The rain set early in tonight, The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite, And did its best to vex the lake: I listened with heart fit to break. When glided in Porphyria; straight She shut the cold out and the storm, And kneeled and made the cheerless grate Blaze up and all the cottage warm.

White shall not neutralize the black, nor good compensate bad in man, absolve him so; life's business being just the terrible choice.

I have lived, And seen God's hand thro a life time, And all was for the best.

Twere too absurd to slight For the hereafter the todays delight!

I trust in Nature for the stable laws Of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant And Autumn garner to the end of time. I trust in God,-the right shall be the right And other than the wrong, while he endures. I trust in my own soul, that can perceive The outward and the inward,-Nature's good And God's.

Aspire, break bounds. Endeavor to be good, and better still, best.

How good is life, the mere living!