Not Heliogabalus nor old Apicius,

Nor the famed suicidal cook Vattel, Ever concocted banquet more delicious, Or one so eagerly devour'd. To tell Th' effect of those restoratives auspicious,

Transcends my power; in short, we felt quite well, And in an access of hysteric gladness,

Shriek'd, laugh'd, and jump'd with every sign of madness.

So kind the maiden, that I felt a hope,

Perchance, that she might aid us to descend,
So I uncoil'd, and lower'd down a rope
With a small grappling iron at its end,
Making a sign,-(Oh! there is ample scope
In signs, if people will but comprehend,)
That she should stick the hook into the ground,
Or fasten it to anything she found.

As quick to execute as understand,

The tackle to a withered stump she tied, Then lifting up each alabaster hand,

She bow'd, as if to say-" I have complied."

So did we gently pull ourselves to land,

And mooring the balloon that it might ride
Safely at anchor, out we jumped, enchanted
To find our feet on terra firma planted.
How shall I paint it-where begin-how frame
Language descriptive of a scene so rare?
Luxora (so the nymph was call'd) must claim
Precedence of my pen. That fairest fair,
Bending one knee as to the ground we came,
Thrice touched her forehead with a reverent air,
Then smiling, like an opening rose in June,
Appeared to give us welcome to the moon.

All the Lunarians, you must keep in mind,
Are somewhat smaller than the human race,
Bearing the same proportion to mankind

That the moon does to earth. In stature, grace,
And symmetry, Luxora's form combined

All that we dream of sylphs, although her face More round and moon-like than we see on earth, Show'd her to be a girl of lunar birth.

Yet was it fair, most exquisitely fair,

Her cheeks just beaming with a roseate light,
Contrasting with the yellow silken hair,

Which fell in tendrils o'er her shoulders white.
Her round ox-eye with Juno's might compare,
Save that its hue was moon-like, with a bright
Spot in the centre of the purest hazel,
More sparkling than the pupil of the gazelle.

Her tight-made boddice of a golden thread,
The budding beauties of her bust conceal'd,

Her petticoat of dark flamingo red

Half of her fair unstocking'd leg revealed ; No wonder that with such a foot, her tread

Was light as gossamer. No nymph lark-heeled, Not Dian, Atalanta, nor Aurora,

Had legs so lissom as the light Luxora.

When I had gazed my fill, no easy task,
I look'd around me at the landscape fair.
Oh! what a master's pencil would it ask
To paint a scene so beautifully rare,
Where the whole face of Nature wore a mask,
That gave her features a diminish'd air,
And yet enhanced their charms, as if she sought
To prove how well in miniature she wrought.

A golden bloom illumed the velvet grass,

Whose flowers gave forth a perfume rich and rare, The tinted waters look'd like purple glass

Flowing through meads auriferous;-the air
Thrill'd with the songs of birds that far surpass
Earth's nightingales in summer evenings fair;
And when we raised our ravished eyes on high
What lovely visions glorified the sky!

Prismatic clouds assumed the form and hues
Of a grand gallery of pictures splendid,
Where every taste its favourite scene might choose,
For here a gorgeous landscape lay extended,
An air-drawn Paradise; and there sea-views,
With figures, flowers, and cattle-pieces blended.
All, when a zephyr wafted them from sight,
To form again more beautifully bright.

While I stood thus in an admiring trance,

Green, who had gather'd and devour'd a mango, Now, bowing, to Luxora would advance,

Now twirl around her in a mad fandango, Crying at times, as he increased his dance, "I'll show you, Miss, how rapidly I can go," And laughing louder as he capered round, At poor Luxora's wonderment profound.

Guy's wonder was a stupor, every sight

And every moment seeming to increase it: His first quotation was a bull outright,

"Steterunt coma, vox faucibus hæsit,"

For he was bald, and spoke.-" Who," quoth our wight, Quis tale credat ? even when he sees it?

