Low in the violet's breast of blue

For treasured food they sink;

They know the flowers that hold the dew
For their small race to drink;

They glide-King Solomon might gaze
With wonder on their awful ways!

And once- —it is a grandame's tale,
Yet fill'd with secret lore-
There dwelt, within a woodland-vale,
Fast by old Cornwall's shore,
An ancient woman, worn and bent,
Fall'n Nature's mournful monument!

A home had they-the clustering race-
Beside her garden-wall,

All blossoms breathed around the place,
And sunbeams fain would fall,-
The lily loved that combe the best

Of all the valleys of the west!

But so it was, that on a day,

When summer built her bowers, The waxen wanderers ceased to play Around the cottage flowers!

No hum was heard, no wing would roam-
They dwelt within their cluster'd home!

This lasted long; no tongue could tell
Their pastime or their toil!

What binds the soldier to his cell,
Who should divide the spoil?

It lasted long-it fain would last,
Till autumn rustled on the blast!

Then sternly went that woman old,
She sought the chancel-floor,
And there, with purpose bad and bold,
Knelt down amid the poor,-

She took-she hid that blessed bread,
Whereon The Invisible is shed!

She bare it to her distant home,
She laid it by the hive,

To lure the wanderers forth to roam,
That so her store might thrive ;-
'Twas a wild wish, a thought unblest,
Some evil legend of the west.

But lo! at morning-tide a sign

For wondering eyes to trace!

They found above that bread a shrine,

Rear'd by the harmless race!

They brought their walls from bud and flower,

They built bright roof and beamy tower!

Was it a dream, or did they hear,

Float from those golden cells,
A sound, as of some psaltery near,
Or soft and silvery bells?

A low sweet psalm, that grieved within,
In mournful memory of the sin!

Was it a dream? 'Tis sweet no less;

Set not the vision free.

Long let the lingering legend bless

The nation of the bee,—

So shall they bear upon their wings

A parable of sacred things.

So shall they teach, when men blaspheme

Or sacrament or shrine,

That humbler things may fondly dream

Of mysteries Divine;

And holier hearts than his may beat
Beneath the bold blasphemer's feet!

From "Reeds shaken with the Wind," Second Cluster.

PLEASURE FROM THE STUDY OF NATURE.

WHAT though not all

Of mortal offspring can attain the heights
Of envied life; though only few possess
Patrician treasures or imperial state;
Yet Nature's care, to all her children just,
With richer treasures and an ampler state,
Endows at large whatever happy man
Will deign to use them.

For him the Spring

Distils her dews, and from the silken gem
Its lucid leaves unfolds: for him the hand
Of Autumn tinges every fertile branch,

With blooming gold and blushes like the morn.
Each passing hour sheds tribute from her wings;
And still new beauties meet his lonely walk,
And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze
Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes
The setting sun's effulgence, not a strain
From all the tenants of the warbling shade
Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake
Fresh pleasure unreproved.

AKENSIDE.

Prof. Stewart beautifully observes, in his Philosophical Essays, p. 509: "When a man has succeeded, at length, in cultivating his imagination, things the most familiar and unnoticed disclose charms invisible to him before. The same objects and events which were lately beheld with indifference, occupy now all the powers and capacities of the soul; the contrast between the present and past serving only to enhance and to endear so unlooked-for an acquisition. What Gray has finely said of the pleasures of vicissitude, conveys but a faint image of what is experienced by the man, who, after having lost, in vulgar occupation and vulgar amusement, his earliest and most precious years, is thus introduced, at last, to a new heaven and a new earth.

The meanest floweret of the vale,

The simplest note that swells the gale,
The common sun, the air, the skies,
To him are opening Paradise.'"

THE GLORY OF GOD IN CREATION.

THE GOD of nature and of grace,
In all His works appears;

His goodness through the earth we trace,
His grandeur in the spheres.

Behold this fair and fertile globe,
By Him in wisdom plann'd;
'Twas He who girded, like a robe,
The ocean round the land.

Lift to the arch of heaven your eye,
Thither His path pursue;
His glory, boundless as the sky,
O'erwhelms the wondering view.

He bows the heavens,-the mountains stand
A highway for their God;
He walks amidst the desert land,-

'Tis Eden where He trod.

The forests in His strength rejoice;
Hark! on the evening breeze,
As once of old, the LORD GOD's voice
Is heard among the trees.

Here, on the hills, He feeds His herds,
His flocks on yonder plains;

His praise is warbled by the birds;

-Oh! could we catch their strains!

Mount with the lark, and bear our song
Up to the gates of light;

Or, with the nightingale, prolong

Our numbers through the night!

In every stream His bounty flows,
Diffusing joy and wealth!

In every breeze His Spirit blows,
-The breath of life and health.

His blessings fall in plenteous showers
Upon the lap of earth,

That teems with foliage, fruits, and flowers,
And rings with infant mirth.

If GOD has made this world so fair,
Where sin and death abound;
How beautiful, beyond compare,
Will Paradise be found!

MONTGOMERY.

ANIMALS OF THE EAST.

WHERE sacred Ganges pours along the plain,
And Indus rolls to swell the eastern main,
What awful scenes the curious mind delight!
What wonders burst upon the dazzled sight!
There giant-palms lift high their tufted heads;
The plantain wide his graceful foliage spreads;
Wild in the woods the active monkey springs;
The chattering parrot claps her painted wings;
'Mid tall bamboos lies hid the deadly snake;
The tiger couches in the tangled brake:
The spotted axis* bounds in fear away.
The leopard darts on his defenceless prey:
'Mid reedy pools and ancient forests rude,
Cool, peaceful haunts of awful solitude!
The huge rhinoceros rends the crashing boughs;
And stately elephants untroubled browse:

A species of deer, known in India by the name of the Ganges stag.