he dared not break his oath of obedience; would not desert my heroic chief. I shared but oh! I shall never forget that wild the tumulus of the renowned Galga, and and agonised countenance, the sternly guarded his slumbers till the ruthless compressed lips, the awful despairing Saxon tore me away from the dust of my glare of those fierce burning eyes as he dear master, and compelled me to become advanced to the altar, drew the broad an inmate of this museum. heavy knife, raised it high in air! Swiftly E. LAMPLOUGH. it descended and found a sheath in the bosom of the fair Biondu; again it flashed in the sunlight red with the gory drops; again it descended and pierced the heart of the hapless Eubate,-sister and brother, priest and priestess, slumbered together in death. All was consternation; warriors, druids, and priestesses looked on that fearful scene as if frozen into stone.

the

At this moment a messenger entered grove, wildly shouting that the Romans were approaching the island in their flat-bottomed boats. In an instant every warrior, Druid, and priestess repaired to the beach. The Romans were approaching in their boats, their arms and armour shining in the bright sunbeams, and at this sight the Britons were transported with fury. They shouted their battle cry; the Druids with extended arms invoked the vengeance of heaven upon the foe, and poured their dreadest curses upon their heads; whilst the priestesses rushed hither and thither waving lighted torches on high, and uttering appalling yells of frenzied rage. The foe, struck with

sudden horror, paused irresolute, but the standard-bearers, incited by the reproaches of their general, leapt into the water, disdaining to desert their colours; the whole army followed. Fierce was the conflict which ensued: the Britons poured volleys of darts and stone upon their hated foes, who, sheltering themselves with their huge shields, fell with irresistible fury upon the half-naked Britons. Now was I in my glory! I hurled myself with tremendous force upon all who opposed; all gave way before me, But alas; for my noble master! He fell on that fearful day, and with him died all hope of victory. Druids, warriors, and priestesses died on that bloody field-no quarter was asked or given; but one band of warriors escaped to the mainland bearing with then: the body of the hero Galga, I was ti htly gasped in his clenched fist; we had been fast allies in life, in death

SEAWEED.

"Call us not weeds, we are flowers of the sea."
By the billows roughly torn
From thy rocky home;
Hurried through the troubled waters
By the wild sea-foam.
Drifted onwards by the ocean,

From some distant cave,
Borne along in ceaseless motion
Of the rippling wave.

Prostrate, left upon the shore
By the ebbing tide.

Part buried 'mong the yellow sand,
'Reft of half thy pride.

Oft despised as weeds so worthless,
Still ye speak of hours
On the sea-shore gaily culling,
Ye, sweet ocean-flowers!

DREAMS.

ZINGARA.

WHAT is a dream? A thing gone by!
Fleeting and frail as the breath of morn;
Bringing back mem'ries of other days,
With voices of dear ones, dead and gone:
Such is a dream-a vision past;

Oh! would that some of them could but last
Boyhood's dreams are bright with hope;
Fame and ambition both look fair;
But he wakes to know 'tis but a dream,
And sighs to find it no longer there.

E'en like all dreams, 'tis gone, 'tis past,
Too light, too transient far to last.
The captive, dreaming of liberty,

For awhile forgets his prison-cells;
In fancy he sits by his cottage-door,
And lists to the chime of evening bells.

He smiles in his sleep-it may not last;
Dream on, poor heart! it will soon be past.
But fairer than all is the dream of love,

Which with the soul's existence blends,
Endearing and brightening life's rough paths,
And which over all things sunshine sends.
But like the rest-a dream of the past
On earth that may not even last.

Yet though they fade, I would still dream on:
Dreams tell my soul of something higher;
Better a fleeting joy like this

Than naught to calm the spirit's fire.

Welcome, then, dreams, though so soon past,
Ye temper the roughness of life's keen blast.
IMOGINE.

SUNSET: A FRAGMENT.

IT is sunset, and the sun is shedding its evening rays, with even unaccustomed brilliancy, as if it were unwilling to retire to rest without having cheered some more sad hearts, and imparted some of its brightness to the spirits of those who are cast down, or who lie upon a bed of sickness unable to breathe God's pure air under the blue vault of heaven, and to whom the bright sunbeams come as messengers of mercy, and reminders of the haven to which they are hastening, where they will for ever live in the presence of the Sun of Righteousness. And among the many whose few remaining hours are cheered by God's bright sunbeams is one to whose last words we will listen, as he utters them brokenly, and in a feeble, though clear, voice, to his beloved wife and children as they stand weeping at his bedside.

