There lie the chambers of guilty delight, There walk the spectres of guilty fear, And soft low voices that float through the night Are whispering sin in the helpless ear.
Dear maids, in thy girlhood's opening flower, Scarce weaned from the love of childish play! The tears on whose cheeks are but the shower That freshens the early blooms of May!
Thine eyes are closed, and over thy brow Pass thoughtful shadows and joyous gleams, And I know, by the moving lips, that now Thy spirit strays in the Land of Dreams.
Light-hearted maiden, oh, heed thy feet! Oh keep where that beam of Paradise falls; And only wander where thou may'st meet The blessed ones from its shining walls.
So shalt thou come from the Land of Dreams, With love and peace, to this world of strife; And the light that over that border streams Shall lie on the path of thy daily life.
When the young Morning, like a new-drest bride, With pearls of dew fresh glistening in her hair, Walks through the east in early summer-tide. Her robe loose floating on the scented air, The laughing hours assembled at her side Or circling round her--then is she less fair Than, in my heart, the picture, sweet and rare, Thy presence left.--My books go unperused, Old friends are shunned, and time flies by unused, While I, grown idle, nothing do but dream; Gazing upon that picture till I seem _Thyself_, again, before my eyes to see, And not the ideal show: so that to me The semblance turns to sweet reality.
[Illustration _Engraved by T. S. WELCH. FOR GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE_ _FROM AN ORIGINAL DAGUERREOTYPE_]
_Entered according to act of Congress in the Year 1847 by G.R. Graham in the Clerks Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of P^a._
In memoirs of individuals of distinction it is usual to look back to their ancestry. The feeling is universal which prompts us to learn something of even an ordinary acquaintance in whom interest is felt. It will indulge, therefore, only a necessary and proper curiosity to introduce the subject of this notice by a short account of a family whose striking traits survive in him so remarkably. General Butler's grandfather, Thomas Butler, was born 6th April, 1720, in Kilkenny, Ireland. He married there in 1742. Three of his five sons who attained manhood, Richard, William and Thomas, were born abroad. Pierce, the father of General William O. Butler, and Edward, the youngest son, were born in Pennsylvania. It is remarkable that all these men, and all their immediate male descendants, with a single exception, (who was a judge,) were engaged in the military service of this country.