"How oft vain creatures falsely prate and sigh,
To see fair worlds of bliss, while all around
Such countless wonders at their footsteps lie,
Of which they nothing know, such as astound

The inward soul, like thee, Goatfell, with snow wreaths crown'd!” THIS description-like all the others which I have given of Nature—was written on the spot which it describes. My esteemed friend, Mr. John Burnside, and I being on a short tour through the Western Highlands of Scotland, we ascended this lofty mountain with no small difficulty, which is the highest peak in the rocky island of Arran, and about three thousand feet above the level of the sea. While there, the grandeur of the scene around compelled me to offer a description, and the preceding eight stanzas are the result.

I have thought it proper to add here a few remarks from Dr. Johnson, and also an extract from James II. Fennel's elegant "Popular View of Natural History,"

which has appeared from time to time in the "MIRROR" published by J. Limbird, Strand, London; a weekly periodical of eighteen years' standing, which for beauty of typography and originality of matter, &c. exceeds any periodical of the price-2d.

"To a poet," says Dr. Johnson, "nothing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful, and whatever is dreadful, must be familiar to his imagination: he must be conversant with all that is awfully vast, or elegantly little. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and the meteors of the sky, must all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety; for every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or religious truth; and he who knows most will have the most power of diversifying his scenes, and gratifying his reader with remote allusions and unexpected instruction."

From James H. Fennel.-" It is strange that the grand and beautiful objects of nature everywhere surrounding them, and the most obvious to their senses, have been so neglected by the poets. I say it is strange, because things which nature herself has made poetical, are surely those which are the most appropriate for the pen of the poet, certainly more so than the art of gardening, which Darwin and Mason have treated of in poetry, or agriculture, and agricultural implements, which are the subjects of Virgil's Georgics. The mere sight of the beauties of nature and of natural scenery, while it creates a feeling of wonder and delight, imparts to us a desire of giving utterance to our enraptured feelings; and if they be happily expressed, we

have poetry, though perhaps not verse.

If such things are

to be described in poetry, they must be seen, they must be enjoyed; for though scenery, and the sensations it might create, may be imagined, and described from the imagination, yet how poor and insignificant they are when compared to the real scenes of nature, and the real enjoyment of them!"

Note (b) - page 121.

"I see thee spread thy regal wings," &c.

The Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, afford a very delightful promenade; the grounds are most tastefully laid out, and the animals live in the luxury of fresh air. The collection contains choice specimens of eagles, vultures, falcons, owls, cranes, lions, tigers, leopards, bears, zebras, wolves, jackals, lamas, kangaroos, monkeys, Esquimaux dogs, &c., which are kept in aviaries, ponds, groves, huts, pits, &c. The gardens are open from eight in the morning till sun-set.

In these gardens, a solitary eagle, confined in a large and wide-sparred cage, forgetting the barriers round it, would, at short intervals, toss its head backward, stretch its broad wings, gaze wildly above, and springing upward, would dash itself with great force against the ceiling of its confine.

Note (c)-page 123.

DEATH OF AN EAGLE.-"The great age usually attained by this bird renders the death of one of the species rather a remarkable circumstance. On Friday last an eagle,

which had died on the preceding night at Blairquhan, was left at our office for a short time. It had been caught when very young in the policies of Blairquhan, having winged its way to that splendid demesne from the lofty crags overhanging in picturesque sublimity the first oozings from the loch whence originates our classic Doon. The eagle was upwards of thirteen years old, and the greater portion of that period it had been attached to the castle of Blairquhan, which it garrisoned in gallant style, never tolerating the domiciliary visits of any of its more tiny neighbours."-Ayr Observer.

Note (d)-page 127.

"So when I saw that flaming traveller roll,

Which Halley watched with philosophic soul."

This comet, first discovered by Halley, has created great excitement among the learned, as its eccentric motions cannot be perfectly followed through the heavens, and yet it returns every seventy-two years.

Note (e)-page 128.

"Even as the curious aloe opes its breast
A moment when a century has fled."

A plant originally brought from America, which only blossoms once in a hundred years. This plant, however, has had many strange stories told of it, something like those told about the chamelion, the colour of which I never yet saw change in any way.

There is, I humbly think, something yet to be discovered in flowers;—we have our connecting links both in animal and vegetable life, and may there not be--from what we already know of the periods which flowers live-certain measurements of time, from an hour to a century. This idea might repay the research of the botanist.

Botany appears, above all things, to show the unlimited power of God! It is wonderful in beauty, unending in variety, and almost worthy of worship.

Note (f)-page 129.

"Like thine own mystic self, whose radiant locks

Are shorn and fewer," &c.

It is allowed by all astronomers, that this strange comet appears to be growing smaller and less brilliant each time it appears.

Note (g)-page 137.

"I'm Neptune, the monarch of Ocean."

This song is the musical property of William Hawes, music-seller, &c., 355, Strand, London.

Note (h) - page 140.

"So waking from a dream, I gazed around,

And felt mine eye-balls sealed in gloom profound!"

The causes of blindness are to be referred chiefly to the diseases and injuries of the organ of vision.

When we