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And what I most desired should come to pass,
To still my soul inspired: "Whom dost thou long
To have Persuasion lead to thine embrace?

Who, Sappho, does thee wrong?

"For if she flee, she quickly shall pursue;

If gifts she take not, gifts she yet shall bring; And if she love not, love shall thrill her through, Though strongly combating."

Then come to me even now, and set me free
From sore disquiet; and that for which I sigh
With fervent spirit, bring to pass for me:
Thyself be mine ally!

TO THE BELOVED.

I HOLD him as the gods above,

The man who sits before thy feet,
And, near thee, bears thee whisper sweet,
And brighten with the smiles of love.

Thou smiledst: like a timid bird

My heart cowered fluttering in its place.
I saw thee but a moment's space,
And yet I could not frame a word.

My tongue was broken; 'neath my skin
A subtle flame shot over me;

And with my eyes I could not see;
My ears were filling with whirling din.

And then I feel the cold sweat pour,
Through all my frame a trembling pass;
My face is paler than the grass:
To die would seem but little more.

EPES SARGENT.

SARGENT, EPES, an American journalist, critic, and miscellaneous writer; born at Gloucester, Mass., September 27, 1813; died at Roxbury, Mass., December 31, 1880. He wrote several dramas: "The Bride of Genoa" (1836); "Velasco" (1837); "Change Makes Change," and "The Priestess." Among his other works are:

"Wealth and Worth" (1840); "Fleetwood," a novel (1845); "Songs of the Sea, and other Poems" (1847); "Arctic Adventure by Sea and Land" (1857); "Peculiar " (1863); "The Woman Who Dared," and "Planchette," a work relating to Spiritualism (1869). His series of school-books is well known to the American schoolboy, and consists of several sets of Speakers, Readers and Spellingbooks. The "Standard Speaker" is probably the most popular work of the kind in the country. Mr. Sargent also wrote a "Life of Henry Clay," and a "Memoir of Benjamin Franklin." Among Mr. Sargent's strictly original works are several well-known songs, of which may be mentioned "A Life on the Ocean Wave;' "The Calm;" "The Gale; " "Tropical Weather."

A LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE.

A LIFE on the ocean wave,

A home on the rolling deep,
Where the scattered waters wave,
And the winds their revels keep:
Like an eagle caged I pine,

On this dull unchanging shore:
Oh! give me the flashing brine,
The spray and the tempest's roar.

Once more on the deck I stand
Of my own swift-gliding craft:
Let sail! farewell to the land!
The gale follows far abaft.

We shoot through the sparkling foam
Like an ocean-bird set free-
Like the ocean-bird, our home

We'll find far out on the sea.

The land is no longer in view,

The clouds have begun to frown;
But with a stout vessel and crew,

We'll say, Let the storm come down!
And the song of our hearts shall be,
While the winds and the waters rave,
A home on the rolling sea!

A life on the ocean wave!

WEBSTER.

NIGHT of the Tomb! He has entered thy portal;
Silence of Death! He is wrapped in thy shade;
All of the gifted and great that was mortal,

In the earth where the ocean-mist weepeth, is laid.

Lips, whence the voice that held Senates proceeded,
Form, lending argument aspect august,

Brow, like the arch that a nation's weight needed,
Eyes, well unfathomed of thought—all are dust.

Night of the Tomb! Through thy darkness is shining
A light since the Star in the East never dim;
No joy's exultation, no sorrow's repining,

Could hide it in life or life's ending from him.

Silence of Death! There were voices from heaven,

That pierced to the quick ear of Faith through the gloom:

The rod and the staff he asked for were given,

And he followed the Saviour's own path to the tomb.

Beyond it, above in an atmosphere finer,
Lo, infinite ranges of being to fill!

In that land of the spirit, that region diviner,
He liveth, he loveth, he laboreth still.

MINOT JUDSON SAVAGE.

SAVAGE, MINOT JUDSON, an American clergyman; born at Norridgewock, Maine, June 10, 1841. He was graduated from the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1864, and was for some years pastor of a Congregational church at Hannibal, Missouri. He became a Unitarian in 1874, and from 1874 to 1896 was pastor of the Church of the Unity in Boston. Since the latter year he has been pastor of the Church of the Messiah in New York City. He has long been known as an extremely radical thinker. His sermons from 1879 to 1896 have been collected in seventeen volumes entitled "Unity Pulpit." His other works include "Christianity the Science of Manhood" (1873); "Light on the Clouds" (1876); "The Religion of Evolution" (1876); "Bluffton: a Story of To-Day" (1878); "Life Questions" (1879); "The Morals of Evolution" (1880); "Talks about Jesus" (1880); "Belief in God" (1881); "Poems" (1882); "Beliefs about Man" (1882); "Beliefs about the Bible" (1883); "The Modern Sphinx" (1883); "Man, Woman, and Child" (1884); "The Religious Life" (1885); "Social Problems" (1886); "These Degenerate Days" (1887); "My Creed" (1887); "Relig ious Reconstruction;" "Psychics" (1893); "Religion for To-Day" (1897.)

A DEFENCE OF UNITARIANISM.

(From a Sermon Delivered in the Church of the Messiah, New York, in November, 1897.)

"WHAT do you give in place of what you take away?" This question is proposed to Unitarians over and over again. It is looked upon as an unanswerable criticism. We are sup

posed to be people who tear down but do not build; people who take away the dear hopes and traditional faiths of the past and leave the world desolate, without God, without hope. I propose to try to make clear what it is that the world has lost as the result of the advance of modern knowledge, and what, if anything, it has gained.