LOOK HOW MY BABY LAUGHS! BY MRS. EDWARD THOMAS. Ir is a lovely sight to see In the rapt mother's eye the while A vision I beheld like this, Her sweet employment a blush brought, Her gorgeous hair, with sportive grace, Oh! magic curls! Oh! Beauty's dower! Each mother feels,-and too, her boy. LET THE DEAD SLUMBER SOFTLY. LET the dead slumber softly, recall not a name Fame, Who have left in our breasts their endearment and name; These charm'd the cold world and smooth'd down its pain, Oh, name them for ever, again and again! Oh, speak not of tyrants who ruled with the rod; Of oppression, that crush'd every flower where it trod; Of minions, who bent low the knee to the same, And made them more bold in their actions of shame! Such men are a curse to the earth we enjoy, So tell me of those who have charm'd all our pain Oh, name them for ever, again and again! THE BAPTISM AND THE BRIDAL. BY A DREAMER. 1. MYSTIC rites are thine, O Death, Baptism and the bridal wreath! Pale and wan, on weary bed, A dying maiden drooped her head. Her large eyes gleam with spectral light, The dizzy world swims through her sight! Her long dark tresses fall unbound In wavy coils the pillow round. Fitful flushes stain the skin And where her thin form lies unseen, Weeping friends are standing round, But manlier grief the father held- "Fling the casement open wide, O mother dear," the maiden cried; "Let the glorious sunlight pour "And the breath of wind-kissed flowers, Thoughts will bring of childhood's hours "Sunny hours of meadow-playing, Streamlet plashing, forest-straying. "Ah! the change from life-full gladness, To this weary hour of sadness. "Lift me! closer yet behold me. Father! while thine arms enfold me, Scarce the sickness seems to hold me! "And, mine own true love! draw near, Whom I loved this many a year. Henry! wilt in time to come Think upon my early doom? "Future years will come and go, Each will bring its joy and woe, "But the memory of the dead, Passes with the tears ye shed Vainly o'er the buried head; "And the grave once strewed with flowers, Rank weeds shows in after hours. "Dear! I loved with passion's dream, "And I deemed no vows of mine "Now a voice hath summoned me, And I go away from thee. "Death-dewed hours hope not to bear Rose wreaths, such as brides should wear!" Now the light of those dear lips Fades before a dense eclipse. Low and faint her broken tones Fainter yet her breath is given- And the dulled and glazing eye DEATH, the mighty lord, stood near, The thickened dew-beads on her brow, "Thus I vow thee mine," he cried, "Here the badge is certified. "Here in garments white as snow, I pledge thee at the fountain's flowMy baptism this cold sweat, I trow!" Thrice the sun hath risen again, And that casket now doth hold Lift her gently, bear her slowly Forth to that sweet breathing earth Ah! her own loved birds are here, Long they sung their blithest lays; And her flowers-her little flowersHow they droop, these sultry hours! Dear ones, that she loved to cherish, Soon like her ye too will perish. Well she loved your beauteous dyes, Colored by the summer skies. Cross the meadows-bear her slowly To her sleep in churchyard holy. Now the greenwood paths are near, Soon the church-tower will appear. Hark! the distant fitful swell Now the hallowed ground they tread Virgins four-and-twenty bore And from rush-wove baskets strewed Pansies, love-cups, violets blue, Now within that sacred wall, Slowly pass the mourners all. On the trestles in the aisle Rest the coffin for awhile. Softly, gently lay her down; Slumber sweet that fears no breaking, See, the reverend priest doth stand With prayer-book open in his hand. Tears flow down his furrowed cheek, While the holy man doth speak In prayer to God-the heart's appealing For the wounded spirit's healing. Thankful blessings also given For a sister passed to heaven. "Dust to dust," that solemn wordHow the beating heart is stirred While dust is on the coffin poured! DEATH, the mighty lord, stood near, With sparkling eyes fixed on the bier. "Maiden mine, my youthful bride! Here our troth is ratified. "Priestly blessing nought may sever; Marriage vows stand fast for ever. "To fond embrace I welcome thee, Our bridal-bed the grave shall be, Where thou shalt slumber noiselessly!" A SPRING CAROL. THE spring's free sunshine falleth From sadness unto bliss; That fills my heart and brain The light that childhood wore; Till thought, and hope, and feeling, Grow earnest as of yore! Though youth has faded from me, Is now more freely given To the blossoms of the sod, So the trees, whose leafy branches Are whispering of God. The young green lime bends o'er me, Its way from flower to flower, With the wild-bees' drowsy tones. The oaks, moss-grown and aged, As if winter had not been! Through sunshine and through shade, And wooded hills enfolding This lovely forest glade. I turn, and see the fruit-trees Their shadowy branches wave, Like plume-crown'd pillows standing Round a mighty monarch's grave. Less sorrowful than stately Those dark unbending trees Give out a silv'ry murmur To the gentle evening breeze. In this season of life's triumph Man's spirit hath a share, It can see the grave unclosing, Yet feel all ends not there. It smiles to see the conquest Of beauty o'er decay, With the merry lark up-soaring It greets the dawning day. Not vainly by such gladness The poet's heart is stirred, These sights and sounds not vainly By him are seen and heard. All fears that crowded o'er him, Like clouds asunder roll, Spring's hope and joyful promise Sink deep into his soul. SCIENCE AND ART. COLOSSAL STATUES OF THE APOSTLES FOR | stitute for the natural arm hitherto made.