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water a whole year, or perhaps longer, without any visible food.

HENRY.-The Acalephæ are superior to the polypi in their structure, are they not?

PAPA.-Yes; the larger species are: for though they have no blood-vessels, they have channels for the transmission of fluids; and their bodies are of a fibrous or muscular texture. The sea-anemone avails itself of this in its movements, which it offers by contracting the muscles on one side and elongating them on the other.

MAMA. I remember to have seen a very beautiful variety of Actinia at Hastings, called the sea-carnation. It adhered by the tail to the under-part of the projecting rocks opposite to the town, and when the tide was out, had very much the appearance of a long white fig.

PAPA.-There are several beautiful species of animalflowers to be found, not only on the rocks of our own coasts, but on those also on the shores of the West India islands.

As we are to go back through the pasture to look for polypes in the pond, it is time to return. If we should find any, Anna, you will not expect me to make any experiments upon them; for I cannot justify the cruelty of cutting them to pieces as a certain Naturalist justified his operations upon the sea-anemones, by saying that he multiplied their existence and renewed their Z. Z.

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HYMNS AND POETICAL RECREATIONS.

THE VESTAL FIRE.

HEATHENS have fabled of a living flame,

Whose sacred spark, that first from Heaven came,

Albeit of mortal hand it came not there,

Must yet be trimmed and fed by mortal care;

And lest for lack of tending should expire

The hallowed flame of that supernal fire,

A virgin priesthood ever in their turns
Stand there before the altar where it burns,
To every claim and care of earth denied,
And may not sleep, and may not turn aside;
Freedom, and home, and kindred all forego,
Nor aught on earth may love, nor aught may know,
Lest that the eye unmindfully withdrawn,

The wandering thoughts to other objects gone,
The lamp untrimmed, that dimmed, neglected fire,
Should waste itself to nothing and expire.

Stol'n from the secrets of eternal truth,
That tale was surely not of heathen growth.
Shrin'd in the bosom's darkness-dark or e'er
The sacred ray of truth was lighted there,
And dark again if ever it expire—
There burns a pale beam of celestial fire:
"Twas not of earth enkindled, and 'twere vain
The power of man to light that lamp again.
Of heathen fable might I wisdom learn,
Methinks that lamp should not so dimly burn.
But where are they, the watchers, who should bide
For ever wakeful by the altar's side?

Where is the Vestal's eye, the Vestal's care?
Too oft, alas! that lamp lies smouldering there,
Untended and untrimm'd-for they, e'en they
Who should be guarding it, have gone their way,
To other cares betaken. The curious eye

Is gone

in search of some fond imagery

That it delights to look on; nor misgives

Of what betides the treasur'd charge it leaves.

The restless thoughts, the heart that should have stayed
Close by the altar where its hope is layed,

Distracted, shared, pre-occupied, has left
Too much forgotten the celestial gift,

Through scenes of earthly pleasure while it roves
In eager search of something that it loves
Better than that it turns from—or if not,
Too much to love the other as it ought.
Meantime the lamp burns dim-the flickering ray
Seems ready to betake itself away,
And leave the bosom to its native night,
The darker for the once remembered light.
O God! if I might ask one boon of thee,
And that the only one-it still should be,

That thou wouldst purify the heart, the thought,
The watchful eye, that they forsake thee not;
Withdrawn from earth, its pleasure, its desire-
Even as they that watched the Vestal fire-
Silenced the strive of sublunary care,
Severed the ties that hold us captive there-
That nothing-O that nothing might betray
My watchful heart to turn itself from Thee.

THE NIGHTINGALE.

'TWAS night-but the stars were not in heaven,
Nor the moon-beam in the sky;

Nor gleamed there so much as a taper's light,
From the lowly casement nigh-

'Twas still-but there was not heard a sound
Of the streamlet murmuring clear;

Nor echo of the loitering step,

That speaks the living near

'Twas cold-aye, cold as the April suns, That shine so falsely bright,

To gather unseen the mist by day,

That falls so cold at night.

But there came a sound through the damp, dark air,

A sound so loud, so clear,

It seemed like the musick of other worlds,

That sainted spirits hear.

Who is it loves on nights like this

To breathe so sweet a lay,

And waste on the desert air a song,

He never sings by day?

"Tis the bird of sorrow, the bird of love,
Who, the careless world forsaking,
Keeps his song for the midnight solitude,
Where none but the sad are waking.

He does not sing where the blest forget
How the cold night moments pass;
And pleasure minds not the diamond sands,
As they trickle through her glass—

He does not sing where the summer birds
Their painted wings are pluming;
And the flowers in their mid-day dress,

Misgive not of winter's coming.

But listen you, when the noise of mirth
And musick is afar;

And chilling dews are on the grass,
And darkness in the air-

And flowers, in sadder garments wrapt,
Their painted bosoms hide;
And day-birds cease their minstrelsy,
And none will sing beside-

O listen then, and a sound so sweet
Shall steal upon thine ear,

Thou wilt not deem it anything
That earth is used to hear-

But haply the voice of one who strays
From the place where spirits dwell,
To visit again the scenes it loved,
Ere it bade the world farewell.

So sad as if it remembered yet
Some secret wrong it bare,

While numbered with the things of earth,

It had its dwelling here.

So fond, so pitiful-as if
It came again to find,
And carry to its better home,

Some loved one left behind.

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ETERNITY.

O COULD my soul but pierce the veil
That hides eternity from time,

Nor find her utmost efforts fail

When reason strives to venture through

Could I that path of light explore

By pure and happy spirits trod,

And, blest with them, with them adore
The open vision of my God!

-But mortal eye hath never seen
The wonders of that vast profound,

And human ear hath never been
Permitted to receive the sound:

Nor hath it entered human thought

What there is seen, and heard, and known,
Until by God the soul is taught

A lesson learned through faith alone.

O first of lessons,-truth-whose worth
Nor gold nor jewels can declare-
Not all the treasures of the earth
Can with one glance of faith compare;
To have futurity revealed

To see its glories open thrown,
To have my happy interest sealed
In HIM who sits upon the throne.

If this be granted me below,
If to my soul this grace be given,
Nought else need I desire to know,
Save how to bless the God of heaven.
Let him his gracious presence give,
And with this hope my soul sustain-
To me it shall be Christ to live-
To die-incalculable gain.

VERITA.

THE RESIGNATION.

LONG have I view'd, long have I thought,

And held with trembling hand this bitter draught: 'Twas now just to my lips applied,

Nature shrank in, and all my courage dy'd.

But now resolv'd and firm I'll be,

Since, Lord, 'tis mingled, and reached out by thee.

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