millions of purer lights have I quenched even in their dawn, and they have gone down into the silence and the darkness of oblivion, unnoted and unknown for ever." "Avaunt, hideous shape!" I replied, gathering_courage; "I defy thee and thy power. Do not the names of Burns and Johnson, of Keats and Chatterton, stand where even thou canst cast no shadow on them? And these millions of quenched soul-beams-shall they not be reillumed, and they who bear them quickened for the race with the highest and the strongest, where thou canst never stand-in the presence of God? Can any doubt that the temporary check received here may be overcome by the sincere spirit, and the time lost regained, until the true human soul, in its sublime soaring, may outspeed the ken of angels ?" "All this is very fine talk," she returned, with a malicious laugh; "but words quell neither hunger nor thirst, neither will they cover the cold and naked body. Show thyself truly wise, then. Most of the avenues to the kingdom of Wealth, which is near, lie in my dominions. Many, by my advice, have trod them to a happier region than this, and they have returned to bless me." "Tempt me not," I replied, "I will make my bed upon the bare flint; I will clothe myself in barks, and subsist on roots, if it need must be, but I will never consent that this soul-light, which God has placed in my bosom and commanded me to replenish and keep bright, even until the last day, shall be quenched by thee. Labor is the true remedy. I will work, but I must also think. The true soul can compel even thee to assist its flight. I will wrench those hard sinews from thy limbs; I will compel that stern spirit of endurance, which only, thou canst give, to labor for me. Does Truth dwell only in certain places? Behold, is not Wisdom even here? Wherever the footsteps of the Eternal may be traced, there is Truth, and there is Wisdom." I felt myself growing stronger as I spoke. The spirit vanished, and, relieved of her presence, I immediately commenced the labor of making a path for myself over the mountain that lay between me and the object of my wishes. Fragment after fragment was removed, with still increasing strength, until more than the fabled power of Hercules acted in my single arm. Still was my steady eye turned to the bright being in that far-off temple; and I knew not that my labor was completed, when, again, the scene changed to the very antipodes of the last, and yet it was hard by. Every thing in my new state of consciousness wore the aspect of elegance melting into luxury, and ease into voluptuousness. Orchards, heavily laden with the most delicious fruits, stretched along the landscape; hot-houses, filled with the luscious fruits and gorgeous flowers of the tropics, opened their treasures to the sun; vineyards groaned beneath the weight of their purple clusters; fish-ponds were gathered in natural basins, where, through the clear waters, the trout, the perch, and the salmon, might be seen vying with each other in brightness. Ice-houses, summer-houses, bowers, gardens, terraces, all that gives a fancied right to the human reptile to fatten on the juices of his brother worm, were represented in the scene. The whole was crowned by a lofty palace, whence issued sounds of revelry, and the low, sweet music of the lute and the viol, and the exotic perfumes of the flowers, infused a delicious langor into the air. "And all this has been wrung," I thought within myself, as I looked around, "from the myriads of suffering laborers I have left, to be lavished and wasted for the pleasure of one." As I thought thus, a young man of pleasant mien approached me. His graceful air and cordial manner were quite refreshing after my late interview with the vixen. "I perceive you are a scholar," said he, regarding me with a smile, which, spite of his civility, had an expression of pity. "Few such have entered the domain of Wealth-for that is the name of him I call my lord; and, to speak truly, he has in general very little respect for people of your profession. Yonder lies the path which most of you have taken; it leads, you see, to a bit of a temple over the hill yonder. One single acre of this fair land, one rood of my lord's garden, aye, one ring on his finger, would buy the whole concern. Buy!-why, there's nothing there worth buying. My lord would not now take that temple for a stable. To be sure, he did once offer ten times its worth, intending to make it a house of entertainment for his private carriage-horses during his excursions in that part of the country, and wishing also to rid the country of that company of incendiaries and madmen-for he does not feel himself safe while they remain; but they refused with as much pride as if Midas, who, they say, is a mortal rich old fellow, had been ready to set his name to their bottom line. And now to come up with them, his lordship says that when they're obliged to sell-for they're as poor as church mice--he won't take the stock at no rate. Perhaps you don't know about that little concern they call a temple. Small companies of pilgrims come there from all parts of the Earth--(how under the sun they hear of it, is more than I can tell, for cer tainty that spot can't be bigger than the extreme end of nothing on the Map of the World!")