The State Rights Democrat

[From the Journal of Commerce.]

"NIL DESPERANDUM"

The following from one, who, amid the dearest earthly relations, has just tasted afresh the bitters of bereavement, to an old companion who has led a life separate from friends and kin, besides its especial and limited application, has a wealth of meaning for all kindred souls that desire to grow strong under the common lot of trial and suffering:

We sang it once in youth's exultant morning.

Our song of victory ere the strife began,

Before we knew the legend's solemn meaning—

"Never despair," the happy chorus rang.

Then hope's bright beam encircled every morrow,

And love—it was our life from day to day,

All sadder depths of loneliness and sorrow

Within the undiscovered future lay.

"We will be strong!" we said, and smiled in parting,

Our lives, we felt, must still together flow;

A bright, brief day of toiling and of triumph,

Then sweet communing in the evening glow.

Nil desperandum! watchword unforgotten

Through many years of parting and of pain,

Now, O beloved! with a deeper meaning,

And reverently we utter it again.

For we have watched the slow and mournful setting

Of fairest hopes that lit our morning sky.

The buds most precious on our summer garland

Storm winds have scattered, rudely rushing by.

To me the cup renewed of smiles and sorrow,

Or thankful joy, and grief that knows no care;

To thee—to watch alone—a lifetime lonely—

The bitterest pain thy spirit could endure,

No hand to clasp thine own when thou art weary,

No heart thy deepest truest self to know;

Better the love and loss so oft recurring,

Which fill my lot with gladness and with woe.

Yet, friend, despair not! for the sun descending

Begins to burn strong the western sky—

Let the old song which charmed our life's beginning

Our later hours illume and glorify.

Let us go down, unfaltering, to the river

Beyond whose waves our meeting place shall be—

There shall our watchword lose its solemn warning,

And a new song be given to thee and me!

F. L. M.