66

Well may the moon be called decus astrorum,

Where everything is dulce et decorum.”

And now Luxora, tripping o'er the glades
That form'd its outskirt, led us to a wood,

Within whose fragrant and sequestered shades
A small pavilion picturesquely stood,

With windows looking down, through green arcades,
On a far lake, whose waves the zephyr woo'd,

Or sped some vessel on its sunny way,

That dash'd the waters into sparkling spray.

In this retreat, where everything betray'd
Simplicity, refined by female taste,

Our fair neat-handed Phillis-now our maid
And hostess too-(both characters she graced)

A plain repast upon the table laid,

Waiting upon us with such looks of chaste And reverent homage in her beaming features, 'Twas clear she took us for celestial creatures.

Whene'er we spoke this answer still we heard"Squanch zimzom squish," whose lunar sense implies, "I cannot understand a single word;"

But we had little need of colloquies, For what we wanted instantly occurr'd,

As if she read our very thoughts and eyes; Such was the intuition of this airy,

Brave, graceful, gracious, deferential fairy.

Our meal concluded, with her tiny hand
Of ivory she pointed to a door,

With signs to open it, at which command

We pass'd within, and mark'd upon the floor Three couches ready to receive our band;

Each at its head a plume of feathers bore,

Each was with rushes strewn, and flowers whose balm
Inspires a sleep refreshing, sweet, and calm.

When we return'd, behold! the nymph had fled,
Or vanish'd as by magic from the place:

We listen'd, but we could not hear her tread;
We gazed around, no object could we trace;

So to beguile our lonesomeness we sped

Forth to the circling forest-not in chace Of the fair fugitive-but just to see Whate'er might move our curiosity.

Oft will my memory that stroll renew,

So strange and lovely was the woodland show; Each wild flower, shrub, and tree that met our view Resembled those that in our tropics grow

Palm, cedar, cypress, banyan, bamboo,

And many more whose names we did not know,
Were laced together in alcoves and bowers,
By parasitic plants, enwreath'd with flowers.

The dove, gold-pheasant, humming-bird, maccaw,
Swung to and fro upon the high festoons,
While, sporting in the lower boughs, we saw
Opossums, squirrels, monkeys, and racoons,
And all by some mysterious lunar law

Had round flat faces, just like little moons;
Even the animals unknown on earth
Bearing this token of their lunar birth.

If they were strange to us, 'twas clearer still

That we were strange to them; for, as we sped,
The birds flew off with startled screamings shrill,
While quickly disappear'd each quadruped;
New forms we glimpsed which scarcely waited till
We came in sight, when instantly they fled.
We laugh'd at their alarms, but far more pleasant
Was the wild panic of a passing peasant.

Thus we pursued our fear-diffusing walk

Till evening's shadows fell, when home we hied
Of fair Luxora's bravery to talk—

The only being who unterrified

Had faced us, and not only scorn'd to baulk
Our hopes of aid, but kindly had supplied
Such food and lodging, we could almost fancy
The whole some scene of fairy necromancy.
We saw the sun behind the mountains set
In all the effulgence of prismatic glory,
Then gladly to our couches did we get,

To chat awhile of our surprising story;
But the flowers soporific would not let
Our talk be more than brief and transitory.
For we all sunk in balmy slumber soon:

So pass'd our first day's sojourn in the moon.

A HAZY NIGHT.

Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion's neck; and he himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect.”

"If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life. No; I am no such thing: I am a man, as other men are!"-Midsummer Night's Dream.

"THE Earl of Z

—was informed that bail would be required to answer at the sessions the serious charge of feloniously taking away Mr. Golightly's knocker, when, at length, his Lordship condescended to apprise Mr. Burnsides, the clerk, of his name and title. The worthy magistrate, on learning who the noble offender was, expressed his regret that one who should know the laws so well should so well forget them; and directed him, with a suitable admonition, to pay a fine of 5s., and be discharged."

