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LIST! 'TIS MIRTH.

List! 'tis music o'er the sea,

Oh! how sweet each tone is stealing,
Like soften'd light, all mellowly,
From woman's eye its rays revealing.
And as we mutely list'ning stand,
What means this thrill within the heart,
As if each chord so chasten'd, bland,
Would rather grief than joy impart?
"Tis-that the wizard sound invites,
The blossoms of life's happier spring,
By its sweet breathing back to earth,
To make us weep their withering.
The maniac thus, by simple spell,
Is oft recall'd to reason's waking,
Whilst memory bids the tear-drop swell,
To ease his conscious bosom's aching.

HIGHLAND FIDELITY.

On the night of the battle of Culloden, while Donald Kennedy was sitting at the fire with his two sons, grown up boys, beside him, and his wife was busy dressing a wound he had received in the leg, in the heat of the engagement, a timid rap was heard at the door. Come in,' cried Donald, Come in,' said his wife and two sons at

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Donald's wife, snatching a piece of fir in her hand, which burned to the cheek of the chimney, hastened to the door, to shew the unexpected visitor 'ben,' to the fire. Before she got the length of the door, it was partially opened, and the pale countenance of a tall figure muffled up in a coarse cloak presented itself. It looked eagerly towards the fire-side, as if afraid to enter, until it had got some idea of the character of the inmates.

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Come in, please your honour,' said Donald's wife, as shè approached the door.

The figure, after having seemingly satisfied itself there was no particular danger, advanced towards the hearth, and sat down on a roughly-made chair, which Donald placed before the fire for that pur

pose.

Donald's two boys, who were at that time of life when the mind is apt to give credence to the stories about apparitions, which were

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lime will do) with one of flowers of sulphur, and, ramming the mixture into a crucible, ignite it for half an hour, we shall find that the bright parts will, on exposure to the sun-beams, or to the common day-light, or to an electrical explosion, acquire the facility of shining in the dark, so as to illuminate the dial of a watch, and make its figures legible. It will, however, after a while cease to shine; but if we keep the powder in a well-washed phial, a mere exposure to the sun-beam will restore the luminescence. Oyster shells, stratified with sulphur in a crucible, and ignited, yield a more powerful phosphorescent substance than the powder: this, also, must be kept in a closely-stopped phial.

66

VALLISNERIA.-Dr. Darwin, in his Botanic Garden," gives the following account of the Vallisneria, a singularly organized plant, which grows at the bottom of the river Rhone. The flowers of the female plant float on the surface of the water, and are furnished with an elastic spiral stalk, which extends or contracts, as the water rises or falls. This rise or fall, from the torrents, which flow into the river, often amounting to many feet in a few hours. The flowers of the male plants are produced under water; and as soon as the fecundating farina is mature, they separate themselves from the plant, rise to the surface, and are wafted by the air, or borne by the current, to the female flowers, and, after completing the process of impregnation, expire.

SINKING OF MOUNTAINS.-Geologists have recorded many instances of mountains sinking into the earth. Among many which might be adduced, the following are remarkable :—

In the south of France, on the 23rd of June, 1827, a mountain, belonging to the chain of the Cevennes, sunk with an awful crash into the valley of the Pradines, overwhelming a small village in its course, and spreading devastation to a considerable distance.

The British Channel is supposed to have been formed by the absorption of the carth, which originally connected Great Britain with the Continent. The eruptions from the ancient volcanoes of central France have elevated that part of the country as much above the level of the sea, as the bottom of the Channel is below it.

In 1806, a beautiful valley, interspersed with pleasant villages, in Schweitz, a canton in Switzerland, became a scene of awful calamity. During the peaceful serenity of a summer's evening, the inhabitants, amounting to two thousand souls, were involved in sudden destruction by the falling of the north-east projection c Rosenberg mountain, which covered more than three square 1. fertile country.

The ignorant attribute phenomena, such as these, to the agency of fiends and evil spirits, and foolishly resort to snel! orcisms to save themselves. The student of nature view: as the effect of plain natural causes-the sudden expr particles of water-the ignition of combustible bodies tion of the law of gravity.

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lime will do) with one of flowers of sulphur, and, ramming the mixture into a crucible, ignite it for half an hour, we shall find that the bright parts will, on exposure to the sun-beams, or to the common day-light, or to an electrical explosion, acquire the facility of shining in the dark, so as to illuminate the dial of a watch, and make its figures legible. It will, however, after a while cease to shine; but if we keep the powder in a well-washed phial, a mere exposure to the sun-beam will restore the luminescence. Oyster shells, stratified with sulphur in a crucible, and ignited, yield a more powerful phosphorescent substance than the powder: this, also, must be kept in a closely-stopped phial.

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VALLISNERIA.-Dr. Darwin, in his "Botanic Garden," gives the following account of the Vallisneria, a singularly organized plant, which grows at the bottom of the river Rhone. The flowers of the female plant float on the surface of the water, and are furnished with an elastic spiral stalk, which extends or contracts, as the water rises or falls. This rise or fall, from the torrents, which flow into the river, often amounting to many feet in a few hours. The flowers of the male plants are produced under water; and as soon as the fecundating farina is mature, they separate themselves from the plant, rise to the surface, and are wafted by the air, or borne by the current, to the female flowers, and, after completing the process of impregnation, expire.

SINKING OF MOUNTAINS.-Geologists have recorded many instances of mountains sinking into the earth. Among many which might be adduced, the following are remarkable :

In the south of France, on the 23rd of June, 1827, a mountain, belonging to the chain of the Cevennes, sunk with an awful crash into the valley of the Pradines, overwhelming a small village in its course, and spreading devastation to a considerable distance.

The British Channel is supposed to have been formed by the absorption of the earth, which originally connected Great Britain with the Continent. The eruptions from the ancient volcanoes of central France have elevated that part of the country as much above the level of the sea, as the bottom of the Channel is below it.

In 1806, a beautiful valley, interspersed with pleasant villages, in Schweitz, a canton in Switzerland, became a scene of awful calamity. During the peaceful serenity of a summer's evening, the inhabitants, amounting to two thousand souls, were involved in sudden destruction by the falling of the north-east projection of the Rosenberg mountain, which covered more than three square miles of fertile country.

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The ignorant attribute phenomena, such as these, to the malicious agency of fiends and evil spirits, and foolishly resort to spells and orcisms to save themselves. The student of nature views them p as the effect of plain natural causes-the sudden expansion of particles of water-the ignition of combustible bodies—or th tion of the law of gravity.

T

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