Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader · Chapter 300=380.= an Invitation to Early Piety
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Come, while the morning of thy life is glowing— Ere the dim phantoms thou art chasing die; Ere the gay spell which earth is round thee throwing, Fade like the sunset of a summer sky; Life hath but shadows, save a promise given, Which lights the future with a fadeless ray; O, touch the sceptre—win a hope in heaven— Come—turn thy spirit from the world away.
Then will the crosses of this brief existence, Seem airy nothings to thine ardent soul; And shining brightly in the forward distance, Will of thy patient race appear the goal; Home of the weary! where in peace reposing, The spirit lingers in unclouded bliss, Though o'er its dust the curtained grave is closing— Who would not early choose a lot like this?
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=James Russell Lowell, 1819-.= (Manual, p. 520.)
From his "Miscellaneous Poems," &c.