And this improvement is, to turn
 The things which God has given
 To their best purpose, as we learn
 To make the place where we sojourn
 Homelike and more like Heaven.

On Bancroft Height.

On Bancroft height Aurora's face
 Shines brighter than a star,
 As stepping forth in dewy grace,
 The gates of day unbar;
 And lo! the firmament, the hills,
 And the vales that intervene—
 Creation's self with gladness thrills
 To greet the matin queen.
On Bancroft height the atmosphere
 Is but an endless waft
 Of life's elixir, pure and clear
 As mortal ever quaffed;
 And such the sweet salubrity
 Of air and altitude,
 Is banished many a malady
 And suffering subdued.
On Bancroft height the sunset glow
 When day departing dies
 Outrivals all that tourists know
 Of famed Italian skies;
 And happy dwellers round about
 Who view the scene aright
 In admiration grow devout
 And laud the Lord of light.
Round Bancroft height rich memories
 Commingle earth's affairs,
 Among the world's celebrities,
 Of him whose name it bears;
 The scholar-wise compatriot
 Who left to later men
 The grand achievements unforgot
 Of that historic pen.
Fair Bancroft height revisited
 When all the land is white,
 A halo crowns its noble head
 Impelling fresh delight;
 The daring wish in winter-time
 The blizzard to defy
 Those shining slippery slopes to climb
 Up nearer to the sky.
Though Boreas abrade the cheek
 With buffetings of snow,
 He gives a vigor that the weak
 And languid never know;
 And with rejuvenescent thrill,
 Like children everywhere,
 Bestirs the rhapsody, the will
 To make a snow-man there.
On Bancroft height and Bancroft tower
 Such vistas charm the eye
 'Twere life's consummate, glorious hour
 But to behold—and die;
 Yet in the sparkle and the glow
 Is earth so very fair
 The spirit lingers, loath to go,
 And dreams of heaven—up there.

A Reformer.

When I was young, my heart elate
 With ardent notions warm,
 I thirsted to inaugurate
 A spirit of reform;
 The universe was all awry,
 Philosophy despite,
 And mundane things disjointed I
 Was bound to set aright.
My mind conceived a million plans,
 For Hope was brave and strong,
 But dared not with unaided hands
 Combat a giant wrong;
 So with caress I sought to coax
 Those who had humored me
 In infancy—the dear old folks—
 And gain their sympathy.
But quarreling with extant laws
 They would have deemed a shame
 Who clung to error, just because
 Their fathers did the same.
 I sought in Pleasure's gilded halls,
 Where grace and beauty stirred
 At revelry's impetuous calls,
 To make my projects heard.
Then turned to stately palaces
 Of luxury and ease,
 Where wealth's absorbing object was
 The master's whim to please;
 And spoke of evils unredressed,
 Of danger yet to be—
 They only answered, like the rest:
 "But what is that to me?"
And even pious devotées
 Whom sacred walls immure
 Condemned me (as by feeble praise)—
 What more could I endure?
 Down by the stream, so pure and clear
 That sunbeams paused to drink,
 In loneliness and grief sincere
 I pressed its grassy brink.
Thick darkness seemed to veil the day;
 Beyond a realm of tears
 Utopia's land of promise lay;
 And not till later years
 I learned this lesson—that to win
 Results from labor sure,
 "Reformers" always must begin
 Among the lowly poor.
For they whose lot privation is
 And whose delights are few,
 Whose aggregate of miseries
 Is want of something new,
 The measure of whose happiness
 Is but an empty cup,
 For every novelty will press
 Alert to fill it up.

Transcriber's Notes:
Page 27: Changed Galiee to Galilee (Printer's Error)
Page 47: Indented 1st stanza to match others
Page 173: Changed prarie to prairie (Printer's Error)