Page:A happy half-century and other essays.djvu/232

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
216
THE ACCURSED ANNUAL

Pare and ethereal essence, fairest light,
Come hither, and before my watchful eyes
Disclose thy hidden nature, and unbind
Thy mystic, fine-attenuated parts;
That so, intently marking, I the source
May learn of colours, Nature's matchless gifts.

There are three pages of this poem, all in the same simple language, from which it is fair to infer that the child's annual, like its grown-up neighbour, was made to be bought, not read.