SCRAPS

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.

"Inest sua gratia parvis."

THE following song is the composition of a gentleman of note in the literary world. It was written on the occasion of an annual revel held in a forest in Essex; and possesses, we think, much of that fanciful spirit which abounds in the poetry of our old masters which relates to the sports of the greenwood-tree :—

2.

Foot it, till the wearied sun

Slumbers in a sea of gold;

And fairies, who the day-light shun,
Like gay mortals, revels hold.
Then, as they trim the glow-worm light,
And on the moon, their mistress, call,
Echo shall come, a viewless sprite,

And sing the sweetest song of all.

3.

Sport and dance the hours away,

Echo! Echo! &c.

Till the coy fays, who watch the morrow,
At peeping of the envious day,

Bid you
"good bye" with looks of sorrow.
Then homeward to your couch at last,
And in gay dreams our sports recall,
While Echo, bringing back the past,
Shall sing the sweetest song of all!

Echo! Echo! &c.

At the celebrated institution for the Deaf and Dumb, at Paris, one of the élèves was asked the meaning of the word "gratitude:" he immediately took his pen and wrote-" The memory of the heart."

It is curious to observe the literal meaning of the first names which were bestowed upon mankind-omitting Cain and his wicked posterity:

Adam, man-Seth, placed-Enosh, miserable-Kenan, possession-Mahalaleel, the praised God-Jared, descending-Enoch, teaching-Methuselah, his death produces Noah, rest. On connecting the words, they teach this great truth:-Man being placed in a mise

rable condition, the blessed God descending shall teach that his death produces to debased man rest.

Bon homme et grand homme tout à la fois; réunion sans laquelle on n'est jamais complètement ni l'un ni l'autre; car le génie donne plus d'étendue à la bonté, et la bonté, plus de naturel au génie.-Mémoires de R. de St. J. d'Angely.

Cet amour moral, qui enchaine ou domine l'amour physique; ou, du moins, le voile et le pare.-Ib.

Mors mortis morti mortem nisi morte dedisset,

Eternæ vitæ janua clausa foret.—Porson.

The heart of man is like the creeping plant, which sickens and withers unless it has something round which it can entwine.

HORACE, ODE 22, LIB. 1.

The man who leads a sober life ('),
Who covets not his neighbour's wife-

Who neither drinks, nor games, nor swears—
But pays his debts, and says his prayers-
Through all the throng unhurt may go,

From Temple-bar to Rotten-row (2),
Nor fear to cross the crowded street,
Where tilburies and coaches meet,
Hurrying, like engines, o'er the stones,
Regardless of pedestrian bones.

For 'tother day, as deep in thought on
My pretty friend, Miss Polly Horton (3),

(') Integer vitæ, &c.

(2) Sive per Syrtæis, &c,
(3) Namque me silvâ, &c.

I strolled along Pall-Mall, good Lord!
"Mad dog! mad dog!" the people roar'd―
Moseley his doctrines could not shew by a
Much stronger case of hydrophobia (')—
Stickless I stood (2)-but 'stead of biting me
The dog rushed by, content with frighting me.
Let me on board the Hecla go (3)
To regions of eternal snow,

A night of six months long to tarry,
With that bold seaman, Captain Parry—
Send me to India's burning coast (1),
Where the sun's hot enough to roast-
Midst men who 'stead of shoes wear sandals-
Your Malabars and Coromandels-

I'll think on her who smiles so prettily (5),
Who looks so fair, who talks so wittily-
Where'er my destinies may carry me-
-Provided always she don't marry me.

Comme nous nous entretenions des tentations du monde, je dis au père trappiste, "combien je l'admirois d'avoir ainsi tout sacrifié pour s'y derober." "Nous sommes des poltrons," me dit-il—“ qui nous sommes retirés dans une forteresse parce que nous ne nous sentions pas le courage de nous battre en plaine."-Mme. de Staël.

Les êtres sur qui notre cœur

Avoit concentré sa tendresse,

Et fondé, pour jamais, l'espoir de son bonheur,
Nous sont ravis dès leur jeunesse,

Et le tems jaloux ne nous laisse
Que les regrets et la douleur.-Dumoustier.

() Quale portentum, &c.

(*) Fugit inermem.

(3) Pone me pigris,&c.

(4) Pone sub luna, &c.

(5) Dulce ridentem, &c.

At Fahlun, the capital of Dalecarlia, the following discovery was made some years ago. In working to establish a communication between two shafts of a mine, the body of a miner was discovered, in a state of perfect preservation, and impregnated with vitriolic water. It was quite soft, but hardened on being exposed to the air. No one could identify the body. It was merely remembered that the accident by which it had been buried in the bosom of the earth had happened above fifty years before. All inquiries about the name of the sufferer had already ceased, when a decrepit old woman, supported on crutches, slowly advanced towards the corpse,—and immediately knew it to be that of a young man to whom she had been promised in marriage more than half a century before! She threw herself on the body, which had all the appearance of a bronze statue, and bathed it with her tears,-frantic with joy at having once again beheld the object of her affections. It is easier to conceive than to trace the singular contrast afforded by that couple. The one, buried above fifty years before, still retaining the appearance of youth, while the other, weighed down by age, evinced all the fervency of youthful love.