 | My Mind and its Thoughts, in Sketches, Fragments, and Essays |  |
127
TO A BEAUTIFUL INFANT.
Blest Infant! in whose rosy smiles we trace,The sire's creative thought, the lovely mother's grace,
O'er thee that sire's resplendent mind shall shine,
And all that mother's power to charm be thine;
While thou, reflecting back, to both shalt bring
Youth's fragrant bloom, in life's delicious spring:
Brilliant! and blest! may no dark cloud appear,
To veil the sunshine of the future year.
Kind as thy birth, may partial fortune be;
For all the life of genius breathes in thee.
The father of this fortunate child, Mr. Featherstone Hall, a man of science and profound learning, is said to be a lineal descendant of one of the Scotch heroes; of the great Sir Walter. The beautiful and accomplished mother, daughter to the late Judge Duane, of the S. J. C. of New York, was, and surely is, lovely in person, amiable in heart, and enlightened in understanding; nor shall it be forgotten, that at a period of ill health, and great mental distress, the present writer was indebted to this eloquent beauty for consolations of voice, and refinement of mind and manner, whose tender and unaffected charm has seldom been equalled, and can never be excelled.
| My Mind and its Thoughts, in Sketches, Fragments, and Essays | |