As though a thunder-bolt had struck them dead;
  Their cries pursued her with the thrilling plea,
  “Give us a little earth for charity!”
  She linger’d, listen’d; all her bosom yearn’d;
  The mother’s pulse through every vein return’d;
  Then, as she halted on this hill, she threw
  Her mantle wide, and loose her tresses flew. 
  “Live!” to the slain she cried:  “My children live! 
  This for an heritage to you I give;
  Had Death consumed you by the common lot
  Ye, with the multitude, had been forgot;
  Now through an age of ages ye shall not.”

    Thus Nature spake;—­and as her echo, I
  Take up her parable, and prophesy: 
  Here, as from spring to spring the swallows pass,
  Perennial daisies shall adorn the grass;
  Here the shrill skylark build her annual nest,
  And sing in heaven, while you serenely rest;
  On trembling dewdrops morn’s first glance shall shine,
  Eve’s latest beams on this fair bank decline,
  And oft the rainbow steal through light and gloom,
  To throw its sudden arch across your tomb;
  On you the moon her sweetest influence shower,
  And every planet bless you in its hour. 
  With statelier honours still, in Time’s slow round,
  Shall this sepulchral eminence be crown’d;
  Where generations long to come shall hail
  The growth of centuries waving in the gale,
  A forest landmark, on the mountain’s head,
  Standing betwixt the living and the dead;
  Nor, while your language lasts, shall travellers cease
  To say, at sight of your memorial, “Peace!”
  Your voice of silence answering from the sod,
  “Whoe’er thou art, prepare to meet thy God!”

Blackwood’s Magazine.

* * * * *

THE STEAM ENGINE SIMPLIFIED.

It is a universal property of matter, that by the application of heat, so as to raise its temperature, it suffers an increase in its magnitude.  Also in different substances, when certain temperatures are attained by the application of fire, or other methods of heating, they undergo a change of form.  Solids, at certain temperatures, are converted into liquids; and liquids, in like manner, when heated to certain degrees, become aeriform fluids or gases.  These changes are familiar to every one in the ordinary phenomena attending water.  Below the temperature of 32 deg. of the common thermometer, that substance exists in the solid form, and is called ice.  Above that temperature it passes into the liquid state, and is called water; and when raised to the temperature of 212 deg., under ordinary circumstances, it passes into the aeriform state, and is called steam.  It is to this last change that we wish at present principally to call the attention of the reader.  In the transition of water from the liquid state to the state of vapour or steam, an immense change of