Earth's Moments Of Gloom.

"The heart knoweth its own bitterness"     The heart hath its moments of hopeless gloom,     As rayless as is the dark night of the tomb;     When the past has no spell, the future no ray,     To chase the sad cloud from the spirit away;     When earth, though in all her rich beauty arrayed,     Hath a gloom o'er her flowers - o'er her skies a dark shade,     And we turn from all pleasure with loathing away,     Too downcast, too spirit sick, even to pray!     Oh! where may the heart seek, in moments like this,     A whisper of hope, or a faint gleam of bliss?     When friendship seems naught but a cold, cheerless flame,     And love a still falser and emptier name;     When honors and wealth are a wearisome chain,     Each link interwoven with grief and with pain,     And each solace or joy that the spirit might crave     Is barren of comfort and dark as the grave.     Lift - lift up thy sinking heart, pilgrim of life!     A sure spell there is for thy spirit's sad strife;     'Tis not to be found in the well-springs of earth, -     Oh! no, 'tis of higher and holier birth.