-Athe THE ISAAC'S CHURCH, ST. PETERSBURGH.-The naum. sculptor, Vitali, has just completed models of the twelve colossal statues of the Apostles; to be cast in bronze, and placed over the great gate of the Isaac's Church in St. Petersburgh. The pediment has been already ornamented by bas-reliefs from the same hand; and the Government having made the frescoes and mosaics which are to decorate this greatest of the Christian temples of the East the subjects of public competition, the cartoons of the candidates are now exhibiting in the halls of the Academy of Fine Arts, in that city.-Athenæum. ARTIFICIAL ARM.-M. Magendie read a report before the Paris Academy of Sciences, on an artificial arm, the invention of M. Van Petersen. The report was favorable. The members of the committee state that they had seen the apparatus tried on five mutilated persons, and that it answered in every case admirably. One was an invalid, who, in the wars of the Empire, lost both arms, retaining only the mere stumps. With the aid of two of these artificial arms, he was able to perform many of the functions which had hitherto been performed for him. In presence of the committee he raised, with one of the artificial hands, a full glass to his mouth, drank its contents without spilling a drop, and then replaced the glass on the table from which he had taken it. He also picked up a pin, a sheet of paper, &c. These facts are conclusive as to the mechanical skill evinced by M. Van Petersen, and which is particularly shown in the lightness of his apparatus, each arm and hand with all its articulations, weighing less than a pound. The mode in which the motion is imparted to the articulations of the apparatus is ingenious. A sort of stays is fixed round the breast of the person, and from these are cords made of catgut which act upon the articulations, according to the motion given to the natural stump. The report ends by stating that the invention is superior to any sub- | EDUCATION IN RUSSIA.-A letter from St. Petersburgh, of the 11th instant, states that an order has just been issued, regulating the education of women in Russia. The Emperor, in accord with the Empress, has determined to submit their mental culture to the jurisdiction of a central board of directors, divided into three sectionsfor St. Petersburgh, for Moscow, and for the provinces respectively. Prince Peter, of Oldenburg, is appointed President of the Board.—Ath. MAGNIFICENT CARPET.-The Revue de Paris. speaks of an immense and magnificent carpet for the Great Hall of the Ambassadors at Versailles, which has just issued from the Royal manufactory of the Gobelins. This work, which was commenced in 1783, has a border composed of garlands of flowers and arabesques of consummate execution; and at its corners are four large boquets of roses, after water-color drawings, executed by Madame Elizabeth, the sister of Louis XVI., including every species of rose known in France towards the close of the eighteenth century.— Athenæum. MISS JANE PORTER.-This amiable lady has just received a very gratifying testimony of respect and admiration from a united body of the booksellers, publishers, and authors of New-York. It is in the form of an easy chair, richly carved, and covered with crimson velvet; and the letter which accompanies it expresses the sentiments of the donors and of thousands of American readers towards the authoress of "Thaddeus of Warsaw" and the "Scottish Chiefs," as "one who first opened up the path that has been still further embellished by the kindred genius of a Scott," and "whose charming productions have taught in so graceful and captivating a manner the lessons of true virtue" over the length and breadth of the land.—Lit. Gaz. pieces of bone on each side of the vertebræ ; and in the codfish the vertebra is pretty well formed, having two spines and intervertebral substance. An interesting example of the use of anatomical knowledge to paleontologists was given. Dr. Buckland having observed that scales like those of the armadillo's armor were often found fossiled with the bones of the megatherium, concluded that this animal must have been like the armadillo; but Mr. Owen, knowing that the vertebra of this little animal has three noral spines placed at angles, so as to take the great the megatherium had been of the armadillo kind, its vertebræ would have had more than the one noral spine which they possess; it is therefore decided that these scales must belong to another animal. Mr Solly takes the ganglionic view of the brain and cord; he considers both a collection of ganglia. His arguments in favor of this the fact of gray matter being found in the centre of the cord, and that in the whiting the cord consists of several ganglia joined together longitudinally. He is of opinion, too, that the brain cannot become intellectual if the skull do not expand. Another point interesting to anatomists, the communication or not of the fluid of the cord with that of the brain, and that of the ventricles of the brain with the fluid exterior, Mr. Solly said he did not consider there was any communication beyond that of endosmosis-Lit. Gaz. ON THE BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD.