16
SHIRLEY.
recollect that he had promised to pay Wynne, the magistrate, a visit that evening. Low spirits and gloomy thoughts were very much his aversion: when they attacked him he usually found means to make them march in double-quick time. The hymn followed him faintly as he crossed the fields: he hastened his customary sharp pace, that he might get beyond its reach.
"Thy word commands our flesh to dust,—
'Return, ye sons of men;'
All nations rose from earth at first,
And turn to earth again.
"A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an ev'ning gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.
"Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
"Like flowery fields, the nations stand,
Fresh in the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower's hand
Lie withering ere 't is night.
"Our God, our help in ages past,—
Our hope for years to come;
Be thou our guard while troubles last,—
O Father, be our home!"
"Now sing a song—a Scottish song," suggested Caroline, when the hymn was over,—"'Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon.'"
Again Mrs. Pryor obeyed, or essayed to obey. At