-here he laughed heartily at his own wit, and then continued: "when they get there they've nothing to do but talk about the Mind, and the Soul, and Eternity, and all such light and frivolous subjects, or to rave over the cheapest and commonest things, that may be picked up anywhere, such as shells, and birds, and flowers, (flowers! they're half weeds!) and bugs and worms, and bits of dirt and stones; and they do say they have names for every kind! And I have it from good authority, that this medley mixture of things is nothing more nor less than idols, that every one has a particular niche in the temple, and these strange men do actually bow down and worship them, performing their devotions in unknown tongues-so you see they are no better than heathens! It is said that a new idol always calls forth more zealous worship than the old ones, which shows that they are both fickle and insincere. Whether that is true or not, I cannot tell, but as to the worship, I do know, for I have seen with my own eyes, and heard with my own ears. You look surprised; I will tell you. I was one day on business going across the land of our next neighbor, Poverty, when, on passing through a hideous swamp, I was attracted by cries of the most extraordinary character. As they did not appear to be cries of distress, I concluded there was no danger, and approached. But what was my surprise to find three men, in the act of worshipping something which I could not at first see, two of whom were upon their knees, and the third was entirely prostrate. I stood by to observe them. They would shout, and laugh, and clap their hands, uttering the strangest incantations with the queerest gestures, sometimes quite rolling on the earth, in spite of bush and briar, then starting erect, then falling prostrate. The object of their attention, I soon perceived, was a plant about a foot high, with a few large yellow flowers, but noways remarkable for beauty. As soon as I discovered this, I fled quickly, lest, if they believed in human sacrifices, Í should become the victim of their new-found god. And over all presides a sort of a half-witted woman, whose name, I think, they call WISDOM. The word means, I believe, that she knows all about these bugs and worms, and dirt and stones, better than any body else; but I have no acquaintance with her whatever, I assure you!" and he bowed and stroked his moustache with an air of infinite self-satisfaction. I could not forbear smiling at the simplicity of this declaration; and while my entertainer is revelling in the instinctive consciousness that "ignorance is bliss," let us adjourn for the ! month so there I break off my narrative, and yet unwillingly. I have already filled the allotted space, which, though somewhat less than that I have been wont to figure in, is all this circumscribed state of being will allow, and I must learn therewith to be content. No farther apology need be considered necessary, inasmuch as the reader will be put quite in good humor at the true Hibernian absurdity of my title thus far-claiming kin with the stars, yet adhering to the earth-as if a locust should say, "I am an eagle; I will soar above the clouds and bring down stories of the upper air," and straigthtway perching himself on a head of rye, begin singing songs of the grasses. Nevertheless, kind reader, I claim thy courtesy, and my title shall yet be vindicated. SONG. WHEN Spring arrayed in flowers, Mary When larks sang to the sun, Mary, And blither was thy voice, Mary, Now autumn winds blaw cauld, Mary, Are faded frae the knowes: But still thy love's unchanged, Mary, And sweet thy smile, as Spring, Mary The early lark nae mair, Mary, Nae autumn in thy heart, Mary- [We have refused several well-written poems on the following subject, on account of the great number which have appeared in the public prints; but the originality, and loftiness of thought which this imbodies, has induced us to publish it. We are happy to state, that we have secured the talented Authoress as a regular contributor to the Diadem. The Sketches of the Star-Land are from the same pen.-ED. NIAGARA. BY MRS. F. H. GREEN. HIGH archetype of dread sublimity, On thy unpictured greatness, 'till the soul To read thy revelation of that Power- Upward I gaze upon thy radiant crown— Where the bright sun-bow glitters ;-then, beneath, A circling group of angels it may be; And, in the changing light and shadow's play, We catch the glory of their burnished wings- The simple Red Man listened ;-and his soul |