NIGHT.

O gentle Night! O thought-inspiring Night!

Humbly I bow before thy sovereign power;

Sadly I own thy all-unequalled might

To calm weak mortal in his darkest hour:

Spreading thy robe o’er all the mass of care,

Thou bidd’st the sorrowful no more despair.

When high in heaven thou bidd’st thy torches shine,

Casting on earth a holy, peaceful light,

My heart adores thee in thy calm divine,

Is soothed by thee, O hope-inspiring Night!

All anxious thoughts, all evil bodings fly;

My soul doth rest, since thou, O Night! art nigh.

When thou hast cast o’er all the sleeping land

Thy darkened robe, the symbol of thy state,

Alone beneath heaven’s mightiness I stand,

Musing on life, eternity, and fate;

Mayhap with concentrated thought I try

To pierce the cloud of heaven’s great mystery.

’Tis then sweet music in the air I hear,

Like rippling waters falling soft and low;

With soul enraptured do I list, yet fear—

’Tis not such music as we mortals know;

It wafts the soul from earthly things away,

Leaving behind the senseless frame of clay.

Friends, kindly faces crowd around me there,

Friends loved the better since they passed away,

Leaving a legacy of wild despair—

And now I see them as in full orb’d day,

The long-lamented once again descry,

Bask in each smile, gaze in each speaking eye.

O blest reunion, Night’s almighty gift,

Lent for a time unto the thoughtful mind;

When memory can o’er the clouds uplift

The startled soul away from all mankind,

Throw wide eternity’s majestic gate,

And grant a view of the immortal state.

And thou, O Night! who can’st these spirits raise,

Giv’st immortality to mortal eyes,

To thee I tune mine unadornèd praise,

And chant thy glories to the list’ning skies:

Waft, O ye winds! the floating notes along;

Ye woods and mountains, echo back the song.

Robert A. Neilson.

The Conductor of Chambers’s Journal begs to direct the attention of Contributors to the following notice:

1st. All communications should be addressed to the ‘Editor, 339 High Street, Edinburgh.’

2d. For its return in case of ineligibility, postage-stamps should accompany every manuscript.

3d. Manuscripts should bear the author’s full Christian name, Surname, and Address, legibly written; and should be written on white (not blue) paper, and on one side of the leaf only.

4th. Offerings of Verse should invariably be accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope.

If the above rules are complied with, the Editor will do his best to insure the safe return of ineligible papers.

Printed and Published by W. & R. Chambers, 47 Paternoster Row, London, and 339 High Street, Edinburgh.