"Um!" said a very dry-looking, sleek, homely personage, in the back, comfortable room at the Harp, in St. George's Fields (perhaps within the Rules), as he drew the candle, with an umbrella-wick, from between the evening paper and his own spectacles, and at the same time put down his pipe, slow as himself;-" Um! Well now, I don't see how that is. I don't-I can't say I do. I don't see that."

Now the Harp was like most harps now-a-days-silent. It was eleven o'clock-it was late. Mr. Day, the hay salesman, had left at nine o'clock: he had to be " up in the morning early," to attend Smithfield or the Portman-market. Mr. Jones, the neighbouring grocer, had just quitted his half-pint of Burton, or rather taken it with him, as he never was out after half-past ten-a fact which Mrs. Jones could, by authority, avouch. The certain visitors had departed; casualties, there were none. The only living furniture in the back room of the harp was Quail, the silent, meditative smoker, a retired tradesman, who had just been posed by a police paragraph; and a sharp-nosed, very little man, in very

brown black, with a hat shining from its nakedness of nap, sitting behind a long pipe and a short glass, which Campbell sublimely calls"His calumet of peace and cup of joy,"

puffing slight, noiseless puffs, like the fumy, feeble explosions of guns in a pantomime seventy-four, a long way out at sea.

The night was nearly over, over indeed! The candles-the two which the landlord had allowed to run to seed-were "dark with(out) excess of light," two or three empty pipes remained quiet monuments to the memories of departed smokers,-the little round mausoleums of sand were struck out of their right places hy the departings of the departed, a few tumblers, empty, remained, -the fire had caked into a dull, red-hot hollow roof,-the cat was curved into a sleep on the sanded hearth, the four bell-ropes hung, at intervals, over the tables in wondrous repose, and only one very broad-brimmed hat blackened the one handsome peg out of the twelve that adorned, foot by foot asunder, the happy back-room of the Harp!-The hat of Quail !

"Well; I don't-I can't see that;" reiterated the dazed Quail, as he laid down the paper, took his spectacles from his eyes, in which " no speculation" was, and turned to the sharp little brown black human being, who was, however, as unmoved, and as immovable as the veriest German that ever piped away his "spirits to the ditties of no tone" in the obscurities of a Wiesbaden or a Schlangenbad, before a Head was allowed to the inhabitants, to "show them they were men.'

"Mr. Pineter," (the little gentleman's name was Pointer, but his personal appearance, and his profession had sharpened it into this pronunciation for general use,) "Mr. Pineter, did you hear that as I read, and did you note of its contents?" Quail, like Brutus, "paused for a reply."

And as Mr. Pineter had become habituated into one of those true smokers who never quit fume for fact, without the proper profundity of consideration, it is not meet that the interim between Quail's query, and Pineter's reply, should be allowed to be a "hiatus valde deflendus ;" and a sketch snatched by the pencil on the thumb-nail (like one of Pickersgill's opera beauties), is given between the hazy note of interrogation, and the returned slow, bleak, black look, puff, sigh, and response of the Pineter. Nothing could now be very distinct at the Harp; it was "past eleven o'clock, and a cloudy night," to use the language of "the ancient and most quiet watchman."

Pineter-Mr. Pointer-had been an only son of an innkeeper at South Molton, and articled to an attorney, who married a lady of 200/. a-year, and had no practice. When out of his time, he, P., set himself up in business-not as solicitor-as guard of an Exeter coach, wishing to see life, and, with the only touch of legal knowledge he had acquired from his master, wishing to be paid for his insight. He had learned to smoke and drink at his father's-he had at a premium of two hundred guineas, and a gentle contribution to the revenue, improved his education, by extending his knowledge of smoking and drinking at South Molton. It has always appeared odd that fathers should think it obligatory upon them, at the time when their sons have attained the age of fifteen or sixteen, to pay a considerable sum of money for their scientific improvement in dissipation and debauchery, as though indolence and the