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is it that the rainbow and the cloud come
over us with a beauty that is not of earth,
and then pass off and leave us to muse upon
their faded loveliness? Why is it that the
stars, which “ hold their festivals around the
midnight throne,” are set above the grasp of
our limited faculties—forever mocking us
with their unapproachable glory ? And fi
nally, why is it that bright forms of human
beauty are presented to our view and then ta
ken from us—leaving the thousand streams
of our affections to How back in Alpine tor
rent upon our hearts? There is a realm where
the rainbow never fades, where the stars will
be spread out before us like the islands that
slumber on the ocean, and where the beauti
ful beings, which here pass before us like vi
sions, will stay in our presence forever.—
Bright creature of my dreams--in that realm
1 shall see thee again. Even now thy lost im
age is sometimes w ith me. In the mysterious
silence of midnight, when the stars are
glowing in the beam that lingers around
my pillow, it stands before me in its pale,
dim loveliness—till its own spirit sinks,
like a spell from heaven upon my thoughts,
and the grief of years is turned to dreams of
blessedness and peace.
Newspaper Analects.
COWPER.
The poet of “ The Sofa,” when “in merry
pin,” trifled pleasantly. As an instance of
his manner, there remains the following:
LETTER TO THE REV. J. NEWTON.
July 12, 1881.
My very very dear Friend, —I am going to
send, what, when you have read, you may
scratch your head, and say, I suppose there’s
nobody knows, whether what 1 have got, be
verse or not; by the tune or the time, it ought
to be rhyme; but if it be, did you ever see, of
late or of yore, such a ditty before ?
I have writ Charity, not for popularity, but
as well as 1 could, in hopes to do good ; and
if the reviewers should say “ to be sure, the
gentleman's muse wears Methodist shoes;
you may know by her pace, and talk about
grace, that she and her bard, have little re
gard, for the taste and fashions, and ruling pas
sions, and koidening play, of the modern day,
and though she assume a borrowed plume,
and now and then wear a tittering air ‘tis on
ly her plan, to catch if she can, the giddy and
gay, as they go that way, by a production, on
anew construction; she has baited her trap,
in hopes to snap, all that may come with a
sugar plum,—This opinion in this will not be
amiss; ’tis what I intend, my principal end, ;
and if l succeed, and folks should read, till a
few are brought, to a serious thought, I should
think 1 am paid for all I have said, and all 1
have done, though l have run, many a time,
after a rhyme, as far from hence, to the end
of my sense, and by hook or crook, write
another book, if I live and am here, another
year.
1 have heard before, of a room with a floor,
laid upon springs, and such like things, with
so much aft, in every part, that when you
went in, you was forced to begin a minuet
pace, with an air and a grace, swimming a
bout, now in and now out, with a deal of
state, in a figure of eight, without pipe or
string, or any such thing. And now 1 have
writ, in a rhyming fit, what will make you
dance, and as you advance, will keep you
still, though against your will, dancing away,
alert and gay, till you come to an end of what
I have penned; which that you may do,
ere madam and you are quite worn out, with
jiggling about, l take my leave, and here you
receive a bow profound, down to the ground,
from your humble me—
W. C.
\V hen prevented by rains, and floods from
visiting the lady who suggested “ The Task,”
Cowper beguiled the time by writing to her
the following lines, and afterwards printing
them with his own hand. He sent a copy of
these verses, so printed, to his sister, accompa
nied by the subjoined note written upon his
typographical labours.
To watch the storms, and hear the sky
Give all the almanacks the lio ;
To shake with cold, and see the plains
In autumn drown’d with wintery rains :
’Tis thus 1 spend my moments here,
And wish myself a Dutch mynheer;
I then would have no need of wit,
For lumpish Hollander unfit;
Nor should I then repine at mud.
Or meadows delug’d with a fiood ;
But in a bog live well content,
And find it just iny element;
Should be a clod, and not a man,
Nor wish in vain for sister Ann,
With charitable aid to drag,
My mind out of its proper quag ;
Should have the genius of a boor,
And no ambition to have more.
SjSHJlfiaShhl MlfMAlE'tf ©A% &if *
My dear Sister, —You see my beginning; I
do not know but in time 1 may proceed to the
printing of half-penny ballads. Excuse the
coarseness of my paper; I wasted so much be
fore I could accomplish any thing legible,
that I could not afford finer. I intend to em
ploy an ingenious mechanic of this town to
make me a longer case, for you may observe
that my lines turn up their tails like Dutch
mastiffs; so difficult do I find it to make the
two halves exactly coincide with each other.
We wait with impatience for the departure
of this unseasonable flood. We think of you,
and talk of you, but we can do no more till the
waters subside. I don’t think our correspon
dence should drop because we are within a mile
of each other; —it is but an imaginary approxi
mation, the flood having in reality as effectu
ally parted us, as if the British Channel roll
ed between us.
Vours, my dear sister, with Mrs. U.’s best
love.
William Cowper.
Monday , Aug. 12, 1782.
