POETRY.
THE LATE MRS. NASSAU SENIOR'S WORK.
[" Her unreserved self-devotion to the care of all to whom she could minister was inspired by an absolutely single-minded longing for their good, and accompanied by gifts of winning and confiding sweetness, broad, simple human sympathy, and remarkable uprightness and tenacity of mind, which actually reduced the difficulties and annoyances of her work to a minimum, and enabled her to pass through those which re- mained with a certain unconscious victory."—" C. E. S.," ASPecta tor, April. 7, 1877.]
IN MEMORIAM.
TRUE woman, gentle and yet strong To strive with misery and wrong,—
Thy life was like a rhythmic song 'Mid aimless voices.
The poet whose fine ear has caught The music with which life is fraught, Through all discordant deed and thought, Is loved and honoured.
He does but listen, and translate For us who stand outside the gate The harmonies for which we wait, And yet discern not.
But thou, with patient, loving care, Didst add a lost note here and there To the world's symphony, and dare To make it sweeter.
His the ecstatic rapture, thine The dull routine of toil divine, Where sympathy and skill combine In lowly labour.
We, who have not yet learned to play The tune God sets us day by day, Look up with wondering eyes, and say, "What was thy secret?"
A. MATHESON
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