* * * * *

MELANCHOLY.

FROM MATTHISON

  The nightingale’s sad note in gloom is ringing,
    As wails the bride above her lover’s grave;
  Like Grief above the tomb her tresses wringing,
    So gleams the star of evening o’er the wave.

  A melancholy haze hangs o’er the ocean;
    The rocky cliffs reflect a sallow light—­
  Such as through cloister’d halls of dim devotion,
    The moon-beams pour upon the cloudy night.

  Ye rocky heights—­ye violet-meads appearing
    Once fairer to my gaze than poet’s dream—­
  Now all your golden light to gloom is veering,
    And every floweret laves in Lethe’s stream.

  Hills, valleys, meads, no changes ye are mourning;
    ’Tis to the hopeless every star appears
  Like lamps in dark sepulchral vistas burning—­
    And every dew-tipp’d flower is gemm’d with tears!

Stray Leaves; or, Translations from the German Poets.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER

“I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other men’s stuff.”—­Wotton.

The projector of one of the new canals, accompanied by two or three friends, was superintending the operations of the workmen, and frequently lamented the loss which the speculation was likely to occasion to him.  He was mounted on horseback at the time, when the animal, suddenly becoming unruly, plunged, and threw his rider into the water.  Being quickly rescued from his disagreeable situation, and safely landed on the bank, one of his companions begged to congratulate him on the happy change that had taken place in his fortune, “for have I not often told you (said the wit) that the canal would one day fill your pockets?”

* * * * *

A cube of gold, of little more than five inches on each side, contains the value of 10,000_l_. sterling.

* * * * *

“There is a rich rector in Worcestershire,” said one of the colonel’s guests, “whose name I cannot now recollect, but who has not preached for the last twelve months, as he every Sunday requests one of the neighbouring clergy to officiate for him.”—­“Oh!” replied Colonel Landleg, “though you cannot recollect his name, I can; it is England—­England expects every man to do his duty.”

* * * * *

The church-bells at Lima are very musical, the brass of which they are composed having a considerable quantity of silver mixed with it; but they are rung in the most discordant manner.  Instead of being pulled in chimes, as in England, thongs of leather are fixed to the clappers, and at the appointed times boys ascend the belfry, and swing the tongues of all the bells at once, from one side to another, producing the most barbarous combination of sounds imaginable.  A friar who had been in England observed, that the English had very good bells if they knew but how to ring.