Uncertainty.

Uncertain as a fitful dream Are fortune , fame and power , AVhose holloAV honours flaunt and gleam And fade each passing hour ; Uncertain every human scheme , But thou , immortal flower , Shalt bloom throughout eternity !

The soul knows no uncertainty , Tho' rude Time ' s tempests loAver . When Time itself its race hath run , And o ' er our earth shall fall No more the sheen of star or sun , —

Blind ruin spreads its pall—Thou , seraph sold , lov'd , lingering one , Shalt spurn life ' s hated thrall ; Exultant and eternally Triumphant o'er uncertainty , Where spirit voices call . Voice of Masonry , A meriea

Review.

Review .

( Continued from page 350 J The Death of JEgeus , and other Poems . By W . H . A . Emra . London : Samuel Tinsely . The principal poem is a dramatic one ; the persons represented being . ZEgeus

, King of Athens ; a merchant , a fisherman , a messenger from Theseus ; Theseus , son of iEgeus ; and the chorus of Athenian old men . The Avhole scenery is laid upon and near to Mount Sunium ; and Mr . Emra has succeeded in giving freshness to

an old-world story , and is evidently a man of fine classical tastes . The piece opens with the chorus before the tent of yEgeus , on the summit of the Attican promontory : —

" Rise , young dayshine , over the sea , And the glimmering earth , Rouse the Avhite birds on the soaring cliff , Till they shriek in their mirth ; And bring fresh life to the waking Avorld With thy purple birth . "

The dream of iEgeus , as told by himself to the chorus , is poAverfully written : — " Now listen to the things I dream'd , Just ere your voices Avoke me . Round me raged The storm ' s full fury ; yet me thought I stood Onthiswind-lash'dandpathlesspreci p ice ,

Unheeding of the rain Avhich dash'd around , Unheeding of the fury of the blast , Unheeding of all things except the line Of yon far-off horizon , kindled , up Into a long Avhite streak of living fire Each fitful moment . Suddenly , a p mse , ¦

A hush ; the wild storm slept , and all was dark , And then there came again a gust of Avind That sent a shivering through my aged limbs

, And dash'd me to the cliff . There , Avhile I clung With clench'd hands grasping at the rooted tufts , A forked flash lit up the black abyss ; And as it play'd upon the distant wave ,

I saw—ye gods ! do I not speak the truth ?—I saw the doom-ship on that distant Avave , Black-sail'd , death-freighted , — -and beside my ear , With heaven ' s loud-crashing thunders intermixt ,

Some voice Avas hissing , — ' Fool , that lov ' st a son , He was , for whom thou Avatchest . Death is kind To thee ; thou shalt not live to feed thy Avoe

With all the store of past-day memories , And thoughts of bold Avords aud of bolder deeds . But yet to join him in the Hades gloom , To link love-arms together , and to crown His shadoAvy broAvs with tAvisted asphodel , And hear a faint voice call thee once

again " Oh , father , father ! " that alone is thine ! Go , fool , and join him . ' Then me . thought a grasp Was on me—unresisting , forward bent , Prone o ' er the summit of the rock I fell ; And as I fellonce more the flashes lit

, The wild cliff , and the Avild birds shriek'd with fear To see me falling , and I shriek'd and woke . "

The scene between the fisherman and the chorus is a fine one : — " FISHERMAN . My news is for the king , Not for such dotard ears as yours to hear . CHORUS . Fine are thy words ; but we are here , his guards . BB