My Thoughts To-Night.

I sit by the fire musing,
    With sad and downcast eye,
And my laden breast gives utt'rance
    To many a weary sigh;
Hushed is each worldly feeling,
    Dimmed is each day-dream bright -
O heavy heart, can'st tell me
    Why I'm so sad to-night?

'Tis not that I mourn the freshness
    Of youth fore'er gone by -
Its life with pulse high springing,
    Its cloudless, radiant eye -
Finding bliss in every sunbeam,
    Delight in every part,
Well springs of purest pleasure
    In its high ardent heart.

Nor yet is it for those dear ones
    Who've passed from earth away
That I grieve - in spirit kneeling
    Above their beds of clay;
O, no! while my glance upraising
    To yon calm shining sky,
My pale lips, quivering, murmur,
    "They are happier than I!"

But, alas! my spirit mourns
    As, weary, it looks back -
Finding naught of good or holy
    On life's past barren track -
I mourn for the countless errors
    That on mem'ry's page crowd on,
And sorrow for lost chances
    Of good I might have done.

But, courage! I must arouse me,
    The day is not yet o'er,
And I still may make atonement
    Ere leaving life's last shore:
One act of meek oblation,
    A tear of penance bright,
Will be counted as rare treasures
    In heaven's loving sight.