OLD ENGLISH PROVERB.
u An ounce of mother wit is worth a pound
of learning ,” seems well exemplified in the
following dialogue, translated from the Ger
man :
Hans, the son of the clergyman, said to the
farmer’s son Frederick, as they were walking
together on a fine summer's evening, “How
large is the moon which we now see in the
heavens ?”
Frederick. As large as a baking-dish.
Hans. Ha! ha! ha! As large as a baking
dish ? No, Frederick, it is full as large as a
whole country.
Frederick. What do you tell me ? as large
as a whole country ? How do you know it is
so large ?
Hans. My tutor told me so.
While they were'talking, Augustus, anoth
er boy, came by; and Hans ran laughing up to
him, and said, “Only hear him, Augustus!
Frederick says the moon is no bigger than a
baking-dish.”
“No?” replied Augustus, “The moon must
be .at least as big as our barn. When my fa
ther has taken me with him into the city, I
have observed, that the globe on the top of the
dome of the cathedral seems like a very little
ball; and yet it will contain three sacks of
corn; and the moon must be a great deal high
er than the dome.”
Now which of these little philosopers was
Ihe most intelligent?—l must give it in favor
of the last; though Hans was most right,
Through the instruction of his master. But
it is much more honorable to come even at all
near the truth, by one’s own reasoning, than
to give implicit faith to the hypothesis of an
other.
(El)c Dark (Honm\
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
AN ORIGINAL CHARADE.
Born in the gentle zephyr
In every breeze it blows
Yet borne upon no passing wind,
Nor in the air it goes ;
It breathes in all sweet spices,
It smiles in every place,
It dwells in fear and terror,
Yet beams in every face ;
’Tis seen not in the morning,
It shuns the light of day;
And coming when eve’s shadows come
With those it fades away :
In me you may behold it,
In you ’t is never seen ;
—Como read for me my riddle,
And tell mo what 1 mean.
HiQijt ter Dark Corner.
ANSWER TO RIDDLES IN OUR LAST.
1. Noah’s Ark. 2. The Year.
ANSWER TO THE CHARADE.
It is an adage through the land
Familiar as the hand and glove
The G remove, who can withstand
The magic influence of love !
s§s°’ We subjoin another answer which is
certainly clever; though our little friend, G.
W. L., failed to discover the whole, while he
is correct in the most important part.
Clove is a word of letters five,
Take oif the C and love is left ;
And Love’s influence no man alive,
(Unless of sense he is bereft,)
Can o’er withstand.
}Jl)tlosop!)ij for tl)c People.
INSTINCT.
What is it that guides the ox in selecting
two hundred and seventy-six kinds of herbs,
and at the same time teaches him to avoid two
hundred and eighteen, as unfit for food ?
A species of spider digs a hole in the earth,
about two feet deep, and closes it with a curi
ous trap-door —so as to deceive, and keep out
every intruder.
The tortoise, though hatched a mile from
the water, no sooner leaves its shell, than it
runs directly to the ocean, without a guide.
The sphex fabulosa prepares little shells in
the earth —then she fetches spiders, and de
posites one with each egg, that the little ones
may have food as soon as they break forth
from the shell.
All animals, without instruction, move with
perfect skill, from the time of their birth, from
one place to another ; and they use their
limbs, and select their food, at the proper time
and place.
Mix salt and arsenic, and a sheep will se
lect the former from the latter, a thing which
you could not do.
WONDERS OF CHEMISTRY.
Aquafortis and the air we breath are made
oi the same materials. Linen, and sugar, and
spirits of wine, are so much alike in their
chemical composition, that an old shirt can he
converted into its own weight in sugar, and
the sugar into spirit of Wine. Wine is made
of two substances, one of which is the cause of
almost all combustion or burning, and the
other will burn with more rapidity than any
thing in nature. The famous Peruvian bark,
so much used to strengthen the stomach, and
the poisonous principle of opium are found
to be of the same materials.
” 1
MUSIC OF THE HAMMER.
Were we to seek one only sound in the whole
world as a representative of expression, of
life, business, health, vigor and improvement,
we should eertainly name the “ sound of the
hammer.” What is there on earth, more
cheering ? It is the very note of preparation
for business, and gives a thrill peculiar to it
self to all which lies inert around it.
What brings the morning so fresh and so
vivid to the mind of the sluggard as the ham
mer which sounds from the neighboring roofs ?
’ It is the veriest reproach that an indolent
man can have, and speaks straight to the
heart in those quick, manly, sudden, tones,
which only the sincerest friendship employs.
And then how much is in that sound besides!
What a range can fancy take when such a
sound comes forth ! There is the workman
on the roof of anew building, or in the shop
i of the mechanic, or the store of the merchant.
