To see thee smile, all hearts rejoice;

And, warm with feelings strong,
With thee all Nature finds a voice,

And hums a waking song.
The lover views thy welcome hours,

And thinks of summer come,
And takes the maid thy early flowers,
To tempt her steps from home.

CLARE'S Shepherd's Calendar.

sweet

-and thou wilt be the better for it all And then, again, by v nat insensibie grathe year after We will indulge in sweet dations do we progress ; the laughing thoughts and solacing interchanges of thoughtlessness of boyhood! Oh! how kindly feeling.–

I love to revert to those days of careless And now we are in aquiet, rural spot, gaiety and unrestrained freedom! Life far from the busy hum of men,

then had no stern realities. Every object

was clothed in the fairy hues of imagina-so that a whispering blade Of grass, a wailful gaat, a bee, bustling

tion. I lived and moved as in a dream; Down in the blue-bells, or a wren light rustling and hope was " as broad and easing as Among the leaves and twigs, might all be the general air.” Many of my happiest beard.

moments are derived from the golden No sound strikes upon our ear but the grate- recollections intertwined with the rery ful music of nature. “ There is a spirit in my boson, that ever linger with me,

heart-strings of my being,-old dwellers of youth in every thing."

And, of the past, are all that cannot pass away! Through wood, and stream, and hill, and field, and ocean

Time and care make sad havoc with these A quickening life from the earth's heart has

aerial enjoyments. burst,

Whither is fled the visionary gleam ? As it has ever done.

Where is it now, the glory and the dream! “ Fresh leaves and flowers deck the dead Youth invests all which it sees and deseason's bier;" and, ah!-there is one of sires with the rainbow tints of fancy; them—the primrose! See how it peeps

“ And by the vision splendid from yon southern mossy bank, pale and

Is on its vay atteoded ; molionless — “ not wagging its

At length the man perceives it die away, head,"—50 hushed and still is the atmo- And fade into the light of common day. sphere, that there is not even a playful Yet let us press on joyfully in our course. breeze abroad “to fondle the flowerets in its soft embrace.” This darling flower, and jolly pastimes, that will fetch the day

" there be delights, there be recreations, this early child of spring, “ that comes before the swallow dares, and takes the

about from sun to sun, and rock the tedi. winds of March with beauty,” is my pe

ous year as in a delightful dream.” culiar favorite. I never meet with a tuft

What though the radiance which was onco of them for the first time, but there goes

so bright to my heart an intense feeling of their

Be now for ever taken from our sight, calm and innocent loveliness. They are to

Though nothing can bring back the hour me heralds of young and fresh-bursting

Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower!

We will grieve not, rather find life, dear pledges of the renewed existence

Strength in what remains behind. of nature. They tel: me of the vernal

A thousand pure pleasures remain to us. joys that are at hand, awaiting me. This

Foremost, and the most soothing among feeling I experience at every returning them, is natural scenery. I lately met season : it is connected with many an

with a passage, written some years ago, early association. I delight to follow and

in a periodical work, which finely and trace it far back, into the years of childhood,

feelingly expresses all that I would say

on this subject. The author, writing from And fiud no end, in wanderir mazes lost,

a lonely spot in Switzerland, describes it, I can discover nothing but “the man's and thus proceeds :thoughts dark within the infant's brain." “ During those dreams of the soul, How mysterious are the operations of the which our hopes and wishes create, and mind at that budding period! To what our reason is unable to destroy,—when point of our infancy are we to refer the we wish to retire from the loud and stirring first dim and shadowy associations ? How world, and, among the loveliness of some can we trace the early dawning of far-removed valley, to pass the days that tl at primal sympathy,

fate may have assigned us,-where the

mind endeavours to combire in one scene Which, having been, must ever be,

every beauteous innaye that memory can and which makes the same poet exclaim, supply, or imagination picture, -it would in a line full of deep and philosophic be impossible to conceive the existence thought,

of a more lovely landscape. So sweet is • The child is father of the man !!! this spot, that ihe very winds of heaven scem slowly and fondly to pass over it, So that our disembodied thoughts, and the little summer birds sing more

Loosed from the load of worlds, may high cheerily amid its holy solitude. Since I ascend, have seen it, I have not been conscious of Beyond the empyrean. feeling any emotion allied 10 evil. Indeed, In the goodly summer season, let us have what could make the heart evil-disposed our quiet musings, as we stroll through among such general peace and happiness ? the luxuriant meadow, No mind can withstand the influence of

Or by the osiers of a rivulet, fair and lovely scenery, and the calmness

Fall ankle deep in lilies of the vale, of a fine summer-evening, when there is nothing to prevent its sinking into the very

or pursue the chequered woodland pathfurthest recesses of the heart. For miy

way, self, at least, I can say that I never walked Winding through palmy fern and rushes fenny, with my face towards a fine setting sun,

And ivy banks; leading full pleasantly without feeling it to be, as our own most

To a wide lawn, whence one can only see majestic poet has expressed it, a heavenly

Stems thronging all around, between the swell destiny. Nothing tends so powerfully The freshness of the space of heaven above,

Of turf and slanting branches; who can tell to extinguish all bad passions as the

Edg'd round with dark tree tops ? through contemplation of the still majesty of na

which a dove ture.”

Doth often beat its wings, and often 100 We started, gentle reader, for the day, A little cloud doth move across the blue. with gazing on “that little pearle of pulchr! Let us have our morning walks on the tude," the primrose; and now the sun is verging towards the west, “ with all his breezy upland,

Where sweet air stirs gay apparelling of clouds, we will bend our sober steps homewarıls.

