The witching-time of night is near-
Hark! 'tis the hollow midnight bell,
Whose echoes, fraught with solemn fear,
Far o'er the land and ocean swell.
The sentry, on his lonely post,
Starts, and bethinks him of a ghost;
Lists, eager for the distant sound
Of comrades marching to the round,
And bends athwart the gloom his eye,
The glimmer of their arms to spy:-
While many a startled nymph awaking,
Counts the long chime so dull and dread,
Fancies she sees the curtains shaking,

Draws underneath the clothes her head, Feels a cold shudder o'er her creep, Attempts to pray, and shrinks to sleep.

Although our Missionary woke

Just at this moment in a shiver,
'Twas not the clock's appalling stroke
That put his limbs in such a quiver ;—
The blankets on his bed were two,
So far from being thick and new,

That he could well have borne a dozen;
No wonder that, with such a store,
When his first heavy sleep was o'er,

The poor incumbent woke half-frozen.

"Since Betty has forgot the clothes,”

Quoth Sam, (confound her stupid head!) "I'll just make free to borrow those That lie upon the empty bed:" So up he jump'd, too cold and raw To be punctilious in his work, Grasp'd the whole covering at a claw, Offstripp'd it with a single jerk, And was retreating with his prey, When, to his horror and dismay,

His ears were almost split asunder By a "Hollo!" as loud as thunder! He stood transfix'd, afraid to breathe, With trembling lips and chatt'ring teeth; But cry'd at last, with desperate shout, "Satan, avaunt!-I've found thee out."

Meanwhile, the Smuggler, who had shouted
At finding all the blankets gone,
Though for a little while he doubted
The cause of the phenomenon,
Soon as he heard Sam's exclamation,
Concluded, without hesitation,
'Twas an exciseman come to seize
His contraband commodities;
Wherefore, within his fist collecting
His vigour and resentment too,
And by the voice his aim directing,

Since every thing was hid from view,
He launch'd a more than mortal blow,
Intended to conclude the matter,
Which, whizzing on its work of woe,
Fell, with a desolating clatter,
Just where our Missionary bore his
Two front teeth, or Incisores.
This made the Jinkins fiercer burn
To give his foe a due return,

And punish him for what the brute did
When his front teeth he had uprooted.
Rearing, with this intent, his fist,
Although the Smuggler's face it miss'd,
It met his ear with such a rap,
He thought it was a thunder-clap,
Especially as from the crash

His eye-balls gave a sudden flash.
Jinkins, meanwhile, with clamour dire,
Vociferating "Thieves!" and "Fire!”

Host, hostess, men and maids, rush'd in,
Astounded by his fearful din,

While many more prepared to follow
With lights and buckets, hoop and hollo!
His foe, who saw how matters lay,
Slipp'd on his clothes, then slipp'd away;
And, being somewhat waggish, thus
Began the adventure to discuss :-

"Sure, neither acted like a wise man,

To think the devil would fight th' exciseman,
When both pursue the self-same ends
Like fellow-labourers and friends.
Both have authority to seize

Unlawful spirits, where they please;
Both have a right to claim as booties
All those, who have evaded duties;
They roam together, hour by hour,
Both seeking whom they may devour;
And since th' inseparable two

A partnership in this world form,
Heaven grant that both may have their due,
And, in the next, be friends as warm!”

ON DANCING.

A good man's fortune may be out at heels.

SHAKSPEARE.

WERE a book to be written upon the discordant opinions held by different nations, or by the same people at different periods, upon any given subject, none would present a more contradictory estimate, than the harmless recreation of dancing. For some

thousand of years, in the early stages of the world, it was exclusively a religious ceremony. The dance of the Jews, established by the Levitical law to be exhibited at their solemn feasts, is, perhaps, the most ancient upon record. The dancing of David is also frequently quoted; and many commentators have thought, that every Psalm was accompanied by a distinct dance. In several of the temples, a stage was specially erected for these exercises; but, in process of time, they seem to have been practised by secular, as well as spiritual, performers. The daughters of Shiloh were thus recreating themselves in the vineyards, when they were caught by the young men of the tribe of Benjamin, who presently danced into their good graces, and carried them off for wives-a process which is frequently imitated, even in these degenerate days. The heathens, also, could "sport a toe" in the very earliest ages. Pindar calls Apollo "the dancer;" Homer, in one of his hymns, tells us that this deity capered to the music of his own harp; and from Callimachus we learn that the Nereides were proficients in this elegant accomplishment, at the early age of nine years*. For several centuries, it was confined to military movements, when a battle was a grand Ballet of Action, opposing armies became partners in the dance of death, and cut throats and capers with equal assiduity. Since those truculent and operatic days, it has been limited to festive and joyous occasions; but how various the estimation in

* See the Vestriad, a mock Epic Poem.

which it has been held by inconsistent mortals! Socrates, a wise Grecian, took lessons in this art from Aspasia. Cicero, an enlightened Roman, urges the practice of dancing against Galbinius, as a grave and heinous offence. Of the moderns, many hold it an utter abomination to dance upon a Sunday; while others signalize the Sabbath by an increased hilarity of heel. In Germany, a band of enthusiastic damsels formerly testified their devotion to St. Vitus, by dancing round his shrine, until they contracted a malady which still bears his name: the modern Herrnhuters, of the same district, would suffer martyrdom, rather than heathenize their legs by any similar profanation.

Our own country, at the present moment, possesses a sect of Jumpers, who, seeming to imagine that he who leaps highest must be nearest to Heaven, solemnize their meetings by jumping like kangaroos, and justify themselves very conclusively from Scripture, because-David danced before the Ark-the daughter of Shiloh danced in the yearly festival of the Lord— and the child John, the son of Elizabeth, leapt before it was born! The Methodists, on the other hand, maintain, in its full latitude, the doctrine of the ancient Waldenses and Albigenses, that as many paces as a man makes in dancing, so many leaps he makes towards Hell. Even the amiable Cowper, the poet, suffered his fine mind to be so darkened by bigotry, as to believe that a great proportion of the ladies and gentlemen, whom he saw amusing themselves with dancing at Brighthelmstone, must necessarily be