It is the hammer of the carpenter, the black
smith, the tinman, the cordwainer, the jeweler,
or the worker of marble—’all industrious, all
busy, all well to do. The “ sound of the
hammer” Is a note which forewarns the world
of the where-abouts of the hard working
man. About it there is no concealment.—
The man he owes hears it, and waits content
ed —who owes him listens, and straightway
goes to his daily labor. There is a spirit in
the sound of a hammer which aflects more or
less nearly all the world. Some people go
: through life without noting one sound from
another, in the multitude of noises around
them, but we will answer for the sound of a
hammer, that no one ever heard that without
being conscious of an impression, either posi
tively pleasant or certainly painful. Me
chanics should stick to their hammers, for
they are sentinels of industry and bestowers
of praise.
THE MECHANIC.
Kirby, the young actor, in the play of the
Carpenter of Rouen, gives the following ex
cellent sentiment, which always brings down
three rounds of applause:
The mechanic, sir, is one of God’s noble
men. What have mechanics not done ?
Have they not opened the secret chambers
of the mighty deep, and extracted its treasures,
| and made the raging billows their highway,
on which they ride ason a tame steed ? Are
not the elements of fire and water chained to
the crank, and at the mechanic’s bidding com
pelled to turn it ! Have not mechanics open
ed the bowels of the earth, and made its pro
ducts contribute to their wants ? The forked
, lightning is their play-thing; and they ride
; triumphant on the mighty winds To the
; wise they are the flood-gates of knowledge,
and kings and princes are decorated with their
handiwork —He who made this universe, was
■ a great Mechanic.
3 Column (Cmtctr to Iww
DEM’S ’EM.
A pious old negro, while saying grace at
the table, not only used to ask a blessing on
all he had upon his board, but would also pe
tition to have some deficient dish supplied.—
One day it was known that Cato was out of
potatoes, and suspecting that he would pray
for the same at dinner, a wag provided him
self with a small measure ot the wegitahles ,
and stole under the window near which stood
the table of our colored Christian. Soon Ca
to drew up a chair and commenced: —
“0, massa Lord! wilt dow in dy provident
kindness condescend to bresebery ting before
us; and be pleased to stow upon us just a few
taters —and all de praise.” [Here the po
tatoes were dashed upon the table, breaking
plates and upsetting the mustard pot.] “Dem's
’em, massa Lord!” said Cato looking up with
surprise. “Only jist luff em down leetle ea
sier next time!”
A RICH SCENE.
The following rich scene recently occurred
in one of our courts of justice between the
Judge and a Dutch witness all the way from
Rotterdam.
Judge. —“What’s,your native language?”
Witness. —“ lpe no native, I’s a Dutchman.”
Judge. —“What is your mother tongue?”
Witness. —“0, fader say she pe all tongue.”
Judge. —(In an irritable tone) —“What lan
guage did you first learn ? what language did
you speak in the cradle?”
Witness. —“I tid not speak no language in
the cradle at all, I only cried in Dooch .” —
Then there was a general laugh in which the
Judge, Jury and audience joined. The wit
ness was interrogated no further about his na
tive language.
r
DENTISTRY.
An itinerating! dentisti lately called at a
house and applied for business. “Don’t you
want your teeth drawn?” says he to the own
er. “No.” “Don’t your wife?” “No.”
“None ol the children?” “No.” “Can’t
you give me some sort of a job ?” says the
dentist. “Why,” says the gentleman, “l
have got an old cross-cut-saw , the teeth of
which are out of order. You can have that
job, if you’ll fix ’em.”
Two Days to Run. —A has given a bill to
B and A finds himself without a shilling when
the bill has only two days to run. Now
what is A to do undei these circumstances ?
Answer. If the bill has two days to run,
A has, of course two days to run also, and he
had better run accordingly.
Timely Knowledge.— “Do you know all
the rocks in this harbor ?” asked the master
of a vessel of an Irish pilot.
“Yes, yer honor, and” (here the ship struck)
“there’s one of them!”
Settling Accounts. —“ I never go to
church,” said a country tradesman to his par
ish clergyman; “1 always spend Sunday in
settling accounts.” The Minister immediate
ly replied, “you will find, sir, that the day of
judgement will be spent in the same manner.”
First Discovery. —A gentleman praising
the personal charms of a very plain woman,
Foote whispered him, “why dont you lay
claim to such an accomplished beauty?”—
“What right have I to her?” said the other.
“Every right by the law of nations, as the
first discoverer,” replied Foote.
The Difference. — xV gentleman talking to
a friend on the subject of marriage, made the
following observation: “I first saw my wife
in a storm; carried her to a ball in a storm;
courted her in a storm; was published to her
in a storm; married in a storm; lived in a storm ;
but thank Heaven I buried her in pleasant
weather!”
Taking it Coolly. —“ Avast there!” cried
a sailor to his comrade, who was busied in
heaving overboard the lower division of a
ship-mate just cut in halves by a chain-shot
at a great naval engagement; “avast! let us
first see if Ben arn’t got the key of our mess
chest in his pocket.”
Rewards of Merit. —“ Sam,” said one lit
tle urchin to another, yesterday—“ Sam, does
your schoolmaster ever give you any rewards
of merit?” “I s’pose he does,” was the re
joinder; “he gives me a lickin’ regularly ev
ery day and says I merits two!”