The Ladies' Garland

FOR THE GARLAND.
If the following lines are original, I beg pardon of the friend from whom they were received, for offering them for publication; but they breathe a feeling so strongly in unison with my own, that I cannot resist the inclination.

"There is a joy which I have known,
No power on earth destroys:
'Tis heavenly; yes! 'tis heaven alone.
Oh!--'tis the joy of joys!--
Its powers are mighty--mark! it heals
The deep wound of despair;
There's not a heart, tho' hard, but feels
Its sunbeams bright'ning there.
'Tis when we meet our dearest friends,
Whom long we've left to roam:
When there we meet, and each descends
With--"Welcome! welcome home!"
This is the joy which I have known,
No power on earth destroys;
'Tis heavenly;--yes! 'tis heaven alone--
Oh! 'tis the joy of joys!"

Who can read the above without having his heart glow with feeling, and rebound with the most ecstatic pleasure, in anticipating the meeting with friends from whom he has long been severed?
Although we may enjoy every blessing possible--in domestic comfort and happiness, the society of friends and the most dear connections---let them always be with us, we will tacitly acknowledge our happiness to be unalloyed, to admit of no increase--yet we do not actually feel it, till we are deprived of them--then it is that we call up in long review,
"the whole history of virtue and gentleness, and the thousand endearments lavished upon us by our friends unheeded;" the thousand comforts of life for which, while possessing, we forgot to be grateful.
After having our feelings thus awakened---then to have them restored to us----heart to meet heart...."then is the joy of joys."

W.

Perfect happiness is not the growth of a terrestrial soil; it buds in the gardens of the virtuous on earth, but blooms with unfading verdure only in the celestial regions.