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As spirits from eternal day

Look down on earth, secure,

Look here, and wonder, and survey

A world in miniature.

A world not scorn'd by HIM who made
E'en weakness by His might;

But solemn in His depth of shade

And splendid in His sight.

ELLIOTT.

THE MARIGOLD.

WHEN, with a serious musing, I behold
The grateful and obsequious Marigold,
How duly, every morning, she displays
Her open breast when Titan spreads his rays;
How she observes him in his daily walk,
Still bending towards him her small tender stalk:
How, when he down declines, she droops and mourns,
Bedew'd (as 'twere) with tears, till he returns ;
And how she veils her flowers when he is gone,
As if she scorned to be looked on
By an inferior eye; or, did contemn
To wait upon a meaner light than him.
When this I meditate, methinks, the flowers
Have spirits far more generous than ours;
And give us fair examples to despise
The servile fawnings and idolatries,

Wherewith we court these earthly things below,
Which merit not the service we bestow.

Many of our poets have noticed the property common to Syngenesious plants.

GEORGE WITHER, 1635.

closing of this flower at sunset,-a Chatterton thus remarks:

"The Marybudde, that shutteth with the light."

Browne in his Pastorals, and Shakspeare in his Winter's Tale, iv. 3., make

a similar allusion to this circumstance.

THE LIMPET.

IN Nature's all-instructive book,
Where can the eye of reason look,
And not some gainful lesson find,
To guide and fortify the mind?
The simple shell on yonder rock
May seem, perchance, this book to mock—
Approach it then, and learn its ways,
And learn the lesson it conveys.
At distance viewed, it seems to lie
On its rough bed so carelessly,
That 'twould an infant's hand obey
Stretch'd forth to seize it in its play;
But let that infant's hand draw near,
It shrinks with quick, instinctive fear,
And clings as close as though the stone
It rests upon, and it, were one;
And should the strongest arm endeavour
The Limpet from its rock to sever,
'Tis seen its loved support to clasp
With such tenacity of grasp,

We wonder that such strength should dwell

In such a small and simple shell!

And is not this a lesson worth

The study of the sons of earth?
Who need a Rock so much as we?
Ah! who to such a Rock can flee?
A Rock to strengthen, comfort, aid,
To guard, to shelter, and to shade,
A Rock, whence fruits celestial grow,
And whence refreshing waters flow—
No rock is like this Rock of ours!
Oh then if you have learnt your powers

By a just rule to estimate;

If justly you can calculate,

How great your need, your strength how frail,
How
prone your best resolves to fail,
When humble caution bids you fear

A moment of temptation near,
Let wakeful memory recur
To this your simple monitor,
And wisely shun the trial's shock

By clinging closely to your Rock.

MAYO, on Shells.

The Shell of the Limpet, Patella vulgata, is conical but entirely destitute of a whorl or spire. Its generic name signifies a little dish, an appellation suggested by its shape. This form is well calculated to protect the living animal from injury. Indeed, in every part of Nature, we trace the hand of a wise and beneficent Creator. Everything we find adapted to the situation it has to fill. Dr. Paley, in his instructive work on Natural Theology, chap. xix., speaking of shells, remarks, "I do not know whether, the weight being given, art can produce so strong a case as of some shells: which defensive strength suits well with the life of an animal, that has often to sustain the dangers of a stormy element, and a rocky bottom, as well as the attacks of voracious fish." Limpets are generally found attached to rocks and sea-weed and adhere with such tenacity as not to be easily displaced. By the contraction of the muscles a vacuum is produced, and the pressure of the external air then keeps them firmly fixed to the spot. Their mode of locomotion is slow and peculiar, leaving tracks frequently visible on rocks. They abound on every sea-coast, and are used as an article of food by the poorer classes in most parts of the world.— See Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. 4. p, 346.

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The Daffodil, Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus, presents its straw-coloured petals and deep yellow plaited nectary early in March. Shakspeare thus speaks of them in his Winter's Tale, iv. 3.

Daffodils

That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.

From a series of observations, similar to this of Shakspeare, the Rev. T. W. Bree has formed a Natural Calendar of Coincidence, by which, the flowering of a plant intimates the arrival of a migratory bird, and the appearance of an insect bids us look for the flowering of a plant.-See this truly interesting paper, Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. 3. p. 17-21.

ON THE LEEK.

I LIKE the Leeke, above all herbes and flowers;
When first we wore the same, the field was ours:
The Leeke is white and greene, whereby is ment,
That Britaines are both stout and eminent;
Next to the Lion, and the Unicorne,

The Leeke's the fairest emblym that is worne.

FOSTER'S Peren. Calend.

The origin of wearing the Leek, Allium porrum, on St. David's Day, can only be conjectured. Some have supposed the practice originated with a victory obtained by the Britons under Cadwallo, over the Saxons, March 1st, 640, when the Welsh, wanting a mark of distinction, wore leeks in their caps. the play of Henry V., Shakspeare mentions the ancient custom of their wearing this badge in honour of their patron saint.

In

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THROUGH groves sequester'd, dark and still,
Low vales and mossy cells among,

In silent paths, the careless rill,
With languid murmurs, steals along.

Awhile it plays with circling sweep,
And lingering leaves its native plain,
Then pours impetuous down the steep,
And mingles in the boundless main.

O! let my years thus devious glide

Through silent scenes obscurely calm, Nor wealth, nor strife pollute the tide, Nor honour's sanguinary palm.

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