แ Pray, dearest, is it many years that you have inhabited this valley?" Oh, indeed, many!" said she, smiling. "You are not, then, very young," rejoined Arasmanes ungal. lantly. "What!" cried the nymph, changing color- Do you begin to discover age in my countenance? Has any wrinkle yet appeared upon my brow? You are silent. Oh, cruel Fate! will you not spare even this lover?" And the poor nymph burst into tears. "My dear love," said Arasmanes, painfully, "it is true that time begins to creep upon you; but my friendship shall be eternal." Scarcely had he uttered these words when the nymph, rising, fixed upon him a long, sorrowful look, and then with a loud cry vanished from his sight. Thick darkness, as a veil, fell over the plains; the novelty of life, with its attendant, poetry, was gone from the wanderer's path for ever. A sudden sleep crept over his senses. He awoke coufused and unrefreshed, and a long and gradual ascent, but over mountains green indeed, and watered by many streams gushing from the heights, stretched before him. Of the valley he had mistaken for Aden not a vestige remained. He was once more on the real solid earth. TIME AND BEAUTY.-LITERARY GAZETTE. Ruthless Time, who waits for no man, O'er the flowers she bounded lightly, Time, who marked her eyes beam brightly, "Maid," he rudely cried, "good morrow! Knowest thou not what rights are mine? Beauty 't is my wont to borrow; And I come to gather thine." "I'll not yield it," cried she boldly, 1 "Come with me," he answered coldly, "Go with thee," said she, "not I." Time his scythe extended o'er her, Threatening with his withered hand; And his hour-glass shook before her, Pointing to the running sand. But the maiden all intrepid, Time replied with purpose steady, Time pursued with will unshaken; Yet was soon well nigh o'ertaken, But the maiden, nothing fearful, There her eye all passion loses, Thought restrains her youthful wildness; Time saw heavenly graces cluster, Beauty smiled in angel lustre Time was vanquished; Beauty won. THE WORLD AND INTELLECTUAL PROWESS.-Coleridge. Here is the World, a female figure approaching at the head of a train of willing or giddy followers :-her air and deportment are at once careless, remiss, self-satisfied, and haughty :—and there is Intellectual Prowess, with a pale cheek and serene brow, leading in chains Truth, her beautiful and modest captive. The one makes her salutation with a discourse of ease, pleasure, freedom, and domestic tranquility; or, if she invite to labor, it is labor in the busy and beaten track, with assurance of the complacent regards of parents, friends, and of those with whom we associate. The promise also may be upon her lip of the huzzas of the multitude, of the smile of kings, and the munificent rewards of senates. The other does not venture to hold forth any of these allurememts; she does not conceal from him whom she addresses the impediments, the disappointments, the ignorance and prejudice which her follower will have to encounter, if devoted when duty calls, to active life; and if to contemplative, she lays nakedly before him, a scheme of solitary and unremitting labor, a life of entire neglect perhaps, or assuredly a life exposed to scorn, insult, persecution, and hatred; but cheered by encouragement from a grateful few, by applauding conscience, and by a prophetic anticipation, perhaps, of fame--a late, though lasting consequence. Of these two, each in this manner soliciting you to become her adherent, you doubt not which to prefer,— but oh! the thought of moment is not preference, but the degree of preference; the passionate and pure choice, the inward sense of absolute and unchangeable devotion. THE PHILOSOPHER'S SCALES.-MISS J. TAYLOR, What were they?-you ask; you shall presently see; O no;-for such properties wondrous had they, That qualities, feelings, and thoughts they could weigh, From mountains or planets to atoms of sense; The first thing he tried was the head of Voltaire, Next time he put in Alexander the Great, With a garment that Dorcas had made-for a weight; A long row of alms-houses, amply endowed And down, down, the farthing's worth came with a bounce. By further experiments, (no matter how,) He found that ten chariots weighed less than one plough. A lord and a lady went up at full sail, When a bee chanced to light on the opposite scale. Than one good potatoe just washed from the dirt;— At last the whole world was bowled in at the grate 68 APOSTROPHE. THE STARS.-CROLY. Ye stars, bright legions, that before all time, Who bade through heaven your golden chariots wheel? What wonder if the o'erwrought soul shall reel eye For ye behold the Mightiest. From that steep The gaze of Adam fixed from paradise; Above the mountain surge, and hailed its rise, Lighting their lonely track with hope's celestial dyes. TO A DEPARTED SPIRIT.-MRS. HEMANS. From the bright stars, or from the viewless air, Answer me, answer me! Have we not communed here of life and death? To melt away like song from festal bowers? Answer, oh! answer me! Thine eye's last light was mine-the soul that shone |