Blue hare-bells lightly, and where prickly furza

Buds lavish gold, Tell me, do you not feel hap'pier since you left town in the morning!. Do you Up-beaming from the valleys of the east.

and greet the sun, not breathe more freely, and feel more cheerful, and “wear more of that herb called And, when“ the crimson pall of eve doth hearts-ease in your bosom ?"

fall" upon the landscape below us, let us not return with gentler and kindlier diss watch its every feature as it becomes positions towards your fellow-creatures,

Bathed all over with a strcaming flood and with an inclination to look on the Of level light, as heaven's majestic orb favorable aspect of things? These relax

Slow sinks behind the far-off western hills. ations are green sunny resting-places in On those sultry days again, the journey of life,—“ glimpses that make When not the limberest leaf is seen to move, us less forlorn." But perhaps it may Save where the linnet lights upon the

spray ; be the long looking forward, during tlie When not a floweret bends its little stalk, busy anxious intervals between refreshing Save where the bee alights upon the bloom. walks, that imparts exquisite delight to

Let us seek “ some fair lone beechea these holidays. Let us, however, have

tree," and under “ its cirque of shedded as many of these as we can. cherish the social and benevolent affec- rimmed and white, hid in deep herbage,”

leaves," reclining on “ daisies vermeil. tions, and be lovers of nature, and of one

peruse a favorite author, another; for " Nature never did betray

for books, we know, The heart that loved her : 'tis her privilege

Are a substantial world, both pure and good, Through all the years of this our life to lead

Round which, with tendrils strong as flesh and From joy to joy ; for she can so inform

blood, The mind that is within us, so impress

Our pastime and our happiness may grow, With quietness and beauty, and so feed

In Autumn, too, With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,

When barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,

And touch the stubble plains with rosy hu; Shall e'er prevail against us; or disturb

When in a wailful choir the small goats mourn Our cheerful faith, that all which wc behold

Among the river swallows, borne aloft, Is full of blessings."

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; Let us, then, go abroad in the early

and when with treble soft year, and allow “spring's first voluptuous The red-breast whistles from the gardenpaintings, when she breathes her first

croft ; sweet kisses,"10" tremble o'er our frames.” And gathering swallows twitter in the skies ;

Do you

Let us

let iis

when we listen to " the sound of hollow Is there no smooth descent ? no painless way sighs in the serewood," and look upon Of kindly mixing with our native clay ? those bright leaves, whose decay,

There is,—but rarely shall that path be trod ; Red, Yellow, or etherially pale,

Some few, by temp'rance taught, approaching Rivals the pride of summer;

slow Or when, in the evenings,

To distant fate, by easy journeys go ; " The breath of winter comes from far away,

Gently they lay them duwn, as ev’ning sheep And the sick west continually bereaves

That on their woolly fleeces softly sleep. Of some gold tinge, and plays a roundelay

And now, kind reader, I have one Of death, among the bushes and the leaves,

request before we part; forget not our Making all bare before he dares to stray

worthy chronicler, friend Hone, who has From his north cavern;

gathered for us, into his charming pages,

so many a seasonable fact, and pleasant With many feelings, many thoughts,

story.” Send him a local custom, a rural Make up a meditative joy, and find

or city meditation, an extract, nay even a Religious meanings in the forms of Nature. reference or a suggestion. I prithee And, last of all, “ when the chill rain

bestir thyself in this matter, and spend begins at shut of eve, in dull Norember;"

an hour now and then in the right pleasant and “ winter comes to rule the varied

and friendly occupation of communicating year;" let us have our social comforts,

thy portion of amusement to the pages of the

Year Book. But methinks I hear thee and pleasant chat at the blazing hearth, and listen, with an inward consciousness

say, I would send this, but I am sure of security, to the howling storms without,

friend Ilone knows about it already.”.

“ Out upon such half-faced fellowship !" Which at the doors and windows seem to

Contribute cheerfully what thou hast, and call,

allow not such dallying suppositions to As heaven and earth they would together mall; Yet the least entrance find they none at all ;

form any ground of excuse. We have Whence sweeter grows our rest secure in massy

each of us our own peculiar recollections, hall,

our favorite authors, our curious facts, Let us have our healthful, bracing walks,

our choice passages ; let us, then, lighten

his labor, and contribute to the variety during the cold, frosty weather;

of his columns,“ by joining and uniting happy christmas merriments; and our

in one general and brotherly resolution” pleasant new year's day parties :

to send whatever we think suitable and He who of these delights can judge, and appropriate, and worthyof being recorded; spare

for, to conclude, in the words of Milton, To interpose them oft, is not unwise.

“ neither can every building be of one In short, let us be cheerful, and, tempe- form; nay, rather, the perfection consists rate, and kind, and honest; and, when in this, that out of many moderate variethe snows of age descend upon our heads, ties, and brotherly dissimilitudes, not and we begin to approach towards “ that vastly disproportional, arises the goodly dividing streak between our visible hori- and the graceful symmetry that commends zon and that more clear and unstained the whole pile and structure.” hemisphere on which the sun of human And, lastly, gentle reader, you and I existence rises, where it dips behind the have jogged on very pleasantly together, remotest hills of earthly vision,” may we glancing, in our way, at many of the hope for that easy separation, that gentle happy things, “the joys and the delights dissolution, so finely alluded to by Dry- of human life,” and, since we must part, den, in the following lines :

let us remember that

our

the crown of these
Is made of love and friendship, and sits high
Upon the forehead of humanity.
All its more ponderous and bulky worth
Is friendship, whence there ever issues forth
A steady splendor; l'ut at the tip-top
There hangs, by unseen film, an orbed drop

Of light, and that is LOVE
Edinburgh, March, 1831.

A. N.