Page:Home; or, The unlost paradise (IA homeorunlostpara00palm).pdf/78

Sports such as best befit each sex and age
By nature's steady laws and inborn taste;
With others that together shared shall best
Give fresh young hearts delight, and make them bound
All joyously with sympathetic bliss.

  Nor, O ye parents, let your hearts grow old;
As oft your breasts have throbbed with childish glee
And youthful ardors, yet remembered well;
Have felt the restlessness of keen desire
That seemed a quenchless thirst; still let them hold
Kind fellowship with new-born life and joy.
Be ye with childhood, children—youth, with youth;
Nor deem that aught of dignity, or grace,
Is lost by nursery raptures, heard afar
In echoing laughs and shouts from lisping tongues;
Scorn not to tell or hear the thrice-told tales
Of Fairies, Giants, and all monsters dire,
And chant quaint melodies, tradition's trust,
Safe handed down through generations dead!
Fail not when merry girlhood courts thy smile