Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. GIFT OF A.F. MORRISON [NOTE. These selections from the poems of MR. LONGFELLOW are made by the Publishers to supply a demand for all his shorter pieces of a domestic character in a single inexpensive volume of a portable shape.] UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY, DEDICATION. FORNIA A S one who, walking in the twilight gloom, Hears round about him voices as it darkens, And seeing not the forms from which they come, Pauses from time to time, and turns and hearkens, So walking here in twilight, O my friends! I hear your voices, softened by the distance, If any thought of mine, or sung or told, Thanks for the sympathies that ye have shown! That teaches me, when seeming most alone, Kind messages, that pass from land to land; Kind letters, that betray the heart's deep history, In which we feel the pressure of a hand, One touch of fire, and all the rest is mystery! The pleasant books, that silently among Our household treasures take familiar places, And are to us as if a living tongue Spake from the printed leaves or pictured faces! Perhaps on earth I never shall behold, With eye of sense, your outward form and semblance; Therefore to me ye never will grow old, But live forever young in my remembrance. Never grow old, nor change, nor pass away! Not chance of birth or place has made us friends, With the same hopes, and fears, and aspirations. Therefore I hope to join your seaside walk, The grand, majestic symphonies of ocean. Therefore I hope, as no unwelcome guest, At your warm fireside, when the lamps are lighted, |