Biographies and Miscellanies Volume 20 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1869 edition. Excerpt: ...and bloom Touched with glory thy mantle of gray. The flow'rets burst forth in their buauty--the trees In their exquisite robes were arrayed, But thou glidest along, and the flower and the leaf At the sound of thy footsteps decayed. And fairer young blossoms were blooming alone, And they died at the glance of thine eye, But a life was within which should rise o'er their own, And a spirit thou could'st not destroy. Thou hast folded thy pinions, thy race is complete, And fulfilled the Creator's behest, Then, adieu to thee, year of our sorrows and joys, And peaceful and long be thy rest. Farewell for thy truth-written record is full, And the page weeps, for sorrow and crime; Farewell for the leaf hath shut down on the past, And concealed the dark annals of time. The bell it hath ceased with its iron tongue To ring on the startled ear, The dirge o'er the grave of the lost one is rung, All hail to the new-born year All hail to the new-born year To the child of hope and fear He comes on his car of state, And weaves our web of fate; And he opens his robe to receive us all, And we live or die, and we rise or fall, In the arms of the new-born year Hope spread thy soaring wings Look forth on the boundless sea, And traco thy bright and beautiful things On the veil of the great To Be. Build palaces broad as the sky, And store them with treasures of light, Let exquisite visions bewilder the eye, And illumine the darkness of night. We are gliding fast from the buried year, And the present is no more; But, Hope, we will borrow thy sparkling gear, And shroud the future o'er. Our tears and sighs shall sleep In the grave of the silent Past; We will raise up flowers--nor weep--That the air-hues may not last. We will dream our dreams of joy, Ah Fear why...