"My Nellie! my darling children! I am going soon to leave you,-before the sun has risen again I shall be with God. I thank Him, my darlings, that I can leave you in His hands-knowing that He order eth all things well. Nellie, will you draw aside the curtains a little ?-I should like to see the sunset once more before I die. I thank God that He has permitted me to live until now, that I may see it once more. The sunbeams come to me as God's messengers-messengers of love and mercy from Him who will comfort you when I am gone. Our Father has been very gracious to me all through my lifetime, and I thank Him for letting me see one more glorious sunset before I go where there is no more night. All is joy now and peace. Christ has been the light of life to me; and now that my earthly sun is setting, I thank God that I can say that the sunbeams of His light and love still hover around me; and I thank God, my darlings, that I can feel that the sunbeams will not desert you when I am gone. And when I have left you, and you see the sunset in all its glory, think of what your dying father said, and pray God that His light may follow you all through your

lives."

And so, peacefully and quietly, passed away the life of the Christian, and those who were left behind ever treasured up in their minds his dying words. And often in after life, as they gazed upon the sunset, they remembered those tender counsels, and prayed, that like their father, they too might be illuminated by rays of that light

"which shineth more and more, even unto the perfect day."

Such, dear friends, is the work of God's sunbeams, carrying light, life, and joy with them wherever they go. May we not be something like the sunbeams? There are many lessons, I think, which we may learn from a sunbeam. May it not be possible for some of us to be messengers of light? In the home of the poor and the rich, of the ignorant and the learned, in cottage as in palaces, shines the sunbeam. May we not be as a sunbeam to some one? Is it not possible for every one of us to help to diffuse God's light and love among those by whom we are surrounded? Let us all strive to be more like the sunbeam.

As the rising sun is an apt emblem of the Christian beginning his godly race, so is the setting sun an emblem of the race run and of the victory won-of a life spent in the service of God, a life soon to be transplanted from earth to heaven, and, while lingering here, shedding around it rays of light, and helping, thereby, to cheer and light up the path of many a fainting spirit. IMPRIMO.

AN IRISH BULL. DURING a morning call at the house of a friend in London, a young Irish lady was recently defending her country with characteristic warmth and eagerness against charges concerning its bull-making propensities made by a clever and witty English gentleman present. "Well, well!" he at last smilingly exclaimed, "if you won't admit you commit bulls, you must at all events confess you commit an outrageous number of murders!" "True," cried the Irish girl; "but even our Irish murders are not at all so bad as your Eng lish ones. It is seldom you hear of an Irishman staining his own hearthstone with blood! If his wife offend him, a few hard words, or at worst a few hard blows, is her punishment; but if your English boor's wife offend him, ten to one she will go to bed to-night to rise in the morning and find her throat cut!"-L. B-KY.

"A strange anomaly !-a man with a womanly heart; a heart which, despite all its world-scars, is. at the depth, tender and pure as any maiden's. There are such, thank God! but they are few indeed.”— Miss Muloch.

GLEANINGS FROM MANY FIELDS.

"CONVERSATION.-Could the sum of knowledge among the French women be compared with that among the English, the advantage, even by the acknowledgment of the French themselves, would be found on our side. But it seems strange, if the conversational powers be compared, the French have decidedly the advantage. English women talk too much about themselves-that subject on which all are said to be so fluent, not to be eloquent-their "AN ALLEGORY. A father and son personal concerns, their petty indisposi- were on a journey. It was late in the tions, forgetful of what Dr. Gregory, so afternoon, but still clear day, when they famed for his conversational powers, used came to a cottage by the road-side, and the always to say-A lady should never father went in and borrowed a lighted speak of her health except to her phy-lantern. The young man was exceedingly sician.' French conversation is a war amused, and perhaps he was a little vexed. with blunted weapons, unless, indeed, we If anyone should meet them carrying a add that the high polish of the weapon lamp in the sunshine, it would look so sometimes prevents us from seeing that absurd; and what in the world was the it really has an edge. Almost any draw-use of it? But the older traveller took the ing-room in Paris will exemplify this. young man's jibes good-humouredly, and Quick, rapid repartee-the lightning flash only answered, The night cometh." And that shines and is gone, but another and it did come! They passed no more cotanother responds. The brilliant corusca- tages, but they got into a thick forest, tions spring meteor-like from the moment, where the daylight faded so rapidly that and vanish with the passing moment. Our the lantern already shone a welcome comconversation may perhaps move on with a panion. Not only was the sun gone down, more steady pace, but it is heavy and un- but the last streak of twilight had vanished. varied; it may be more substantial, but it It was dreadfully dark, but the good little is less exhilirating. It rolls on, a good lantern spread a cloth of gold before the solid waggon, well loaded, but rather steps of the travellers, and did not let one rumbling; and we perceive more clearly shadow or phantom come near them. At the clumsiness of its movements as we last the road divided. 'Straight on!' cried compare it with the light and rapid cabri- the youth. Not so fast,' said the elder; olet, moving swiftly and gracefully along, for though the path to the right was less and perhaps the more swiftly and the more trodden, perhaps it was the one they gracefully from being encumbered with less should take, when fortunately they espied weight. Bishop Beveridge, it is said, a finger-post, and holding the lamp as high resolved 'never to deliver his words out to as they could, they read the direction, and the world by incubus, but by weight; found that they would have gone utterly not by quantity, but by quality. The wrong had they not taken the narrow and practice of most of us is, it is to be feared, neglected footway. Rejoicing at their esin exact contrast to the resolution of this cape, they pushed on merrily, and by-andexcellent prelate. Avoid all exaggerated bye, with his frisky spirits, the youngster and hyperbolical expressions, all strong went ahead, and was far in advance of the terms and unnecessary exclamations. They lantern, when the old man heard a plash are used, it is presumed, under the idea of and a shout, and running up, was just in giving emphasis to a sentence; but they time to help ashore his impetuous boy, have a contrary effect as regards 'evil who had soused into a stagnant pool, and speaking. Let your conversation be of who crawled up the bank pale and shiverthings rather than of persons. If you are ing, with the leeches and duckweed clingled to speak of persons, be careful not to ing to his garments. You see the road say anything respecting the absent which was not through the pool, but round it; you would not be equally willing to say if you should walk in the light.' And so they

