WE are careful that they that will read may have delight, and that they that are desirous to commit to memory might have ease, and that all into whose hands it comes might have profit.

2 MACCABEES, iii. 25.

AN LIERA

25 JAN 04

PREFACE.

HIS little book, as its title implies, is arranged on a different plan to any of

the numerous Birthday Books of all kinds now in circulation, as it is not intended so much for an ordinary autograph book as for one of more personal entries. The three great events of life, viz. Birth, Marriage, and Death, are noticed each day by suitable passages, either in poetry or prose, from various authors.

The quotations for the Birthday portions refer principally to our path through life, with a suitable maxim for guidance; those for Marriage refer to Union in Life, and are both grave and gay, and so may be pleasing to all; while those for the third and more serious division refer to the loss of friends and eternal reunion. These last quotations have been selected with a view to express all that is most hopeful and comforting on this solemn subject.

Leave for the use of the different quotations has been obtained wherever it was procurable, and the permission kindly granted by the different authors and publishers has been, and is now again, gratefully acknowledged; while it is hoped that any writers who may see their words quoted without their leave having been obtained will kindly pardon the unintentional omission on reading this explanation.

All the extracts taken from the following works have been inserted by the kind permission of Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., The Changed Cross, &c.; Messrs. Macmillan, The Saint's Tragedy (Kingsley); Sir Geo. Grove, Extracts from Dean Stanley's Works; Chapman and Hall (Charles Dickens and Carlyle). M. F. P. D.

April 1883.

JANUARY.

GARNET: CONSTANCY.

HUMAN LIFE.

THE Lark has sung his carol in the sky;
The Bees have hummed their noontide lullaby;
Still in the vale the village bells ring round,
Still in Llewellyn's Hall the jests resound;
For now the caudle-cup is circling there,
Now glad at heart the gossips breathe their prayer,
And crowding, stop the cradle to admire
The Babe, the sleeping image of his sire.

And soon again shall music swell the breeze-
Soon, issuing forth, shall glitter through the trees
Vestures of nuptial white; and hymns be sung,
And violets scattered round; and old and young,
In every cottage porch with garlands green,
Stand still to gaze, and, gazing, bless the scene;
While, her dark eyes declining, by his side
Moves in her virgin-veil the gentle Bride.

And once, alas! nor in a distant hour,
Another voice shall come from yonder tower;
When in dim chambers long black weeds are seen,
And weepings heard, where only joy has been ;
When by his children borne, and from his door
Slowly departing to return no more,

He rests in holy earth with them that went before.
SAMUEL ROGERS, 1762.

A solemn yet a joyful thing is life,
Which, being full of duties, is for this
Of gladness full, and full of lofty hopes.

R. C. TRENCH.

Many happy New Years, unbroken friendships, great accumulation of cheerful recollections, affection on Earth, and Heaven at last for all of us.

CHARLES DICKENS.

Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.

For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer till death us do part.

English Liturgy.

They are not lost whom we love in Him whom we cannot lose.

January 2.

S. AUGUSTINE.

Nothing drives out darkness so much as light; nothing overcomes evil so much as good; no weapon of controversy, or argument, or opposition, is so effectual, as when our adversary sees that we see what there is in him that is good, and just, and right, and true.

DEAN STANLEY.

And as time went by,

He daily joined our hearts more perfectly,
And made us one.

Elijah and other Poems: B. M.

All His saints are with us; shall they forget us because they are made perfect?

DR. MANNING.