A COQUETTE PUNISHED.

Ellen was fair, and knew it, too,
As other village beauties do,
Whose mirrors never lie;
Secure of any swain she chose,
She smiled on half a dozen beaux,
And, reckless of a lover's woes,
She cheated these and taunted those,
For how could any one suppose
A clown could take her eye?"

But whispers through the village ran
That Edgar was the happy man
The maid designed to bless;
For wheresoever moved the fair,
The youth was, like her shadow, there,
And rumor boldly matched the pair,
For village folks will guess.

Edgar did love, but was afraid
To make confession to the maid,
So bashful was the youth:
Certain to meet a kind return,
He let the flame in secret burn,
Till from his lips the maid should learn
Officially the truth.

At length, one morn to take the air,
The youth and maid, in one-horse chair,
A long excursion took.

Edgar had nerved his bashful heart
The Sweet confession to impart,
For ah! suspense had caused a smart
He could no longer brook.

He drove, nor slackened once his reins,
Till Hempstead's wide-extended plains
Seemed joined to skies above;

Nor house, nor tree, nor shrub was near
The rude and dreary scene to cheer,
Nor soul within ten miles to hear,
And still poor Edgar's silly fear
Forbade to speak of love.

At last one desperate effort broke
The bashful spell, and Edgar spoke
With most persuasive tone;

Recounted past attendance o'er
And then, by all that's lovely, swore
That he would love forever more,
If she'd become his own.

The maid in silence heard his prayer,
Then, with a most provoking air,
She tittered in his face:

And said, "Tis time for you to know
A lively girl must have a beau,
Just like a reticule-for show:
And at her nod to come and go;
But he should know his place.

"Your penetration must be dull
To let a hope within your skull
Of matrimony spring.

Your wife? ha, ha! upon my word,
The thought is laughably absurd
As anything I ever heard-

I never dreamed of such a thing!"

The lover sudden dropped his rein When on the centre of the plain; "The linch-pin's out!" he cried; "Be pleased one moment to alight, Till I can set the matter right, That we may safely ride,"

He said, and handed out the fair;
Then laughing, cracked his whip in air,
And wheeling round his horse and chair,
Exclaimed, "Adieu, I leave you there,
In solitude to roam."

"What mean you, sir?" the maiden cried,
"Did you invite me out to ride,

To leave me here without a guide?

Nay, stop, and take me home."

"What! take you home!" exclaimed the beau; 'Indeed, my dear, I'd like to know

How such a hopeless wish could grow,

Or in your bosom spring.

What! take Ellen home! ha, ha! upon my word The thought is laughably absurd

As any thing I ever heard

I never dreamed of such a thing!"

THE DISHONEST POLITICIAN.-H. W. BEECHER.

If there be a man on earth whose character should be framed of the most sterling honesty, and whose conduct should conform to the most scrupulous morality, it is the man who administers public affairs. The most romantic notions of integrity are here not extravagant. As, under our institutions, public men will be, upon the whole, fair exponents of the character of their constituents, the plainest way to secure honest public men is to inspire those who make them with a right understanding of what political character ought to be.

The lowest of politicians is that man who seeks to gratify an invariable selfishness by pretending to seek the public good. For a profitable popularity, he accommodates himself to all opinions, to all dispositions, to every side, and to each prejudice. He is a mirror, with no face of its own, but a smooth surface from which each man of ten thousand may see himself reflected. He glides from man to man, coinciding with their views, pretending their feelings, simulating their tastes; with this one, he hates a man; with that one, he loves the same man; he favors a law, and he dislikes it; he approves, and opposes; he is on both sides at once, and seemingly wishes that he could be on one side more than both sides.

He has associated his ambition, his interests, and his affections, with a party. He prefers, doubtless, that his side should be victorious by the best means, and under the championship of good men; but rather than lose the victory, he will consent to any means, and follow any man. Thus, with a general desire to be upright, the exigency of his party constantly pushes him to dishonorable deeds. He gradually adopts two characters, a personal and a political character. All the requisitions of his conscience he obeys in his private character; all the requisitions of his party he obeys in his political conduct. In one character he is a man of principle; in the other, a man of mere expedients. As a man, he means to be veracious, honest, moral; as a politician, he is deceitful, cunning, unscrupulous,- anything for party.

As a

man, he abhors the slimy demagogue; as a politician, he employs him as a scavenger. As a man, he shrinks from the flagitiousness of slander; as a politician, he permits it, smiles upon it in others, rejoices in the success gained by it. As a man, he respects no one who is rotten in heart; as a politician, no man through whom victory may be gained can be too bad.

For his religion he will give up all his secular interests; but for his politics he gives up even his religion. He adores virtue, and rewards vice. Whilst bolstering up unrighteous measures, and more unrighteous men, he prays for the advancement of religion, and justice, and honor! I would to God that his prayer might be answered upon his own political head; for never was there a place where such blessings were more needed! What a heart has that man, who can stand in the very middle of the Bible, with its transcendent truths raising their glowing fronts on every side of him, and feel no inspiration but that of immorality and meanness! Do not tell me of any excuses! It is a shame to attempt an excuse! If there were no religion; if that vast sphere, out of which glow all the supereminent truths of the Bible, was a mere emptiness and void; yet, methinks, the very idea of Fatherland, the exceeding preciousness of the laws and liberties of a great people, would enkindle such a high and noble enthusiasm that all baser feelings would be consumed! But if the love of country, a sense of character, a manly regard for integrity, the example of our most illustrious men, the warnings of religion and all its solicitations, and the prospect of the future, cannot inspire a man to anything higher than a sneaking, truckling, dodging scramble for fraudulent fame and dishonest bread, it is because such a creature has never felt one sensation of manly virtue; - it is because his heart is a howling wilderness, inhospitable to innocence.

TO THE TERRESTRIAL GLOBE.

BY A MISERABLE WRETCH.*

Roll on, thou ball, roll on!
Through pathless realms of space
Roll on!

What though I'm in a sorry case?
What though I cannot meet my bills?
What though I suffer toothache's ills?
What though I swallow countless pills?
Never you mind!

Roll on!

It chanced a farmer, with his son,
From market walked, their labor done.
The son, in travels far abroad,

With scenes remote his mind had stored;
Yet home returning not more wise,
Though richer in amusing lies.

A mastiff dog now passed them by,
And caught the son's admiring eye.
"This dog," he said, "puts me in mind
Of one far nobler of its kind,
Which in my travels once I met,
Larger than any known as yet;
It was, I think, as large, indeed,
As neighbor Stedman's famous steed;
I'm sure you never had a horse

To rival it in size or force."

*W. S. Gilbert, Author of "Yarn of the Nancy Bell." See No. 7, p. 10.