And by all the world forsaken,

Sees He, how, with zealous care, At the ruthless nail of iron

A little bird is striving there.

Stained with blood and never tiring,
With its beak it doth not cease,
From the cross 'twould free the Saviour,
Its Creator's Son release.

And the Saviour speaks in mildness:
"Blest be thou of all the good!
Bear, as token of this moment,
Marks of blood and holy rood!"

And that bird is called the crossbill;
Covered all with blood so clear;—
In the groves of pine it singeth
Songs, like legends, strange to hear.

THE SEA HATH ITS PEARLS.

FROM THE GERMAN OF HEINRICH HEINE.

THE sea hath its pearls,

The heaven hath its stars;

But my heart, my heart,

My heart hath its love.

Great are the sea and the heaven;
Yet greater is my heart,-
And fairer than pearls and stars
Flashes and beams my love.

Thou little, youthful maiden,

Come unto my great heart;

My heart, and the sea, and the heaven Are melting away with love!

POETIC APHORISMS.

FROM THE "SINNGEDICHTE" OF FRIEDRICH VON LOGAU.

(Seventeenth Century.)

MONEY.

WHEREUNTO is money good?

Who has it not wants hardihood,—

Who has it has much trouble and care,
Who once has had it has despair.

THE BEST MEDICINES.

Joy and Temperance and Repose
Slam the door on the doctor's nose.

SIN.

Man-like is it to fall into sin,
Fiend-like is it to dwell therein;
Christ-like is it for sin to grieve;
God-like is it all sin to leave.

POVERTY AND BLINDNESS.

A blind man is a poor man, and blind a poor man is ; For the former seeth no man, and the latter no man

sees.

LAW OF LIFE.

Live I, so live I,
To my Lord heartily,

To my Prince faithfully,
To my Neighbour honestly,
Die I, so die I.

CREEDS.

Lutheran, Popish, Calvinistic, all these creeds and doctrines three

Extant are; but still the doubt is, where Christianity may be.

THE RESTLESS HEART.

A millstone and the human heart are driven ever round;

If they have nothing else to grind, they must themselves be ground

CHRISTIAN LOVE.

Whilom Love was like a fire, and warmth and comfort it bespoke ;

But, alas! it now is quenched, and only bites us, like the smoke.

ART AND TACT.

Intelligence and courtesy not always are combined; Often in a wooden house a golden room we find.

RETRIBUTION.

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.

TRUTH.

When by night the frogs are croaking, kindle but a torch's fire,

Ha! how soon they all are silent! Thus truth silences the liar.