nerve is the cord through which the brain communicates with the eye; and when, by disease or other means, that nerve, or its expansion, the retina, on which the images of external objects are painted, loses its function, or if,-as has been often proved by experiment, the optic nerves be cut across, then the animal sees no longer, though the eyes themselves remain as perfect as before.

THE summer sun was in the west,
Yet far above his evening rest;
A thousand clouds in air displayed
Their floating isles of light and shade,-
The sky, like ocean's channels, seen
In long meandering streaks between.

Cultured and waste the landscape lay;
Woods, mountains, valleys stretched away,
And thronged the immense horizon round,
With heaven's eternal girdle bound:
From inland towns, eclipsed with smoke,
Steeples in lonely grandeur broke;
Hamlets, and cottages, and streams
By glimpses caught the casual gleams,
Or blazed in lustre broad and strong,
Beyond the picturing powers of song:
O'er all the eye enchanted ranged,
While colours, forms, proportions changed,
Or sank in distance undefined,

Still as our devious course inclined;

And oft we paused, and looked behind.
One little cloud, and only one,
Seemed the pure offspring of the sun,
Flung from his orb to show us here
What clouds adorn his hemisphere;
Unmoved, unchanging, in the gale
That bore the rest o'er hill and dale,
Whose shadowy shapes, with lights around,
Like living motions, swept the ground.

This little cloud, and this alone,
Long in the highest ether shone;
Gay as a warrior's banner, spread
Its sunward margin, ruby-red,
Green, purple, gold, and every hue
That glitters in the morning dew,
Or glows along the rainbow's form,-
The apparition of the storm.
Deep in its bosom, diamond-bright,
Behind a fleece of pearly white,
It seemed a secret glory dwelt,

Whose presence, while unseen, was felt:
Like Beauty's eye, in slumber hid
Beneath a half-transparent lid,

From whence a sound, a touch, a breath,
Might startle it, as life from death.
Looks, words, emotions of surprise
Welcomed the stranger to our eyes:
Was it the phoenix, that from earth
In flames of incense sprang to birth?
Had Ocean from his lap let fly

His loveliest halcyon through the sky?
No: - while we gazed, the pageant grew
A nobler object to our view;

We deemed, if heaven with earth would hold
Communion, as in days of old,

Such, on his journey down the sphere,
Benignant Raphael might appear,
In splendid mystery concealed,
Yet by his rich disguise revealed:
-That buoyant vapour, in mid-air,
An angel in its folds might bear,
Who, through the curtain of his shrine,
Betrayed his lineaments divine.

The wild, the warm illusion stole,

Like inspiration, o'er the soul,

Till thought was rapture; language hung
Silent but trembling on the tongue;
And fancy almost hoped to hail
The seraph rushing through his veil,
Or hear an awful voice proclaim
The embassy on which he came.

But ah! no minister of grace
Showed from the firmament his face,

Nor, borne aloof on balanced wings,

Revealed unutterable things.

The sun went down :- the vision passed;
The cloud was but a cloud at last;
Yet when its brilliancy decayed,
The eye still lingered on the shade,
And watching, till no longer seen,
Loved it for what it once had been.
That cloud was beautiful, was one
Among a thousand round the sun :
The thousand shared the common lot;
They came,

they went, — they were forgot

This fairy form alone impressed
Its perfect image in my breast,
And shines as richly blazoned there
As in its element of air.

Bliss in possession will not last;
Remembered joys are never past:
At once the fountain, stream, and sea,
They were, they are, they yet shall be.

EXERCISE CLXIV.

THE CULTIVATION OF TASTE.

[From an Address on the Education of Females.]

THE cultivation of taste, is one of those departments of education, in which much depends on the action of the individual. The study of languages, and the practice of reading and of composition, are the chief sources of influence on taste, that can be resorted to, in the period of school education. In some establishments, it is true, pupils enjoy the additional aid of instruction in music and drawing,-pursuits which exert a powerful influence, in cherishing the tendencies of the young mind towards the beautiful in form and in sound. Pure taste and discriminating judgment, in the teachers of these branches of education, must lie at the foundation of all valuable attainment, on the part of the pupil. Without these primary aids, girls had better be left to those

orthographical journey, Maum Phillis entered with her usual drawl, "Little maussa want for nurse, marm.'

While this operation was going on, we gathered round mamma, to play bo-peep with the baby, until even she forgot our lessons. At length, the little pet was dismissed; and our line was formed again.

Mamma's next interruption, after successfully issuing a few words, was to settle a quarrel between La Fayette and Venus, two little creatures, who were going through their daily drill, in learning to rub the furniture, which, with brushing off flies at meals, constitutes the first instruction for house servants.

These important and classical personages rubbed about a stroke to the minute, on each side of the cellaret; rolling up their eyes, and making grimaces at each other. At this crisis, they had laid claim to the same rubbing-cloth. Mamma stopped the dispute by ordering my seamstress Flora, who was sewing for me, to apply the weight of her thimble, that longknown weapon of offence, as well as implement of industry, to their organ of firmness.

"Spell accentuate," said mamma, whose finger had slipped from the column.

"No, no; that is not the place," we exclaimed, rectifying the mistake.

66

Spell irritate," said she, with admirable coolness; and John fairly succeeded, just as the overseer's son, a sallow little boy with yellow hair, and blue homespun dress, came in with his hat on, and kicking up one foot, for manners, said, "Fayther says as how he wants Master Richard's horse, to help tote some tetters to t'other field."

This pretty piece of alliteration was complied with, after some remonstrance from brother Dick; and we finished our column.

At this crisis, before we were fairly seated at writing, mamma was summoned to the hall, to one of the field hands, who had received an injury in the ankle from a hoe. Papa and the overseer being at a distance, she was obliged to superintend the wound. We all followed her; La Fayette and Venus bringing up the rear. She inspected the sufferer's great foot, covered with blood and perspiration, superintended a bath, prepared a healing application, and bound it on with her own delicate hands, first quietly tying on a black

* Potatoes.

of genius, and shrink from the other, as from the messes of Egypt. She will be content to wait patiently, and practise assiduously, for the skill which, in due time, will reward her resolution and her perseverance, and enable her to present more faithfully, and to enjoy more amply, the richer fruits of great minds.

ance.

"With his ice, and snow, and rime,
Let bleak Winter sternly come !

There is not a sunnier clime

Than the love-lit winter-home." A. A. Watts.

WE are now placed in the midst of wintry scenes. Nature is stripped of all her summer drapery. Her verdure, her foliage, her flowers, have all vanished. The sky is filled with clouds and gloom, or sparkles only with a frosty radiThe earth is spongy with wet, rigid with frost, or buried in snows. The winds that, in summer, breathe gently over nodding blooms, and undulating grass, swaying the leafy boughs with a pleasant murmur, and wafting perfumes all over the world, now hiss like serpents, or howl like wild beasts of the desert; cold, piercing, and cruel.

Every thing has drawn as near as possible to the centre of warmth and comfort. The farmer has driven his flocks and cattle into sheltered home enclosures, where they may receive from his provident care, that food which the earth now denies them; or into the farm-yard itself, where some honest Giles piles their cratches plentifully with fodder. The labourer has fled from the field to the barn; and the measured strokes of his flail are heard daily, from morn till eve.

It amazes us, as we walk abroad, to conceive where can have concealed themselves the infinite variety of creatures that sported through the air, earth, and waters, of summer. Birds, insects, reptiles, - whither are they all gone? The birds that filled the air with their music, the rich blackbird, the loud and cheerful thrush, the linnet, lark, and goldfinch, -whither have they crept?-The squirrel that played his