Why, this man,

inquire into the occasion of their quarrel. cried the black knight, "will have it that yonder shield is silver.' — " And he will have it," replied the white knight, "that it is gold." And then they told him all the particulars of the affair

8. "Ah!" said the Druid, with a sigh, "you are both of you, my brethren, in the right, and both of you in the wrong. Had either of you given himself time to look at the opposite side of the shield, as well as that which first presented itself to view, all this passion and bloodshed might have been avoided; however, there is a very good lesson to be learned from the evils that have befallen you on this occasion. Permit me, therefore, to entreat you never to enter into any dispute, for the future, till you have carefully considered both sides of the question." BEAUMONT

1. I KNOW of no passage in classical literature more beautifui or affecting than that where Xen'ophon, in his Anab'asis," describes the effect produced on the remnant of the ten thousand Greeks, when, after passing through dangers without number, they at length ascended a sacred mountain, and from its peaked summit caught a sight of the sea.

2. Clashing their bucklers, with a hymn of joy they rushed umultuously forward. Some wept with the fulness of their delirious pleasure, others laughed, and more fell on their knees and blessed that broad ocean. Across its blue waters, little foating sea-birds, the memorials of their happy homes, came and fanned their weary souls.

3. All the perils they had encountered, all the companions they had lost, all the m series they had endured, were in an mstant forgotten, and naught was with them but the gentle phantoms of past and future joys.

4. One was again scouring across the hoof-trodden plains of Thes'saly; another reclined beneath the flower-crowned rocks of Arca'dia, and gazed into the dreamy eyes of her whose form, amid battle and bivouac, was ever with him; a third recalled

that proud day when, before the streaming eyes of his overjoyed parents,129 and amid the acclamation of all Greece, he bore off, from amid competitors, the laurel-wreath of the Olympian

victor.

5. O, home! magical, all-powerful home! how strong must have been thy influence, when thy faintest memory could cause these bronzed heroes of a thousand fights to weep like tearful women! With the cooling freshness of a desert fountain, with the sweet fragrance of a flower found in winter, you came across the great waters to those wandering men, and beneath the peaceful shadow of your wings their souls found rest!

6. It is related of a Greek islander in exile, that, being taken to the vale of Tem-pë, and called upon to admire its beauty, he only replied, "The sea where is it?" Upon this incident Mrs. Hemans has penned the following appropriate lines:

"Where is the sea? I languish here, where is my own blue sea,

With all its barks in fleet career, and flags and breezes free?

-

I miss that voice of waves which first awoke my childish glee ;
The measured chime, the thundering burst, where is my own blue sea?
O rich your myrtle's breath may rise; soft, soft your winds may be ;
Yet my sick heart within me dies, where is my own blue sea?

I hear the shepherd's mountain flute, I hear the whispering tree;
The echoes of my soul are mute,

where is my own blue sea?"

XXXIV. A HEBREW LEGEND.EI

1. "You teach," said the Emperor Trajan," to a famous rabbi, "that your God is everywhere, and boast that he resides among your nation. I should like to see him.”

2. "God's presence is indeed everywhere," the rabbi replied; "but he cannot be seen, for no mortal eye can look upon his splendor."

3. The emperor had the obstinacy of power, and persisted in his demand. "Well," answered the rabbi, "suppose we begin

by endeavoring to gaze at one of his ambassadors."

4. Trajan assented; and the rabbi, leading him into the open air, for it was noon of the day, băde him raise his eyes to the sun, then shining down upon the world in his meridian of glory.

The emperor made the attempt, but relinquished it. "I can not," he said "the light dazzles me."

5. "If, then," rejoined the triumphant rabbi, "thou art unable to endure the light of one of his creatures, how canst thou expect to behold the unclouded glory of the Creator?"

1. How little recks it where men die, when once the moment 's past
In which the dim and glazing eye has looked on earth its last;
Whether beneath the sculptured urn the coffined form shall rest,
Or, in its nakedness, return back to its mother's breast!

2. Death is a common friend or foe, as different men may hold.
And at its summons each must go, the timid and the bold;
But when the spirit, free and warm, deserts it, as it must,
What matter where the lifeless form dissolves again to dust?

3. 'T were sweet, indeed, to close our eyes with those we cherish near, And, wafted upwards by their sighs, soar to some calmer sphere. But whether on the scaffold high, or in the battle's van,

The fittest place where man can die is where he dies for man!
DUBLIN NATION

XXXVI.

SHORT POETICAL EXTRACTS.

1. LOVE OF COUNTRY

- Scott.

BREATHES there a man with soul so dead,

Who never to himself hath said,

"This is my own, my native land!"
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned,
From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there be, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell :
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust, from whence he sprung
Unwert, unhonored, and unsung.

2. THE ANCIENT HEROES OF GREECE. Byron.

They fell devoted, but undying;

The very gale their names seemed sighing:
The waters murmured of their name;

The woods were peopled with their fame;
The silent pillar, lone and gray,
Claimed kindred with their sacred clay;
Their spirits wrapt the dusky mountain,
Their memory sparkled o'er the fountain;
The meanest rill, the mightiest river,
Rolled mingling with their fame forever.
Despite of every yoke she bears,
That land is glory's still and theirs!
"T is still a watchword to the earth :
When man would do a deed of worth,
He points to Greece, and turns to tread,
So sanctioned, on the tyrant's head:
He looks to her, and rushes on
Where life is lost, or freedom won.

3. DIVERSITIES OF JUDGMENT. Pope.
Tis with our judgments as our watches,
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
In poets as true genius is but rare,
True taste as seldom is the critic's share;

none

Both must alike from Heaven derive their light,
These born to judge, as well as those to write.
Let such teach others who themselves excel,
And censure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their wit, 't is true;
But are not critics to their judgment, too?

4. INWARD GRIEF. Shakspeare.

Seems,184 madam! - nay, it is: I know not seems, "Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration" of forced breath;
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief,
That can denote me truly; these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play;
But I have that within which passeth show,
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

5. THE VIRTUOUS LADY IN PERIL. - Milton.
These thoughts may startle well, but not astound
The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended
By a strong siding champion, Conscience. -
O welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope
Thou hovering angel, girt with golden wings,
And thou, unblemished form of Chastity!
I see ye visibly, and now believe

That he, the Supreme Good, to whom all things il!
Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
Would send a glistering guardian, if need were,
To keep my life and honor unassailed.

6. WOLSEY'S ADVICE TO CROMWELL.

Shakspeare.

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition!
By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?
Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee.
Corruption wins not more than honesty.

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,

To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not.

Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,

Thy God's and truth's: then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell Thou fall'st a blessed martyr.

7 AGAINST INDIFFERENCE TO NATURE'S CHARMS. Beattie

O, how canst thou renounce the boundless store
Of charms which nature to her vōtary yields!