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A Hand-Mirror.

A HAND-MIRROR.

HOLD it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is it?  
 Is it you?)
Outside fair costume—within ashes and filth, No more a flashing eye—no more a sonorous voice or  
 springy step;
Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step, A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, vene- 
 realee's flesh,
Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and can- 
 kerous,
Joints rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination, Blood circulating dark and poisonous streams, Words babble, hearing and touch callous, No brain, no heart left—no magnetism of sex; Such, from one look in this looking-glass ere you go  
 hence,
Such a result so soon—and from such a beginning!
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