velled much. And they went on their way singing to the ear of Heaven a hymn of thankfulness for their great deliverance. And soon they had passed over the southern hills that had looked on the proud city on the one side, and the humble and happy valley on the other, but which now saw only the flourishing valley and the desolated city; and I looked and saw no more of them.

And now that the work of my mission had been duly done, I trembled at the power I possessed; and a great fear came over me, and a thought, that if I went farther into the world, and to other cities, I should leave the same desert and desolation wherever I went; and most of all I feared lest my power of doing this retributive good should lead me into the doing of any evil; and in the agony of that thought, I knelt down reverently and prayed the good Genius who had given me this power, to take it from me, and let me depart a humble man, to dwell out my days among the innocent people of the happy valley. And when I lifted my eyes from the ground, behold the good Genius stood before me, and comforted my troubled spirit with these words:

"Excellent minister of my retributive wrath, thou hast well performed my will; and now thy task is done, and for thy reward, thou shalt be happier than all men here, and blessed as the angels hereafter. The talisman with which thou hast wrought all these things, no longer has the virtue it possessed: look at it, and thou shalt perceive it to be a mere worm, to shew thee that my Master of the Heavens can work his mightiest will with the meanest instrument."

And I looked into my hand, and behold there was a common glow-worm crawling within it, instead of the talisman composed of a cluster of jewels more precious than diamonds. "I wonder, adore, and am humble,"

I exclaimed, falling again upon my knee. But the good Genius raised me up, and bade me take my way to the happy valley, and live there till I was called to heaven. And so saying, she vanished, ere I could thank her, like an evening sun-beam suddenly withdrawn from the earth into the heavens. And I wondered a space, and then went on my way to the hill looking over the happy valley, where I had, as I thought, fallen asleep; and when I had reached it, I awoke and behold I had dreamed a wild and wayward dream.

SCRAPS.

SCRAPS

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.

"Inest sua gratia parvis."

THE following verses are taken from a privately circulated volume of Poems. The minor merit of skill in versification they display in an unusual degree. They are in the heroic measure, and in exactly the medium --which is so rare-between confining the sense monotonously to the couplet, and breaking the rhythm too much into that of blank verse. In the higher beauties and powers of poetical composition it will be seen that they abound most lavishly.

A SKETCH FROM REAL LIFE.

"Tis said she once was beautiful;—and still,
(For 'tis not years that can have wrought her ill,)
Deep rays of loveliness around her form

Beam, as the rainbow that succeeds the storm
Brightens a glorious ruin. In her face,

Though something touched by sorrow, you may trace
The all she was, when first in life's young spring,

Like the gay bee-bird on delighted wing,
She stooped to cull the honey from each flower
That bares its breast in joy's luxuriant bower!
O'er her pure forehead, pale as moonlit snow,
Her ebon locks are parted,—and her brow
Stands forth like morning from the shades of night,
Serene, though clouds hang over it.The bright