A LOVE-SONG.

(A.D. 1700.)

WHEN first in CELIA's ear I poured

A yet unpractised pray'r,

My trembling tongue sincere ignored.

The aids of 'sweet' and 'fair.'

I only said, as in me lay,

I'd strive her 'worth' to reach ;

She frowned, and turned her eyes away,—

So much for truth in speech.

Then DELIA came. I changed my plan;

I praised her to her face;

I praised her features,-praised her fan,

Her lap-dog and her lace;

I swore that not till Time were dead

My passion should decay;

She, smiling, gave her hand, and said

"Twill last then-for a Day.

THE LOST ELIXIR.

"One drop of ruddy human blood puts more life into the veins of a poem than all delusive aurum potabile' that can be distilled out of the choicest library."-LOWELL.

Aн, yes, that "drop of human blood!"

We had it once, may be,

When our young song's impetuous flood

First poured its ecstasy ;

But now the shrunk poetic vein

Yields not that priceless drop again.

We toil, as toiled we not of old ;

Our patient hands distil

The shining spheres of chemic gold

With hard-won, fruitless skill;

But that red drop still seems to be
Beyond our utmost alchemy.

Perchance, but most in later age,

Time's after-gift, a tear,

Will strike a pathos on the page

Beyond all art sincere ;

But that "one drop of human blood"

Has gone with life's first leaf and bud.

NOTES.

NOTE 1, PAGE 4.

Nay,-'twas a song of Sainte-Aulaire.

It is but just to the octogenarian Marquis, whom the Duchess of Maine surnamed her 'vieux berger,' to say that he is guiltless of the song here ascribed to him. For it, and the similar pieces in these Proverbs, the author is alone responsible. In the Secrets of the Heart, however, he has, without attempting to revive the persons, borrowed the names of the charming heroines of À quoi revent les Jeunes Filles.

NOTE 2, PAGE 39.

Ensign (of Bragg's) made a terrible clangour.

Despite its suspicious appropriateness in this case, 'Bragg's' regiment of Foot-Guards really existed; and was ordered to Flanders in April, 1742, with, among others, that very Handasyd's' in which Sterne's father had been a poor Lieutenant. (See Gentleman's Magazine, 1742, i. 217.)