Counsel with strength, and industry with art,
In union meet conjoined, with me reside:
My dictates arm, instruct, and mend the heart—
The surest policy, the wisest guide.

With me true friendship dwells: she deigns to bind
Those generous souls alone whom I before have joined."

Her words breathe fire celestial, and impart
New vigour to his soul, that sudden caught
The generous flame: with great intent his heart
Swells full, and labours with exalted thought:
The mist of error from his eyes dispelled,

Through all her fraudful arts, in clearest light,
Sloth in her native form he now beheld ;

Unveiled she stood confessed before his sight: False Siren! all her vaunted charms, that shone So fresh erewhile and fair, now withered, pale, and gone.

THE

DROWNING FLY.

In yonder vase behold a drowning fly!
Its little feet how vainly does it ply!
Its cries I understand not, yet it cries,
And tender hearts can feel its agonies.
Poor helpless victim! and will no one save,
Will no one snatch thee from the threatening grave?
Is there no friendly hand, no helper nigh?
And must thou, little struggler, must thou die ?—
Thou shalt not! while this hand can set thee free
Thou shalt not die-this hand shall rescue thee;
My finger's tip shall prove a friendly shore :-
There, trembler, all thy dangers now are o'er :
Wipe thy wet wings and banish all thy fear;
Go join thy buzzing brothers in the air.
Away it flies-resumes its harmless play,
And sweetly gambols in the golden ray.

F

Smile not, spectators, at this humble deed!
For you, perhaps, a nobler task 's decreed—
A young and sinking family to save,

To raise the infant from destruction's wave :
To you for help the victims lift their eyes ;-
Oh! hear, for pity's sake, their plaintive cries!
Ere long, unless some guardian interpose,
O'er their devoted heads the flood may close.

ANCIENT MODES OF BURIAL.

Among all nations with which we are as yet acquainted, some method has been adopted to show respect to the ashes of the deceased. The most simple and natural kind of sepulchral monument, and therefore the most ancient and universal, consists in a barrow or mound of earth, or a cairn or heap of stones, raised over the remains of the dead. Of such monuments mention is made in the Book of Joshua, and in the poems of Homer, Virgil, and Horace; and instances of these occur in every part of this kingdom. These earthen monuments of mortality have received various names, according to their form.

In recording the funeral obsequies of Patroclus, ordered by Achilles, the poet says:

The Greeks obey; where yet the embers glow,
Wide o'er the pile the sable wine they throw,
And deep subsides the ashy heap below.

Next the white bones his sad companions place,
With tears, collected in the golden vase :
The sacred relics to the tent they bore,
The urn a veil of linen covered o'er.

That done, they bid the sepulchre aspire,

And cast the deep foundations round the pyre:
High in the midst they heap the swelling bed
Of rising earth, memorial of the dead.

Silbury Hill is the largest mound of the kind in England; it is about a mile south of Abury, in Wiltshire. The next in size is Marlborough Mount, in the garden of an inn at Marlborough. "No history gives us any account of this hill; the

tradition only is, that King Sil, or Zel, as the country-folk pronounce it, was buried here on horseback, and that the hill was raised while a posset of milk was seething." Its name, however, seems to have signified the great hill. The diameter of Silbury Hill at top is 105 feet, at bottom it is somewhat more than 500 feet; it stands upon as much ground as Stonehenge, and is carried up to the perpendicular height of 170 feet, its solid contents amounting to 13,558,809 cubic feet. It covers a surface equal to five acres and thirty-four perches. It is impossible, at this remote period, to ascertain by whom, cr for what precise purpose, this enormous mound of earth was raised; but from its proximity to the celebrated Druidical temple at Abury, it is supposed to have had some reference to the idolatrous worship of the Druids, and, perhaps, to contain the bones of some celebrated character.

According to Sir Richard Colt Hoare, who has investigated this subject with great skill and care, we may divide tombs of this description into-first, the long barrow, which is the largest of all, and generally of a long oval form; the circular barrow, shaped like an inverted bell, a bowl, &c.; and the Druid barrow, which is large and circular, seldom of any great elevation, and usually surrounded by a ditch and embankment. Within the area of this embankment are generally found small conical heaps of earth, which in some instances have contained small articles, such as cups, lance heads, amber, jet, and glass beads. Although these have had the name of Druid barrows given to them, Sir Richard Hoare is inclined to believe that they were not formed by the Druids, but that they were intended as burial places for the female portion of the British tribes.

Sometimes two of these barrows are enclosed in one circle; they are then supposed to have been the tombs of two friends or near relations.

The manner in which the ancient Britons buried their dead varied at different periods. The author we have already noticed says, "I am of opinion that the method of burying

the body entire, with the legs gathered up, was the most ancient; that the custom of burning the dead succeeded, and continued along with the former; and that the mode of burying the body entire, and extended at full length, was of the latest adoption."

The most primitive method of disposing of the ashes of the dead was by depositing them on the floor of the barrow, or in a little hollow cut in the native chalk. The funeral urn, in which the ashes of the dead were secured, was the refinement of a later age. The bones, when burnt, were collected, and placed within the urn, which was deposited, in almost all cases, with its mouth downwards, in a hollow cut in the chalk. Of these urns, which are far from uncommon, the larger are found to contain the burnt bones of the deceased, and the smaller are supposed to have held some description of food.

How many thousands of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep! Sleep, gentle sleep!
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,

Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,

Under the canopies of costly state,

And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody?

O thou dull god! why liest thou with the vile

In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch
A watch-case to a common 'larum bell?

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast,
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes and rock his brain
In cradle of the rude imperious surge,
And in the visitation of the winds,

Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
With deafening clamours in the slippery shrouds,
That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?
Canst thou, oh partial Sleep! give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a king?—Then, happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown!

A GERMAN HARVEST.

SIR FRANCIS HEAD.

ap-par'-ent-ly.........seemingly | at-tract'-ing..... char-act-er-ise ..mark, dis

tinguish

nour'-ish-ment ......that which
promotes the growth and
strength of animals and
plants, food, sustenance
dorm'-ant....inactive, not doing
its proper work
drought......dryness from want
of rain
prin'-cip-al-ly.....chiefly, mostly
in'-ter-vals.....spaces of time or
distance

la-bour-ers.........workmen and
workwomen engaged in agri-
culture

towards

..drawing

re-versed'...turned upside down
en-camp'-ment......a collection
of soldiers' tents
ad-apt-ed...

.fitted, suited ex-ces'-sive.........extreme, con

siderable

con'-nect-ed..harnessed together cush'-ions... ..pillows, pads mo'-tion-less.....without moving e-quip'-ment...necessary furniture or adjuncts, in this case harness, &c.

3

In Langen-Schwalbach, in Nassau, the crops of oats, rye, and wheat (principally bearded), are much heavier than anyone would expect from such light and apparently poor land;