THE NIGHTINGALE. 1. No cloud, no relique of the sunken day 2. All is still: A balmy night! and though the stars be dim, 3. And hark! the Nightingale begins its song, 4. That crowds and hurries and precipitates And I know a grove 6. And one low piping sound more sweet than all— That should you close your eyes, you might almost On moon-lit bushes, Whose dewy leaflets are but half disclosed You may perchance behold them on the twigs, Their bright, bright eyes, their eyes both bright and full Glistening, while many a glow-worm in the shade Lights up her love-torch. 7. A most gentle Maid, Who dwelleth in her hospitable home To something more than nature in the grove) And oft a moment's space, What time the moon was lost behind a cloud, 8. Hath heard a pause of silence; till the moon On blossomy twig still swinging from the breeze, And to that motion tune his wanton song 10. 11. 12. My dear babe, Who capable of no articulate sound Mars all things with his imitative lisp, How he would place his hand beside his ear, And bid us listen! And I deem it wise To make him Nature's playmate. He knows well And he beheld the moon and hushed at once While his fair eyes that swam with undropped tears Well! It is a father's tale. But if that Heaven Should give me life, his childhood shall grow up -S. T. Coleridge (1772–1834). 'Most musical:' this is a quotation from Milton's Il Penseroso: "'Less Philomel will deign a song, Sweet-bird that shunn'st the noise of folly, VEGETABLE CELLS. 1. The microscope is the great revealer of the secrets of vegetable life to man. By its aid we know that the whole edifice of the vegetable world is built up from the cell, and that the organs of plants, however diverse from one another, all have cells as their primary elements. 2. Vegetable cells are extremely small, in some instances not exceeding the thousandth part of an inch in diameter. They are globular at first, but as they increase and press on one another their form is frequently changed. So minute as to be invisible to the naked eye they are nevertheless animated by a strange plastic force which causes them to increase with amazing rapidity. It is these living atoms which yearly cover our soil with verdure, and in spring awaken to life the vast forest or prairie after their winter sleep. 3. As they combine with one another, these wonderful elements become fibres or vessels, and when these again are grouped together, they form roots and twigs and leaves and flowers. So rapid in some cases is this process, that a body of cells, not a hundredth part of the size of a pin's head, sometimes produces in a single night a plant which reaches the size of a large cannon ball. This takes place in some kinds of Fungus. In 4. Notwithstanding the extreme minuteness of the interiors of the cells they still contain bodies of various kinds which are of great importance to the plant. the leaves, for example, some of the cells are filled with small granules which impart to vegetation the beautiful green colour it everywhere displays. Fine crystals of many various shapes have been observed in the cells, as in those of the Rhubarb plant, while even minute animals, |