THE ANNIVERSARY. Of the various subjects which have employed the thoughts and have been adorned by the pens of the moralist and the poet, few have been more frequently or more successfully treated than the subject of Time. The grand division of Time into the past, the present, and the future, is indeed of a character far too impressive for discussion in a page chiefly dedicated to amusement, and we leave it willingly to the philosopher and the divine. But the recurrence with the year, of the seasons, and the days of our joys and our sorrows— the theme of many a letter and many a lay—is so interwoven with our feelings that no one can upon reflection be surprised at the popular preference so manifestly shown for those Literary Works so happily united with the Arts and adapted to almost every circumstance of remembrance or presentation. All mankind have their chosen moments, which, like the green hills touched first by the ascending sun, glow brighter than the rest of the landscape. On these they love to think and to brood, and to recall images of departed joy and of early gladness. The man, thoughtful and sedate, tottering with years and reposing in hope, looks back with a glistening eye on one golden hour of pure enjoyment which influenced his life, and he holds ITS ANNIVERSARY in tranquil and devout joy. The matron, proud of the increasing number of her descendants, and old in years yet young in heart, when her marriage day returns, puts on her bridal jewels, clasps her husband's picture to her desolate bosom, and sees him in imagination when he bore her to the altar from the wishes of many a rival. Her flushed cheek and brightened eye tell you that she is holding her BRIDAL ANNIVERSARY. The Youth carried by fortune to a foreign shore, when the hour of separation from his native land returns, stands and looks on one clear and stedfast star, and thinks on his mother and on the time when he left her bosom to work for her support and fulfil his vow to his dying father. He holds the ANNIVERSARY OF FILIAL AFFECTION. The wife sits in the domestic solitude of her chamber, or in the society of her husband, and lives over and over again one delicious hour, in which her heart was rewarded for its deep affection, and holds THE ANNIVERSARY OF HER WELL-PLACED LOVE. The mother smiles amongst her children-sees them in imagination grow up in stature and in beauty, and thinks on the happy hour when they first came to her bosom, and holds THE ANNIVERSARY OF MATERNAL LOVE. Behold!—if our glance may be permitted to invade the palace of a monarch-behold the King, successful in a just war, and prosperous in an honourable peace. The hour is returned which gave him to his country, and he holds ITS ANNIVERSARY surrounded by the ambassadors of every land and of every tongue. Or see that stately figure—a man whose eye looks through you, and whose mind seems made up for all emergencies; to him the day has returned on which he saved his country on a perilous and well fought field. HIS ANNIVERSARY will never be forgotten. But why proceed with particularizing? The three nations hold their ANNIVERSARIES individually and collectively; and, as a token to mark their remembrances, we beg to lay a volume annually before them, which for that purpose we have named THE ANNIVERSARY. ON THE PSYCHE OF SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE. FAIR Psyche, thou who wert renowned With looks too gently meek for mirth, Thanks, Lawrence, thanks! thy skill hath wrought O wondrous art! which thus redeems Itself in beauty to the lips: Which calls from days far gone and dim, Their loveliness to paint and limn. |