GOD IN NATURE. 149 third!' Such a musical critic as that would assign the 'yowl' of a tom-cat, the ye-o-a-w!' of a pussy, or the bray of a jackass, borne on the night-wind, its specific position on the musical scale. What a beautiful thing it is to have an ear' for music - especially such music! WE were standing one evening, some years ago, in the door of the house of a friend, residing in one of the upper streets of the city, being about to take our leave of him for the night. The atmosphere was beautifully clear and the air delightfully cool. The far-off stars shone in their serene and silent spaces, with a back-ground of such deep blue as one sees when looking into the sky at midnight from the top of Kaätskill-mountain. While we were 'gazing steadfastly into heaven,' the friend by our side remarked: By-the-by, there is a comet predicted to appear, somewhere about this time, in the heavens. I was reading an article about it this very afternoon: it will make its first appearance, I believe, in that quarter of the heavens,' pointing high up, and in a south-westerly direction. We stood regarding wistfully that particular part of the evening sky, when our friend exclaimed, 'As I live, there is the comet now! Yes yes: there it is, to a certainty !' And following his directing finger we saw, far up, and away in the south-west, a semi-luminous body, something not unlike an enlarged star, with a dim 'continuation,' like the fainter light of the 'Milky Way,' of a clear, bright night. 'Look at it! think of it!' exclaimed our friend. 'There in yonder sky, is an erratic, wandering body, with no fixed orbit, uncontrollable, so far as known, by any specific law, or regular celestial mechanism, which, after sweeping its awful cycle amidst the revolving worlds above us, suddenly 'streams its horrid hair' on the midnight sky! How wide, how sublime, has been its celestial journey! And is it not a heavenly, an almost overpowering thought, that hereafter, in a world of unclouded light and knowledge, it may be vouchsafed to us to see with our natural eyes, and without the mistakes to which calculation is subject, the course of comets, the order of the solar and planetary systems, and fathom the depths of that dread arch of mystery that now hangs suspended above us!' This incident, which occurred many years ago, was forcibly called to mind a few days since, as we were steaming down from DOBB's, on the morning of the recent partial eclipse of the sun. Here was demonstrated not only the grandeur of the divinely-ordered movements of the heavenly bodies, but the sublimity of the intellect of the creatures of the ALMIGHTY. At the very moment predicted, we saw, through a bit of smoked glass, a faint rim of shadow clip the edge of the great orb of day, and continue its encroachment upon its diminishing light, until the exact ex WHAT'S THE LAW. tent that had been foretold was attained. 151 And then it was that we thought of those who, at that precise moment, high upon the Alps, were looking from those towering forms of Nature that 'pinnacle in clouds their snowy scalps,' to see the mighty shadow of the eclipse roll along the vast region below, blotting out whole provinces of lovely Italy in its giant-march! It were worth the toil of a twelve-month to witness that sublime spectacle. SOMEBODY, we name no parties,' illustrated in our hearing the other evening the vague idea which some people, who enter into litigation, have of the powers of LAW over any and all cases, under all sorts of circumstances. A man in a state of great excitement entered a metropolitan lawyer's office, and taking off his hat, and a chair by the table at the same time, and wiping the perspiration from his forehead with a damp red-and-yellow pocket-handkerchief, asked the counsellor 'in chambers' for his 'views' as to the law.' 'Well,' said the counsellor, as to what law?-under what circumstances? State your case. I'll tell you what the law is, when you state your case. You want to know what the law is as to what?' • Wal,' responded the client, scratching his head, and seeming to be greatly taken aback by this unexpected obstacle, 'wal, 'sposin' a man leaves the state, and do n't come back ag'in? 6 152 AN ANECDOTE. THEN what's the law!' 'I never shall forget,' said our informant, the blank disappointment exhibited in that client's face, when I told him that that was a case past any legal surgery of mine. Can't fetch him, eh?—and he owes me more 'n fifty dollars!' Seeing that his 'case' was 'gone,' the client left also. NUMBER SEVEN. CHRISTMAS GREENS THE CROSS: A PICTURE IN LITTLE' OF WAR: RAFT- L OOKING around, as we came in to-night, upon the an nual Christmas-greens, in all tasteful forms, with which the hand of Affection annually decorates the sanctum, we met 'THE CROss,' graceful in shape, and entwined with rosaries of red berries. Far back in memory we went instantaneously, and heard, for the first time as it were, in the little church of our 'boyhood's home,' this first verse of a hymn fall from the eloquent lips of the Rev. DERRICK C. LANSING: "WHEN I survey the wondrous cross On which the PRINCE OF GLORY died, All earthly gain I count but dross, And pour contempt on all my pride!' How many are the cells of memory!-how countless the things that are treasured there! - and how strangely |