Though none admire and lay to heart How good and beautiful thou art, Thy flow'rets bloom, thy waters run, And the free birds chaunt thy benison.

What rapture, when the closing door Shuts out the world and gives release, And on her quivering nerves once more Descends the benison of peace!

The trees along Mount Vernon Street rustled their leaves with a shudder, as he passed under them; they dropped no benison upon a face which even the golden morning could not lighten.

Thus favored, while my sun of life Moves calmly toward a cloudless west, I crave no more the New World's strife And ceaseless turmoil of unrest; Content, within my garden walls, To let the Present's uproar cease, While on my tranquil spirit falls The Past's sweet benison of peace.

" Arm'd as I was, I sought him, and my axe Has given his bath a bloody benison. WERNI.

He granted them his benison, and commended them to God.

She glances not; she passes on; Her steely footfall quicker rings; She guesses not the benison Which follows her on noiseless wings.

Such espousals, too, Are authorised on earth, and many daughters Of royal saints thus wedded to their lords Have still received their father's benison.