Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LAYS AND LYRICS BEAUTIFUL WORLD Beautiful world! Though bigots condemn thee, My tongue finds no words For the graces that gem thee! Beaming with sunny light, Bountiful ever, Streaming with gay delight, Full as a river ! Bright world ! brave world ! Let cavillers blame thee ! I bless thee, and bend To the God who did frame thee! Beautiful world! Bursting around me, Manifold, million-hued Wonders confound me! From earth, sea, and starry sky, Meadow and mountain, Eagerly gushes Life's magical fountain. Bright world ! brave world ! Though witlings may blame tltee, Wonderful excellence Only could frame thee ! The bird in the greenwood His sweet hymn is trolling, The fish in blue ocean Is spouting and rolling ! Light things on airy wing Wild dances weaving, Clods with new life in spring Swelling and heaving! Thou quick-teeming world, Though scoffers may blame thee, I wonder, and worship The God who could frame thee ! Beautiful world! What poesy measures Thy strong-flooding passions, Thy light-trooping pleasures ? Mustering, marshalling, Striving and straining, Conquering, triumphing, Ruling and reigning! Thou bright-armied world! So strong, who can tame thee ? Wonderful power of God Only could frame thee ! Beautiful world! While godlike I deem thee, No cold wit shall move me With bile to blaspheme thee ! I have lived in thy light, And, when Fate ends my story, May I leave on death's cloud The bright trail of life's glory ! Wondrous old world ! No ages shall shame thee ! Ever bright with new light From the God who did frame thee! THE SONG OF THE HIGHLAND RIVER Dew-fed am I With drops from the sky, Where the white cloud rests on the old grey hill ; Slowly I creep Down the p...