POETRY.

CONSOLATION.

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance."-Psalm xlii. 5.

RETURN unto thy rest, my soul:
Why art thou thus cast down?
Doth billow upon billow roll?
The Lord protects His own.

Do days of pain, and nights of sighs,
Ne'er from thy couch remove?
Thy Father's hand the rod applies,
He chastens but in love.

Do sins against a holy God
Appear as mountains high?

For thee the Saviour shed His blood:
To Him for shelter fly.

Do friends their sympathy withhold,
Their mutual vows betray?
Does boasted warmth of love grow cold,
And, wither'd, fade away?

Be sure thou hast a Friend on high,
Whose love decreases not:

Though earthly friendships pass thee by,
He will forget thee not.

Then cease thy murmuring, nor despair,
Though all things dark appear :
Make it thy constant, daily care,

To have thy title clear

To that blest home where pleasures stay,
Where grief and pain shall cease;

Where night is lost in one bright day

Of everlasting peace.

Scarborough.

MARY ANNE.

ANIMATED AND VEGETABLE NATURE.

AUGUST.

This is "the harvest month." For in the latter half of August, if the weather has been favourable, the work of harvest is going forward at its height, at least in the midland and southern counties of our island. Every day, nay, every hour, of sunshine is now precious; for when the corn is once ripe it is liable to be shed under the agitation of the wind, or it may be eaten by birds, or half lost if

heavy storms arise, as they often do when the season of harvest is
late. After the wheat is cut, the barley is ready; and while this is
gathered in, the peas and beans are hardening to follow in Septem-
ber. In Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Worcester, chiefly, the cottagers
begin their hop-picking. The summer fruits should now ripen
fast, and some of the choicest wall-fruits are coming into season.
"The sunny wall

Presents the downy peach, the shining plum,
The ruddy, fragrant nectarine, and, dark
Beneath his ample leaf, the luscious fig."

The hills and plains tell, by their golden tint, that the land is rich with cereal wealth; and even the wild heaths, the few common lands that the agriculturists have spared, are tinted with purple flowers, that add great beauty to the landscape, and

"Here the furze,

Enrich'd among its spines, with golden flowers
Scents the keen air; while all its thorny groups,
Wide scatter'd o'er the waste, are full of life.

For, 'midst its yellow bloom, the' assembled chats
Wave high the tremulous wing, and with shrill notes,
Both clear and pleasant, cheer the' extensive heath."

About the middle of the month the largest of the swallow tribethe swift, or long-wing-disappears. The wryneck also departs, and the turtle-dove. Starlings congregate about this time; and rooks no longer pass their nights from home, but roost in their nest-trees. The red-breast renews his music about the end of the month; and the young ones, now full-grown, give promise of their future familiarity with us, by hopping about boldly among the garden-shrubs. But every winged visiter is not so welcome. The harvest-bug, for example, teazes both men and animals; wasps are provokingly busy; and multitudes of flies, to be named only by the entomologist, remind us of those human insignificancies which, in the absence of better qualities, can only make themselves notorious by mischief and vexation.

"So have I seene ere this a silly flie

With mastif dog in summer's heate to play,
Sometime to sting him in his nose or eie,
Sometime about his grizly jawes to stay,
And buzzing round about his eares to flie.
He snaps in vaine, for still she whips away:
And oft so long she dallies in this sort,

Till one snap comes and marreth all her sport."

Moles recommence their excavations, and earwigs bore-not the ear, but the earth; and that ill-scented hybrid,

"The bat, begins, with giddy wing,

His circuit round the shed and tree,
And clouds of dancing gnats to sing
A summer night's serenity."

And those little terrestrial stars, the glowworms, spangle thinly and timidly the dark hedgerows and the roadsides in the depth of the still night; yet they are but pale resemblances of

those noble fire-flies that, within the tropics, sparkle far and near, filling the air with a harmless conflagration, and keeping the scene bright until the sudden dawn of day dispels the darkness. As a hot summer produces many of these lucifers, so does it increase the activity of meteors that shoot athwart the shades of night, or drop suddenly from sky to earth, as if stars had fallen from their

orbits.

And now the large white poppy is gathered for the shops, and its juice will bring respite to the sleepless. And the amaranth, ever blooming, waits unmoved upon the stem, to be gathered and carried home, there to be honoured as a household link between the autumnal and the vernal flowers; and its wreath serves as a humble image of the crown that is incorruptible, and undefiled, and fadeth not away.

MERCURY, in the constellation Leo, is an evening star till the 21st, then invisible to the end of the month. On the 7th, at 9h. 33m., P.M., at greatest elongation, 27° 22' E; on the 8th, at Oh. 37 m., P.M.., in aphelion; on the 21st, at 6h. 2m., A.M., stationary. VENUS, in the constellations Gemini and Cancer, is a morning star throughout the month; on the 11th, at 6h. 33m., P.M., stationary ; on the 26th, at 9h. 25m., A.M., at greatest brilliancy. MARS, in the constellation Virgo, is an evening star throughout the month. JUPITER, in the constellation Libra, is an evening star throughout the month; on the 6th, at 8h. 2m., P.M., in quadrature with the Sun; on the 15th passes the meridian at 5h. 15m., P.M. SATURN, in the constellation Aries, on the 10th, at 3h. 23m., A.M., in quadrature with the Sun; on the 15th passes the meridian at 5h. 29m., A.M.; on the 30th, at 9h. 9m., P.M., stationary. URANUS, in the constellation Aries, on the 13th, at 6h. Om., P.M., stationary; on the 15th passes the meridian at 4h. 50m., A.M.

H. T. & J. Roche, Printers, 25, Hoxton-square, London.