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fourth finger, if she accepts and wears it, > the ecclesiastical courts would compel to without any words, the parties are presumed solemnize matrimony." to have mutually consented to marry, and I
TO A RECORDING ANGEL. (AT THE REGISTRY OF DEEDS.)
By Prescott F. Hall. •" ■ "O you, with awe and reverence —
Although the hour grows late. And power is but masked pretense, These lines I dedicate.
Each old and dear attachment (Though fully since discharged). Each base and low preferment Of claims which should be barred;
To you, dread power, reviewing The deeds and deaths of men; Events long past reviewing. Nothing escapes your ken.
Each swift and sad foreclosure, Each sinner's lot redeemed From breaking his indenture : Of equal worth's esteemed.
Deeds of infants and old men. Executors and mortgagees, Of guardians and married women, Co-parceners and trustees;
O Angel! guardian angel Ad litem (for this strife), Show me the true evangel To bound the stream of life;
Lives of wanton and spendthrift. Of wretched souls who hoard; Fraud, duress, and makeshift, You equally record.
For life should all be ordered According to a plan Drawn and duly recorded In the conscience of a man.
In ink which fadeth never, On paper extra fine. An abstract true forever You enter line by line.
May all my deeds be valid, Acknowledged true and free; My fortunes far from squalid And from insolvency.
You know the hidden treasure Applied de bonis non. The composition measure Of bankrupts long since gone.
So when I go to slumber. To have my will approved, If only by a number. May I be known and loved.
You note with tender pity The struggling tenth submerged In yonder teeming city; You prove the widow's third;
And may your tender glances, My record looking o'er. Approve my slender chances Of reaching heaven's shore :
Give each the just share willed him, Or search the reason why; Escort the weary pilgrim His scheduled course to die.
A title clear on heaven's shore, Perpetual 1n time; Forgiven sin. and — even more — Forgiven for this rhyme.
