College Rooms-The Reverie.

Νέα γὰρ φρόντις οὐκ αλγεῖν φιλεῖ.—EURIPIDES.

THE merry group hath parted. The dark gleaming Of the dull embers casts a fitful light

Through the old chamber but so lately bright

With gay lamps o'er the rich red-wine cups beaming. Lo! with fixed eye and foot, the youth stands dreaming

Over his future life. Before his sight

Rises some new-born vision of delight,

And he is smiling at the shadowy seeming.

'Tis gone. The lips compress'd, and frowning brow, Speak him in perils plung'd, of danger scornful. A shade of grief is passing o'er him now;

Mark how it bends him down with leaden weight. 'Tis for some friend's imaginary fate,

Not for himself-his fate shall ne'er be mournful!

College Rooms- Pleasure.

"Suæ non immemor artis,

Omnia transformat sese in miracula rerum,

Ignemque, horribilemque ferum fluviumque liquentem."
VIRGIL, Georgics.

PROTEAN Pleasure! in how varied forms

Dost show thyself to mortals, and elude
Their ever closing grasp! In solitude

Some place thine eremite cell: more giddy swarms
Seek thee in cities: some in battle-storms:
Some mid the stars thy dreamy home have view'd,
And lost a life in speculative mood:-
Though cheating always, all thy hope still warms!
So in some starving city, through the gate,
When Famine overrides the wasted land,
Enter and issue, each a hopeful band,
Rustic and citizen; each thinks his fate
Leads on to plenty-though they press to gain
The barren paths the others tried in vain.*

* Manzoni, in the I Promessi Sposi, draws a moving picture of this very circumstance happening during the famine of Milan, in the year 1603.

College Booms-Vanity of Vanities.

"Lo tempo e poco omai che e ne concesso."-Dante.

OFT, as Arachne o'er her meshes ran
When playful Zephyr broke the web apart,
With zeal as busy, and as tireless art,
The buoyant spirit of self-cheating Man
Intends fresh circles to his endless plan,
And still new dreams more wide-expanding start
To being from his visionary heart,

When nearly told the almost dwindled span.
Oh! vanity of vanities! fond strife,

Only death-ended; struggle from our prime,
To deem ourselves immortal; ever free
To scheme, to plot, to plan-yet what is life?
A shifting sand-drop in the glass of time;
Less than one pulse-beat of eternity.

Christ Church Talk from College

Windows

Wellington.

"Et notum pueris, et qui nondum ære lavantur.'

"He was a man, take him for all in all,

"-JUVENAL.

I ne'er shall look upon his like again."-Hamlet.

I WILL not forth, but mark, myself unseen,

From my deep window seat, the glittering throng
Of rank and beauty as it sweeps along

Christ Church' broad walk embower'd in leafy green,
With stately steps and many a pause between.
To grace the triumph of her warrior son,
Who on a hundred fields hath fought and won,
In brave array of robes and silken sheen,
England hath gather'd there each noblest name
And fairest daughter: their concentred eyes
Pay homage to the chief of deathless fame,
Who from half Europe's victor snatch'd the prize
Of victory; bade war through nations cease;
For freedom drew, and sheath'd his sword, in peace.

[At the installation of the Duke of Wellington as Chancellor of Oxford, the long and broad walk of Christ Church Meadows was of an evening so thronged with the numerous visitors that it was literally next to impossible to keep moving amid the mass.]

Christ Church Totalk from College
Tindows-Wellington.

(Continued.)

"Nec judicis ira, nec ignis,

Nec ferrum poterit, nec edax abolere vetustas."—OVID.

I LOOK again; and lo! as at the spell
Of wizard, melt his summon'd forms in air,
The crowd has vanish'd, and the path lies bare:
But though my presence did not help to swell
The many, Wellington, who thronged to tell
By bows their admiration of thy worth,
Did I not give in calm reflection birth
To more heart-homage, when I let me dwell,
Not on the glories of thine eagle eye,
But much revolving on thy life, did find
How one man by the force of constancy
Of purpose, love of country, courage, truth,
High loyalty, simplicity of mind,

Can draw the reverence of age and youth?