Page:Sarah Sheppard - L. E. L.pdf/25

 should our poet's pages be condemned when she makes this love her theme—when she tells us, with equal truth and beauty, how "affection can resign Its own best happiness for one dear sake;  ***** And doth prefer another to itself: Unchangeable and generous, what like Love Can melt away the dross of worldliness,— Can elevate, refine, and make the heart Of that pure gold which is the fitting shrine For fire, as sacred as e'er came from heaven?" History of the Lyre.

—when she represents love as

"Made of every fine emotion, Of generous impulses and noble thoughts;— It looketh to the stars, and dreams of heaven; It nestles 'mid the flowers, and sweetens earth : Love is aspiring, yet is humble too; It doth exalt another o'er itself, With sweet heart-homage which delights to raise Its object?"

—or, again, when we are eloquently assured that

There is in life no blessing like affection; It soothes, it hallows, elevates, subdues, And bringeth down to earth its native heaven: It sits beside the cradle patient hours, Whose sole contentment is to watch and love: It bendeth o'er the death-bed, and conceals Its own despair with words of faith and hope: Life has nought else that may supply its place; Void is ambition, cold is vanity, And wealth an empty glitter without love?" Ethel Churchill, vol. i. Besides, surely that must be a worthy subject of consideration which is not only a source of direct individual influence, but also of general benefit and happiness! It is the affection on which all our other emotions may be said indirectly to depend,