true, fixed, and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament.

Shakspeare.

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Make my breast Transparent as pure crystal, that the world, Jealous of me, may see the foulest thought My heart does hold. Where shall a woman turn Her eyes to find out constancy?

Buckingham.

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No, never from this hour to part, We’ll live and love so true, The sigh that rends thy constant heart, Shall break thy Edwin’s too.

Goldsmith.

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The Ivy round some lofty pile Its twining tendril flings; Though fled from thence be pleasure’s smile, It yet the fonder clings; As lonelier still becomes the place, The warmer is its fond embrace, More firm its verdant rings; As if it loved its shade to rear O’er one devoted to despair. Thus shall my bosom cling to thine, Unchanged by gliding years; Through Fortune’s rise, or her decline, In sunshine, or in tears; And though between us oceans roll, And rocks divide us, still my soul Shall feel no jealous fears: Confiding in a heart like thine, Love’s uncontaminated shrine.

Mrs. Hale.

HOLLY.... Foresight.

The Holly, with its scarlet berries, is the most beautiful of the evergreens that have been used for ages to adorn the churches of old England, during the Christmas season. It is an ornament to the woods, stripped bare by the rude breath of winter; its berries serve for food for the little birds that never leave us, and its foliage affords them an hospitable shelter during the cold season. Nature, by a seeming forethought, has been careful to preserve the verdure of this handsome tree all the year round, and to arm it with thorns, that it may furnish both food and protection to the innocent creatures which resort to it for shelter. It may be added, however, that from the bark of the common Holly, when fermented and washed from the woody fibres, is made the bird-lime which is used for catching small birds.

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With Holly and ivy, So green and so gay, We deck up our houses As fresh as the day; With bays and rosemary, And laurel complete, And every one now Is a king in conceit.

Poor Robin’s Almanac, 1695.

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THE HOLLY TREE.

O Reader! hast thou ever stood to see The Holly tree? The eye that contemplates it well perceives Its glossy leaves, Ordered by an intelligence so wise As might confound the atheist’s sophistries.

Below, a circling fence its leaves are seen, Wrinkled and keen; No grazing cattle, through their prickly round Can reach to wound; But as they grow where nothing is to fear, Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear.

I love to view these things with curious eyes And moralize; And in this wisdom of the Holly tree Can emblems see, Wherewith, perchance, to make a pleasant rhyme, One which may profit in the after-time.

Thus, though abroad, perchance I might appear Harsh and austere, To those who on my leisure would intrude Reserved and rude, Gentle at home amid my friends I’d be, Like the high leaves upon the Holly tree.