While the sounds of soft, sweet music,
Drive away all thought of care.
E'en this city's proudest children
Look with rapture on the sight,
While a throng of giddy dancers
Glide beneath the tinted light.

On his throne of dazzling splendor
Now Chaldea's King reclines,
While the goblets gemmed and golden,
Glow with rich and mellow wines.
And, to still increase the splendors
Of that glorious, gala night,
Glitter Judah's sacred vessels—
Triumphs of the heathen's might.

'Round the walls of that proud City
Now the Persian army slept,
While their stern and watchful sentrics,
Long and weary vigils kept.
While, perchance, some drowsy sentry
Paused upon his lonely beat,
And in silence marked the timing
Of the dainty, tinkling feet;
And the countless scintilations,
From the windows tall and wide,
With their meteor-like reflections
On the dark Euphrates tide.
Then, resumed his measured walking,
As the night-bird rustled by,
Thinking of the mighty changes

That must meet the morning's eye!

How the dark Euphrates river,
Startled from its rocky bed,

Would move on in frightful grandeur

Through a city of the dead!

!

But what reck the gay Chaldeans
With their walls of wondrous height,
What to them was haughty Cyrus,
In his silent, sullen might!
Loudly laughs the King Assyrian,
Little does he dream of harm;
Sweetly smiles yon blushing maiden,
Leaning on her lover's arm.

But, how silent are the minstrels!
See the vast assemblage quail,
And the god-like King, Belshazzar,
Turneth sudden deadly pale!
For along those walls palatial

Now a ghostly hand doth write,
In a dark and unknown language,
Words that freeze the very sight!

Many a deeply-skilled magician
With his deep and longing eyes,
And in turn each wise old secr

Now the spectral message tries';
But in vain their conjurations;

Still those flaming letters stand
On the grand old wall emblazoned,
Written by God's own right hand!

"Bring the Hebrew captive hither,"
Then the trembling Monarch cried,—
"Since the wise of all Chaldea

By these letters are defied!"
See, Judea's prophet enters

'Mid that pale and trembling throng, 'Mid the halls that late re-echoed

With the mirth of shout and song.

"Hebrew captive!"-cries the Monarch,-
"If these letters thou canst read,
Costly robes and kingly honors
Will I give to thee as meed!”
"I ask not honors, trembling Monarch!
What to me this heathen land!
One of many children, chastened
By a loving Father's hand!
But, Belshazzar, King Assyrian,
With thy broad and rich domains,
With countless heathen altars

And thy strange unholy fanes,
Unto thee does this come greeting,
Penned by high Jehovah's hand,
Before whom the angels worship
In full many a white-robed band!
In the balance of high Heaven

Has thy wanting soul been weighed,
By great Alpha and Omega,

By the Maker of all made.

Know, thy days on earth are numbered,
And ere morning dawns again,
Thou, with many a loyal subject,
Shall be numbered with the slain!

Lo, thy Kingdom shall be given
To the Persian and the Mede!
Thus, O haughty King Assyrian,
Does this dreadful sentence read!"

Dreary silence holds dominion

Through those grandly lighted halls,
And the sound of trampling horses
On the drowsy night-air falls!
Louder grows the sound of conflict,

And as pale stars softly wane,
Medes and Persians hold Chaldea
And Belshazzar's with the slain!

Canst thou tell me, smiling skeptic,
Why no longer, as of yore,
Does the weary Arab rest him
On the dark Euphrates shore!
Yes, a pool of stagnant blackness
Sleeps where Babylon once stood,
And the raven and foul lap-wing
Lave their pinions in its flood.
And the slimy adder hisses

Where once lordly feasts were held,
And the moaning north wind sigheth
Where those strains of music swelled.
List, and thou shall hear the angels
As they worship, one by one,
Say, "O God! in Earth and Heaven,
May Thy holy will be done."

"I HAVE SEEN AN END OF ALL PERFECTION."

MRS. SIGOURNEY.

I have seen man in the glory of his days and the pride of his strength. He was built like the tall cedar that lifts its head above the forest trees; like the strong oak that strikes its root deeply into earth. He fared no danger; he felt no sickness; he wondered that any should groan or sigh at pain. His mind was vigorous, like his body; he was perplexed at no intricacy; he was daunted at no difficulty; into hidden things he searched, and what was crooked he

made plain. He went forth fearlessly upon the face of the mighty deep; he surveyed the nations of the earth; he measured the distance of the stars, and called them by their names; he gloried in the extent of his knowledge, in the vigor of his understanding, and strove to search even into what the Almighty had concealed. And when I looked on him I said, “What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a God!"

I returned his look was no more lofty, nor his step proud; his broken frame was like some ruined tower; his hairs were white and scattered; and his eye gazed vacantly upon what was passing around him. The vigor of his intellect was wasted, and of all that he had gained by study, nothing remained. He feared when there was no danger, and when there was no sorrow, he wept. His memory was decayed and treacherous, and showed him only broken images of the glory that was departed. His house was to him like a strange land, and his friends were counted as his enemies; and he thought himself strong and healthful, while his foot tottered on the verge of the grave. said of his son-"He is my brother;" f his daughter, "I know her not;" and he inquired what was his own name. And one who supported his last steps, and ministered to his many wants, said to me, as I looked on the melancholy scene, "Let thine heart receive instruction, for thou hast seen an end of all earthly perfection."

He

I have seen a beautiful female treading the first stages of youth, and entering joyfully into the pleasures