213 SELECT POETRY

1 praised the moon, whose softer eye
Smiled sweetly through the summer sky:
But moon and sun in answer said,

* Our days of light are numbered.”

O God! O good beyond compare,

If these thy meaner works are fair,

If these thy bounties gild the span

Of ruined earth and sinful man,

How glorious must those mansions be

Where thy redeemed ones dwell with thee.
Heber,

ST. PHILIP NERI! AND THE YOUTH.

St. Partie Nert, as old writers say,

Met a young stranger in Rome’s streets one day;
And, being ever courteously inclined

To give young folks a sober turn of mind,

He fell into discourse with him ; and thus

The dialogue they held comes down to us :—

St, P. N. Tell me what brings you, gentle youth,
to Rome ?

Youth. To make myself a scholar, Sir, I come.

St. P. N. And, when you are one, what do you
intend P

Youth. To be a priest, I hope, Sir, in the end.

St. P. N. Suppose it so—what have you next in
view P

Youth, That I may get to be a canon, too.

1 St. Philip Neri—an eminent Roman Catholic priest,
who flourished in the 16th century.