Our Portion [pp. 17-18]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
OUR PORTION.
Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one
to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that
he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth
hiln: for it is his portion. Every man also to whom God hath
given riches and wea]lth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the
gift of God. For hle sa i t ni much re-nmember the days of his
life; because God ali.swereth hinm in the joy of his heart.
Ecclesiastes v, 1S, 19, 20.
A wander'or on a midnight sea,
Denied the polostar's guiding ray,
I know that rocks ale on the lee,
That sanlidS and shallows crowd the way;
And, as the vivid lighltning's play,
Bowed by the fil ry of the blast,
And borne on foam-crowned waves away,
See tattered sail and broken mast.
I see how those who went before
Are dashed against my vessel's side;
And, loud above the tempest's roar,
I hear a demon's voice deride.
It cries:-"And hast thou then relied
On thine own skill thy bark to steer?
Ask of those mangled forms a guide:
They've seen and proved the dangers near."
That sea is but the sea of life,
O'er which a polar darkness lours;
The sands and shoals, the cares and strife
That fiil our evil-h'aunted hours;
Our passions are the impelling powers
That foice us to distraction's rocks;
Madness, the yawning wave, devours
All whom Despair, the demon, mocks.
He mocks our an,,guish to renew:
Tihe corses weltering in the wave
Are those whose tendrils round us grew,
W,nhose love our lives a pleasure gave.
We saw tlem one attempt to brave
The ills of life-but all in vain:
WVe saaw them yield; and could not save:
Despair hath bound them with his chain.
And every pleasure we have known
Resistless fell before his might;
Like flashingg meteors, they shone
To mock us with their blinding light,
And penishe(d like the cdreanias of night,
That scarce have roused the o'er-labored mind,
VWihen, lo! we takeni ic affright
New disappointlenilts still to find.
'Ve seek for honors, wealth, or power,
To luie the weary heart firon woe;
And could they for a transient hour,
How great a debt to thlem we'd owe.
But we, alas! iuLtst see them go
To those who scarcely tried to gain;
Or if to us, low soon we know
The trust reposed in thenm was vain.
We may not conjure fromi the past
The flattering visions once displayed,
For Time came on with ruthless haste,
And into air we saw them fade.
We look around us, and, dismayed,
We ask the future of our doom;
And floating in its dismal shade
We see portentous grave-fires loom.
The demon comes with hellish grin;
I mark his fiery eye-balls roll;
He shakles his chain with horrid din;
His pallid lips this burden troll: " Tlou'rt mine for aye, poor coward soul!
Thou'rt mine-we ne'er shall part again" Ha! let me drain the poisoned bowl:
With cheerless life I'll end his reign.
Away! away! The spell is o'er. No more the victim of Despair,
The ills that weakly I deplore,
I'll use my jaded powers to bear.
The vain regrets, the present care,
The shadowings of years to be,
As others have, I'll bravely dare,
With brow erect and spirit free.
Though rent the sail and gone the mast,
A yet unweakened sail I'll bend;
And, cautioned by the horrors past,
With confidence its folds extend.
Though darkness on the wave descend,
The needle's point I still can view;
The helmn remains a faithful friend;
My bark is staunch; my chart is true.
Behold! the shadows pass away
As, struggling up the clouded east,
Ascends the day-god's cheering ray,
Or widens o'er the ocean's breast.
And now, the raging stormn has ceased;
No more the angry sea winds blow;
And I, from danger's grasp released,
O'er broader seas direct my prow.
Yet will we drop the sorrowing tear
For those of ardent soul, who fell
Like summer leaves untimely sere,
As round the hearth their tale we tell.
And let us enmuliously dwell
On theirs, of sturdier minds, who drove
The fiend Despair to distant cell,
And firmly'gainst life's evils strove.
Though frienidships formed without a thought,
Unstable as the cresting foam
Hiave proved; the lesson's cheaply bought
That teaches not again to roam
Frrom that endeared and humble home,
WVhere for our weal fond prayers are said,
Where still the partial friends will come,
Whose kinid reproofs we, angered, fled.
If, where excess holds carnival,
How soon the senses pall we've found,
We'll hasten to the ample hall
Where Science sits by Virtue crowned.
There will we learn the laws profound
That govern things, and states, and mind,
VOL. III.-3
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