IANTHE;

OR, THE DEATH BED OF BEAUTY.

"O thou soft natural death!-thou art joint twin
To sweetest slumber!-No rough bearded comet
Stares on thy mild departure! the duil owl
Beats not against thy casement; the hoarse wolf
Scents not thy carrion.-Pity winds thy corse."
Webster's White Devil.

I saw her die,

I marked the spiritual beaming of her eye;
It was not dimmed-it never looked decay,
Nor did its lustre slowly wane away,
But flashed in beauty on my tranced soul,
Brighter and brighter as her's near its goal.
It was not sunken in its arch'd recess,
But full looked out from 'neath the jetty tress
Of long and silken hair, whose glossy wave
As slow she turned, a sybil wildness gave
To all her mien ;-that wandered o'er her brow
Half shading, and half showing it; and now,
Reposed on its calm polish'd front, like clouds
Such as the Day orb's radiance sometimes shrouds.
There was a hectic glow upon her cheek
That spoke not passion, for her soul was meek ;-
'Twas but the effort, struggling life's last toil
To free the spirit from its gentle coil;
Or-(yes! 'was so-for oh! that spirit flew
Not in a pang-but like absorbed dew,
Noiseless and balmy !)-'twas the lamp of life
That gave one flush of triumph in the strife
That then had end.

O! ere her gentle spirit fled to Heaven,
It lingered fondly like some peasant driven
From his loved home;-oft backward on the cell
Of mortal inould, where it had loved to dwell,
In parting grief it seemed to glance, and say,
"And shall this frame of beauty know decay?"

Long on her lip, when all around was dead,
It lingering dwelt in smiles that lustre shed,

Even on the marble stillness of that face

Which once beamed o'er with light, and love, and grace ;-
Still on these lips, till earth in earth was laid,
It life-like sat, still fondly round them played!

rays

She seemed in death to sleep and calmly dream
Of joys long strange, and the unclouded beam
Of fortune's Sun, which cheered her infant days:
-Alas! that e'er to her were quenched its
Yet not alas;-for had she never known
Woe undeserved-she ne'er as saint had shone
In the bright calendar of sinless minds-
That living chain, which man to angels binds!
Her name her image, as in death she lay
Had ne'er possessed a talismanic sway,
Embalmed in memory, to guard the will
From aught unholy :-Passion must be still
When she's remembered.-Rear no marble tomb
Near her green grave--her record be the bloom,
That never fades, of virtues which her name
And memory nourish-What is nobler Faine?

NOTES OF A NATURALIST.

!...

THE FERRET. This little animal was originally a native of Africa, from whence it was first imported into Europe by the Spaniards for the purpose of freeing Spain from the mul titudes of rabbits with which it was one time overrun ; and which was committing dreadful havoc on the vegetation of the country.

In a domestic state the ferret is incapable of attachment; it is easily irritated, and will frequently seize the hand that feeds it. So voracious is it, and so eager its appetite for blood, that the female frequently devours her whole litter of seven or eight young, and instances have been known of its killing infants in their cradles. Nature seems to have formed this animal to be the mortal enemy of the rabbit. If a dead one be laid before a very young ferret which has never seen one before, it seizes on it in the most savage manner; and it darts upon it with almost irresistible eagerness, penetrates its neck with its teeth; winds its body round it, and retains its position as long as a drop of blood is to be procured.

SEALS IN THe Hebrides. Some of the small islands which are situated at a great distance from the others, are remarkable for the prodigious number of seals by which they are frequented. The Rock of Gasker, twelve miles from Harris, in the Atlantic, is a celebrated place of resort for these animals. Great numbers are killed annually upon it; upwards of 120 having been destroyed in one day. In the end of autumn, or beginning of winter, a boat goes from the island of Tarnsay to this rock. The seals are then found on shore, in the middle of the island; and the men, armed with sticks, arrange themselves in a narrow passage, after which they shout to frighten the seals. The latter, in their haste to escape, come tumbling and floundering in a confused mass, the largest individuals taking the lead. To these the men are obliged to allow a free passage. Then commences the application of the bludgeons, and by the time the last seals have got through the perilous pass, the ground has been heaped with the dying and the dead, Individuals of immense size are said frequently to present themselves. Of the larger seals the skin and blubber alone are embarked, while those of a smaller size are carried off entire. The island of Hasker, off the west coast of North Uist, is alike famous as a resort of these animals. The flesh is sometimes eaten by the natives, and the skins form an excellent covering for trunks. There may possibly be two or more species, but those individuals which have come under my own observation, I could only refer to the common species, notwithstanding the great differences in colour and size which they exhibited.

SPRING IN AMERICA.-Now the laughing, jolly spring began sometimes so show her buxom face in the bright morning; but ever and anon, meeting the angry frown of Winter, loath to resign his rough sway over the wide realm of nature, she would retire again into her southern bower. Yet, though her visits were but short, hur very look seemed to exercise a magic influence. The buds began slowly to expand their close winter folds; the dark and melancholy woods to assume an almost imperceptible purple tint; and here and there a little chirping blue-bird hopped about the orchards of Elsingburgh. Strips of fresh green appeared along the brooks, now released from their icy fetters; and nests of little variegated flowers, nameless, yet richly deserving a name,

sprung up in the sheltered recesses of the leafless woods. By and by, the shad, the harbinger at once of spring and plenty, came up the river before the mild southern breeze; the ruddy blossoms of the peach-tree exhibited their gorgeous pageantry; the young lambs appeared frisking and gamboling about the sedate mother; young, innocent calves began their first bleatings; the cackling hen announced her daily feat in the barn-yard with clamorous astonishment; every day added to the appearance of that active vegetable and animal life, which nature presents in the progress of the genial spring; and finally, the flowers, the zephyrs, and the warblers, and the maiden's rosy cheeks, announced to the eye, the ear, the senses, the fancy, and the heart, the return of the stay of the vernal year.-J. K. PAULding.

UTILITY OF TOADS.-Toads will be found of great utility in gardens. Practical men have long been aware that they live chiefly on insects, particularly beetles; some have even made it a point to place them on their hot-beds, for the purpose of destroying wood-lice, ear-wigs, &c. A Mr. Reeve, who has long employed toads as guardians of his melon and cucumber frames, fully corroborates all that has been said respecting their usefulness in such situations, and is so attentive to then, that, when they have cleared his bed of insects, and he finds them uneasy in their confinement, he actually feeds them, in order to keep them there. He offers them the different insects which are considered noxious in gardens, all of which they devour; even slugs are eaten by them and if so, this despised reptile must be a beneficial assistant to the gardener at times, and in a way he is at present but little acquainted with.

ANECDOTE OF MADAME MURAT.

Madame Murat one day said to Madame Campan, “I am astonished that you are not more awed in our presence; you speak to us with as much familiarity as when we were your pupils!" "The best thing you can do," replied Madame Campan, "is to forget your tiles when you are with me; for I can never be afraid of queens whom I have held under the rod."