Danbury Times

Poetry.

AN ENIGMA.

A subscriber has handed us the following enigma; will any of our readers furnish a solution of it?

It was whispered in heaven and muttered in hell,
And echo caught softly the sound as it fell;
In the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest,
And the depths of the ocean its presence confest;
It is seen in the lightning and heard in the thunder,
It will be found in the spheres when driven asunder
It was given to man with his earliest breath,
It assists at his birth, and attends him in death;
Presides o'er his happiness, honor, and health,
Is the prop of his house and the end of his wealth;
It begins every hope, every wish it must bound,
And though unassuming with monarchs is crowned;
In the heaps of the miser it is hoarded with care,
But is sure to be lost in the prodigal heir:
Without it the soldier or sailor may roam,
But wo to the wretch who expels it from home;
In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found
Nor e'er in the whirlwind of passion be drowned;
It softens the heart, and though deaf the ear,
It will make it acute, and instantly hear;
But in shades let it rest, like an elegant flower—
O, breathe on it softly, it dies in an hour.