The Atlantic Monthly, page 229 by Various Authors
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No voice descended from above, But Avis answered, "She is mine."
The task that dainty menials spurn The fair young girl has made her own; Her heart shall teach, her hand shall learn The toils, the duties yet unknown.
So Love and Death in lingering strife Stand face to face from day to day, Still battling for the spoil of Life While the slow seasons creep away.
Love conquers Death; the prize is won; See to her joyous bosom pressed The dusky daughter of the sun,-- The bronze against the marble breast!
Her task is done; no voice divine Has crowned her deed with saintly fame; No eye can see the aureole shine That rings her brow with heavenly flame.
Yet what has holy page more sweet, Or what had woman's love more fair When Mary clasped her Saviour's feet With flowing eyes and streaming hair?
Meek child of sorrow, walk unknown. The Angel of that earthly throng, And let thine image live alone To hallow this unstudied song!
LITERARY NOTICES.
Sir Walter Raleigh and his Time, with other Papers. By CHARLES KINGSLEY, Author of "Hypatia," "Two Years Ago," etc. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 12mo.
This collection of Mr. Kingsley's miscellaneous writings is marked by the same qualities of mind and temper which have given celebrity and influence to his novels. An earnest man, with strong convictions springing from a fervid philanthropy, fertile in thought, confident in statement, resolute in spirit, with many valuable ideas and not a few curious crotchets, and master of a style singularly bold, vivid, passionate, and fluent, he always stimulates the mind, if he does not always satisfy it. The defects of his intellect, especially in the treatment of historical questions, proceed from the warmth of his temperament. His impulses irritate his reason. Intellectually impatient with all facts and arguments which obstruct the full sweep of his theory, he has an offensive habit of escaping from objections he will not pause to answer, by the calling of names and t