Sweet peace of heart shall haunt thy bow'r,
And safety watch unceasing near thee;
And happy in thy parting hour,

Celestial truth shall stop to cheer thee.

"But if the faithless thirst of change,

Or slow consuming sloth should move thee, Then dread those countless foes that range, Terrific in the air above thee.

They cannot pierce this radiant sphere,

While faithful hands that flame shall cherish, But wo to thee, if slumbering here,

Thou leave its saving light to perish."

Upward I look'd, with shuddering awe,
And in the growing gloom that bound us,
Full many a dismal shape I saw,

Slow winging in the air around us:
Grim-visaged death, and fierce despair,
Hard unbelief, with aspect sneering;
And ruin, with affrighted stare,

Disastrous through the mist appearing.

Heart-stricken at the direful sight,
Awhile I stood appall'd in spirit,
But cheer'd by that celestial light,
I took my lonely station near it :
Dissolving on the fragrant air,

No more I saw that form before me,
But by the sweetness breathing there,
I felt her influence still was o'er me.

Awhile I kept, with watchful heed,
My task of duty and of pleasure;
Exact, at noon and eve, to feed

That holy flame, with ample measure;
Those smiling walks, and various flowers,
Each day I hail'd with bosom fonder,
Nor e'er beyond those happy bowers,
Indulged the idle thought to wander.

THE phenomena of light and vision have always been held to constitute a most interesting branch of natural science, whether in regard to the beauty of light, or its utility. The beauty is seen spread over a varied landscape-among the beds of the flower gardens, on the spangled meads, in the plumage of birds, in the clouds around the rising and setting sun, in the circles of the rainbow. And the utility may be judged of by the reflection, that if man had been compelled to supply his

wants by groping in utter and unchangeable darkness, he could scarcely have secured his subsistence for a single day. Light, then, while the beauteous garb of nature, clothing the garden and the meadow,-glowing in the ruby-sparkling in the diamond, is also the absolutely necessary medium of communication between living creatures and the universe around them. The rising sun is what converts the wilderness of darkness which night covered, and which, to the young mind not yet aware of the regularity of nature's changes, is so full of horror, into a visible and lovely paradise.— When a mariner, who has been toiling in midnight gloom and tempest, at last perceives the dawn of day, or even the rising of the moon, the waves seem to him less lofty, the wind is only half as fierce, and hope and gladness beam on him with the light of heaven. A man, wherever placed in light, receives by the eye from every object around, nay, from every point in every object, and at every moment of time, a messenger of light, to tell him what is there, and in what condition. Were he omnipresent, or had he the power of flitting from place to place with the speed of the wind, he could scarcely be more promptly informed. Then, in many cases, where distance intervenes not, light can impart knowledge, which, by any other conceivable means, could come only tediously, or not at all. For example, when the illuminated countenance is revealing the secre workings of the heart, the tongue would in vain try to speak, even in long phrases, what one smile

of friendship or affection can in an instant convey: —and had there been no light, man never could have suspected the existence of the miniature worlds of life and activity, which, even in a drop of water, the microscope discovers to him; nor could he have formed any idea of the admirable structure of many minute objects. It is light, again, which gives the telegraph, by which men readily converse from hill to hill, or across an extent of raging sea; and it is light which, pouring upon the eye through the optic tube, brings intelligence of events passing in the remotest regions of space.

ARNOTT.

DEMETRIUS, on his reconciliation with the Rhodians, was desirous, before his departure, to give them a testimonial of his friendly disposition; he accordingly presented them with all the engines of war that he had employed in the siege. These they afterwards sold for three hundred talents, equal in value to three hundred thousand crowns, which

they employed, with an additional sum of their own, in making their famous Colossus, (a. M. 3708), which was reputed one of the seven wonders of the world. It was a statue of so stupendous a size, that ships in full sail passed under its legs; the height of it was seventy cubits, or one hundred and five feet, and few men could clasp their arms round its thumb. It was the work of Chares of Lindus, and employed him for the space of twelve years. In the year of the world, 3782, Rhodes suffered very considerable damages from a great earthquake. The walls of the city, together with the arsenals, and the narrow passes in the haven, where the ships of that island were laid up, were reduced to a very ruinous condition; and the famous Colossus, which passed for one of the wonders of the world, was, sixty-six years after its erection, thrown down and entirely destroyed. This Colossus was, as I have observed, a brazen statue of a prodigious size; and some authors have affirmed, that the money arising from the contributions already mentioned, amounted to five times as much as the loss which the Rhodians had sustained. This people, instead of employing the sums they had received, in replacing that statue, agreeably to the intention of the donors, pretended that the oracle of Delphi had prohibited them from the attempt, and given them a command to preserve the money for other purposes, by which means they afterwards enriched themselves. The Colossus lay neglected on the ground for the space of eight hundred and ninety-four years, at the expiration