-After alluding to the interest manifested in the lectures on the physiology of the nervous system delivered on former occasions by himself, before the Royal Institution, Mr. Solly entered upon the description of the protective apparatus of the very important organs, the brain and spinal cord, the centres of the nervous system. The arch-like construction of the skull was pointed out, its thicker and stronger parts being at the sides and base, in the manner of abutments. The two tables of the skull, or the outer and fibrous layer, calculated to resist a blow, and the inner or por-bearing which its armor can sustain, said that if celain layer, suited to resist the entrance of a point, were shown. Next the hard and dense membrane immediately attached to the bone, the dura matter, with its processes, the great falx, preventing lateral skaking of the brain, and its tentorium, preventing vertical shaking, and protecting the little brain, were described. And then the delicate spider-web membrane, secret-view with regard to the cord were founded on ing its lubricating fluid, and covering the inner surface of the dura mater and the outer of the pia mater, or that membrane which immediately and accurately encloses the brain, and serves to retain its form and convey blood-vessels to its substance. The spinal column was described as a hollow, flexible tube, having different curvatures, and formed of 24 joints or vertebræ the spinal marrow passes down this canal, not in contact with its sides, but protected by fluid and short processes of the dense dura mater, which here and there on each side are attached to the sheath of the cord and the sides of the canal, acting like stays, and called the ligamenta denticulata :—the fluid was proved by Majendie to fill the cavity of the canal completely, so that when the outer membrane was laid bare and punctured, it jetted out. This is a great source of protection. In the supply of blood to the brain, Mr. S. pointed out the curves of the carotid arteries (just as they enter the skull), which serve to retard the violent injection of the blood, and prevent injury. In ruminants a more complicated provision of this kind exists, many contortions being made so as to break the force of the current without diminishing the supply. It is considered that this is so formed to prevent the additional impetus which the blood acquires from the downward position of the head in grazing so constantly; and it is remarkable that in the giraffe it is not found, for this animal crops the branches of trees. The veins of the brain have no valves, and open into large sinuses which are always kept patent, and thus allow of a free exit of the effete blood. In speaking of organs for divertion, Mr. S. mentioned that M. Simon considers the thyroid gland to act in this way towards the brain; and it is curious that in the cretins or idiots of the Vallois we find this body almost always in a state of great enlargement. The lecturer then took a brief view of the spinal cord and its protective means in the lower animals. After mentioning the grand division made by comparative anatomists into vertebrate and invertebrate animals, he showed that in the crustacea and insects the cord having no protecting case is placed on the ventral surface of the animal, thus having the whole thickness of the body above it for its protection. In the lamprey there is just a cartilaginous tube, a rudiment of the column which contains the cord. In the sturgeon there are small INTERMENT IN TOWNS.-Mr. Mackinnon has brought forward in the House of Commons his salutary measure to regulate, or rather to prevent, the interment of the dead in the midst of the dense population of towns; the principle of which was affirmed on a division. What obstacles stand in the way of so obviously wise and needful a course we are not exactly aware; but sure we are that either church interests or vested individual interests ought to yield to the paramount consideration of general health and moral feeling Let the best possible compromise be made with those who are affected in purse; but do not let every object which advanced knowledge, altered circumstances and state of society, civilization, and religion demand, be sacrificed to partial claims. You overthrow houses to make new streets, you run railroads through gardens and parks-surely, by similar legal steps, you may remove the greatest offence and nuisance that exists from the very heart of the metropolis and other populous cities! The public is deeply indebted to Mr. Mackinnon for the unremitting zeal and unwearied perseverance with which he has sought to obtain this national benefit.—Lit. Gaz. COLORLESS INK.-Sir George Mackenzie has invented a substitute, in a colorless fluid, for black ink, "the fastness of which," he says, "has been submitted to for ages." A history of the invention was lately read by him to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. A properly prepared paper, however, is required; and the ink becomes blue or black, according to the sort used. We have tried the ink on the prepared paper, and found it excellent-on unprepared paper it remained colorless. Neither will it, like common ink, stain the fingers, or anything else, except silver, and then |