those persons were present. Bishop Beveridge's rule on this head is a golden oneI am resolved, by the grace of God, to speak of other men's sins only before their faces, and of their virtues only behind their backs.' Were this rule strictly adhered to, it would effectually prevent two crying evils of common discourse-detraction of the absent, and flattery of the present."— M. A. Stodart.

"CIRCULATION OF MATTER.-Notwithstanding the constant return of plant and animal to the parent earth, all the mineral matter they contain does not remain where they are deposited. Rains and rivers daily remove from the soil a portion of the materials which are so essential to the perpetuation of animal and vegetable forms, and transport them to the sea. Thus the natural store of mineral food becomes daily smaller, and the land in consequence less fitted for the growth of plants. But for this contingency also there is a provision. The solid rocks which form the crust of the earth contain all these essential forms of inorganic matter in minute proportion. As these rocks crumble and mingle with the soil, they yield constant small supplies of each ingredient of phosphoric acid, lime, magnesia, &c., &c. These the springs which trickle through the rocks from above or from beneath dissolve and diffuse whereever they go. Thus in many localities a moderate supply is day by day brought to the surface-soil to replace that which, by natural causes, is constantly removed. And the great seas help in this work of resto ration. They heave their lofty waves into the air and break in foam, that the rough wind may take up and bear back again to the land a portion of the salty spoils with which the rivers are ever enriching them. And then, lest these small daily restorations should not succeed in perpetually maintaining the necessary richness of the soil in mineral plant-food, periods of convulsion come at last to their aid. Great physical revolutions from time to time intervene. Now all at once, and now by slow degrees, the bottom of the sea becomes dry. Land and water change places, as they have often done during the geological history of the globe; and after each change new races of plants forthwith begin to take up what rivers and rains had carried down into former sea-beds. The same mineral matter begins to play over again the same part as before in the constant succession of animal and vegetable life! In this we see another long cycle, through which certain ingredients of the solid earth are ever slowly moving."-Chemistry of Common Life.

again set out together. As the stillness of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us deepened, they sometimes heard a rustle in from all sin.'"-The Lamp and the Lanthe bushy undergrowth, and distant howl-tern. ings, or a sharp snarl near at hand warned them that the beasts of the forest were abroad; and once or twice they could see a pair of fiery opals glaring at them; but as soon as they turned the full flame of the lantern in that direction, the goblin retreated. We need not tell the whole adventures of the night, but at last they came to a place where a heavy moan arrested them, and searching in the copse they found a man stretched on the ground, and badly hurt. He had either received a blow on the head, or he had inhaled some stupifying ether, for at first he talked very incoherently. It turned out, that as he had been coming along, a gentleman in black had prevailed on him to cast his lantern into the ditch; and that soon after some foot-pad had knocked him down, and dragged him off the road, and robbed him of all his money. As soon as he was somewhat restored, they set him on his beast, and journeyed on together. The day was breaking, and the forest was thinning off on the margin of a magnificent domain; they looked forth on vine-clad hills and a shining river; and though the palace itself could be descried but dimly, it was so far up in the dazzling sunrise, they could easily make out many mansions. I am home!' cried the old man; and the full morning was reflected from his face as he added, Mine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is And as he embraced his very far off.' comrades, he handed over the lantern to his son, and said, Keep this as a light unto your feet, and a lamp unto your path! The youth prized the keepsake; he found constant occasion for it. He brightened up the four windows by which it sent its light backward and forward, and on either side; and with the point of a diamond he traced these mottoes on them: Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.' When thou goest it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light.' We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the dayIf we walk in star arise in your hearts.' the light, as God is in the light, we have llowship one with another, and the blood

"Lowliness is the base of every virtue, and he who goes the lowest builds the safest."-P. J. Bailey.

However, some determined they would try THE LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN