Viewing page 269 of 309

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

JULIET H. CAMPBELL.

MISS Lewis, now Mrs. Campbell, was born in the year 1823, at Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pa.; but soon after her birth, her parents removed to Towanda, Bradford County, in which romantic spot the happiest period of her childhood was spent. Here she revelled amidst the choicest beauties of nature; and here, inspired by the joyous harmony of woods, and streams, and valleys, she first attempted to make music of her thoughts. Her father, the Hon. Ellis Lewis,—a learned lawyer and judge, a man of fine taste and superior talent,—was well fitted for the task he never wearied in, of guarding and guiding the rich developments of his daughter's mind and heart. Although she was sent to seminary at Bethlehem, and afterwards to a French boarding-school at Philadelphia, she was educated (in the true sense of that term) by the society and conversation of her father. She wrote much when only fourteen; and everything that has been published under her maiden name, was written during the space of three years from that early age. When yet a girl, she was married to Mr. Campbell, a member of the bar, in Pottsville, where they now reside; and so happy and busy is she in her domestic life, as to have very little time for the use of her pen. May this happiness be as lasting as her life! And yet, so great is the beauty and freshness of her poetic talent, as to compel us to express the hope that they may not be suffered to wither and die for want of proper attention.

DREAMS.

MANY, oh! man, are the wild dreams beguiling
The spirit of its restlessness, and ever
Thou rushest onward, some new prize pursuing,
Like the mad waves of a relentless river.
First Love, the morning sun of thy experience,
Enchants thy path with glories and with bliss:
Oh! linger, for the shadowy hereafter
Hath nought to offer that can equal this!

                                          (484)


JULIET H. CAMPBELL.          485

Linger, and revel in thy first young dreaming,
The holiest that can thrill thy yearning heart,
Husband the precious moments, the brief feeling
Of youthful ecstasy will soon depart.
Seek not to win too soon that which thou lovest,
When winning will but break the magic spell;
Love on, but seek not, strive not,—the attainment
Will cloy thy fickle heart, thy dream dispel.

Vain is the warming! Death as soon will listen
To the beseechings of his stricken prey;
Or Time will tarry when the cowering nations
Shrink from their desolating destiny!
Thou art as fierce as fate in thy pursuing;
Thou art impetious as the flight of Time;
And dist thou love a star, thy mad presuming
Would pluck it from high heaven, and dim its shine.

And now Ambition, like a radiant angel,
Attracts thy vision, and enchains thy thought;
Ambition is thy god, and thou art laying
Thy all before insatiate Juggernaut;
The health, the strength, which crown'd thy youth with glory,
The friends who loved thee in thy early day,
The clinging love which once thy bosom cherish'd;—
All these are cast, like worthless weeds, away.

Take now the prize for which thou'st madly barter'd,
Thy first, best treasure; and in lonely grief
Enjoy Fame's emptiness, and broken-hearted,
Feed on the poison of my laurel leaf;
Then, sated, turn in bitter disappointment
From the applause of flattery's fawning troop,
And curse, within thy cheated heart's recesses,
Ambition's demon, and thyself his dupe!

41*

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-30 07:49:09 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-30 08:21:21 PA; s/b Pa.; and parents moved s/b parents removed and COunty s/b County and thoughts, s/b thoughts. and thee can s/b that can