Soft spring steps forth with gentle grace,
And smiles upon the plain.

The rivers burst their icy bands,
The birds resume their song;

The laughing Nymphs, now joining hands,
Dance merrily along.

Ah! fleeting are the scenes of earth:
How swift the moments fly!

Scarce do they spring to joyous birth

Ere they begin to die.

While Spring breathes sweetly from the north

Burnt Summer hastens on;

Then Autumn pours his bounty forth,

And Lo! the year is done.

The beauties of the vernal sky

Shall hastening moons restore; But in the dust vain man must lie To rise and bloom no more.

The choicest blessings earth can give,
For transient use were made:

'Tis but a fleeting day we live,

Then turn to dust and shade.

AN AUTUMN THOUGHT.

BY J. BAYARD TAYLOR.

AUTHOR OF "VIEWS A-FOOT."

ERE arches high the forest's golden ceiling
And hides the heaven of blue,

Save where a dim and lonely ray is stealing
The twining branches through.

Here, mossed with age, stands many a grey old column,
That props the mighty hall;

Naught breaks the silence, undisturbed and solemn,
Save when the dry leaves fall.

The world's annoyings to the wide air flinging,
Alone I tread its floor:

What joy, to feel a purer thought upspringing,
Within the wood once more!

Here the good angels that my childhood guarded,
Come to my side again,

And by their presence is my soul rewarded

For many an hour of pain.

The Summer's beauty, by the frost o'ershaded,
May be with sadness fraught,

Yet, wandering through her long pavilions faded,
I read a joyous thought.

Hopes that around us in their beauty hover,
Fall, like this forest-rain;

But, the stern Winter of Misfortune over,
They mount and shine again!

The spring-like verdure of the heart may perish Beneath some frosty care,

But many a bud which Sorrow learned to cherish, Will bloom again as fair.

Keep but the artless and confiding spirit

That looked from Childhood's eye, And Life's long pathway will for thee inherit A bliss that cannot die!

ANECDOTE OF FREDERIC THE GREAT.

Translated from the French.

BY E. Mr. S.

REDERIC the Great, informed of the death of one of his chaplains, a man very learned and religious, determined that the one who should succeed him should not have less learning and merit, and with this view he employed the following means to assure himself of the talents of one of the many competitors who presented themselves :—he told the candidate that he would himself furnish him the following Sabbath at the moment when he should preach at the royal chapel a text, from which he must be able on the spot to compose a sermon. The ecclesiastic accepted the proposition. The news of such a singular test was soon spread abroad,