PREFACE. It is unfortunately true that the terms education and culture are not synonymous. Too often we find that the children in our public schools, while possessed of the one, are signally lacking in the other. This is a state of things that cannot be remedied by teaching mere facts. The Greeks, many years ago, found the true method of imparting the latter grace and we shall probably not be able to discover a better one to-day. Their youths... more...

GRAND'THER BALDWIN'S THANKSGIVING UNDERNEATH protected branches, from the highway just aloof;Stands the house of Grand'ther Baldwin, with its gently sloping roof.Square of shape and solid-timbered, it was standing, I have heard,In the days of Whig and Tory, under royal George the Third.Many a time, I well remember, I have gazed with Childish aweAt the bullet-hole remaining in the sturdy oaken door,Turning round half-apprehensive (recking not how... more...

'T is like stirring living embers when, at eighty, one remembersAll the achings and the quakings of "the times that tried men's souls;"When I talk of Whig and Tory, when I tell the Rebel story,To you the words are ashes, but to me they're burning coals. I had heard the muskets' rattle of the April running battle;Lord Percy's hunted soldiers, I can see their red coats still;But a deadly chill comes o'er me, as the day looms up before... more...

GREEN FIELDS AND RUNNING BROOKS   Ho! green fields and running brooks!  Knotted strings and fishing-hooks  Of the truant, stealing down  Weedy backways of the town.   Where the sunshine overlooks,  By green fields and running brooks,  All intruding guests of chance  With a golden tolerance,   Cooing doves, or pensive pair  Of picnickers,... more...

BOOK I. The Swede I sing, by Heaven ordain'd to saveHis country's glories from a Danish grave,Restore her laws, her Papal rites efface,And fix her freedom on a lasting base. Celestial Liberty! by whom impell'dFrom early youth fair honour's path he held;By whose strong aid his patient courage roseSuperior to the rushing tide of woes,And at whose feet, when Heaven his toils repaid,His brightest wreaths the grateful hero laid:Me too assist; with... more...

HAFBUR AND SIGNE Young Hafbur King and Sivard King   They lived in bitter enmity;’Twas Signe proud that caused their feud,   Of maidens all the fairest she. It was youthful Hafbur King   Awaked at midnight with a bound,And full of dread he straightway said   His wondrous dream to all around. “Methought I was in heaven’s domain,   Within that place so fair to view,And held to... more...

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THE ORCHARD’S GRANDMOTHER. I MUST ask you to go back more than two hundred years, and watch two people in a quiet old English garden. One is an old lady reading. In her young days she was a famous beauty. That was very long ago, to be sure; but I think she is a beauty still—do not you? She has such a lovely face, and her eyes are so sweet and bright! and better than that, they are the kind which see pleasant things in everybody,... more...

HARRY'S HORN-BOOK.   BOY   CAT.   DOG.   JUG.   COW.   PIG.   BED.   FOX.   COCK.   DUCK.   MILL.   GOAT.   STAG.   ROSE.   HARE.   BEAR.   LAMP.   HOUSE.   CLOCK.   PEARS.   GOOSE.   HORSE.   SHEEP.   CHAIR.   KNIFE.  ... more...

1.  HAWTHORN AND LAVENDER ENVOY My songs were once of the sunrise:   They shouted it over the bar;First-footing the dawns, they flourished,   And flamed with the morning star. My songs are now of the sunset:   Their brows are touched with light,But their feet are lost in the shadows   And wet with the dews of night. Yet for the joy in their making   Take them, O fond and true,And for his... more...