If that gem again from heaven
Were intrusted to my care,
I could not enfold and keep it
From the chill, corrupting air;
Could not hide it out of sight
Of the peering, prying light:
Crushed and shattered, mean and vile,
I am fit only for the funeral pile.

S. WILSON.-M'Millan's Magazine.

When the soul withholds activity from its body, the body becomes inactive or inert.

When the Infinite withholds His own self-derived life from the outermost of His (the alone self-existent) Substance, that outermost becomes finite. From this first finite sphere substantial spiritual forms are created. And as the material substance of the body is ever emanating matters deprived of the properties of the living body, so spirit-substance is ever emanating from its outermost sphere substances deprived of the properties of soul. These elements or elastic fluids, condensed, constitute suns or stars; from suns planets originate; whence the universal world of nature.

O Adam! One-Almighty is, from whom
All things proceed and up to Him return,
If not depraved from good; created all
Such to perfection, one first matter all ;

Indued with various forms, various degrees
Of substance, and, in things that live, of life;
But more refined, more spirituous and pure,
As nearer to Him placed, or nearer tending,
Each in their several active spheres assigned.

MILTON.

These are Thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty! Thine this universal frame.

MILTON.

Of all created forms of life the highest and most perfect in its godliness is the human soul, The vast cathedral of nature is full of holy scriptures and shapes of deep mysterious meaning, but all is silent and solitary there-no bending knee, no uplifted eye, no lip adoring and praying. Into this vast cathedral comes the human soul, seeking its Creator; then the universal silence is changed to sound, and the sound is harmonious and has a meaning, and is comprehended and felt—the glory of God.

LONGFELLOW.

Sweet morn! from endless cups of gold
Thou liftest reverently on high

More incense fine, than earth can hold,

To fill the sky.

One interfusion wide of love,

Thine airs and odours moist ascend,

And 'mid the azure depths above

With light they blend.

Aloft the mountain ridges beam

Above their quiet steeps of gray;
The eastern clouds with glory stream
And vital day.

A joy from hidden paradise

Is rippling down the shiny brooks
With beauty, like the gleams of eyes
In tenderest looks.

In man, O morn! a loftier good

With conscious blessing fills the soul,

A life, by reason understood,

Which metes the whole.

With healthful pulse and tranquil fire,
Which plays at ease in every limb,

His thoughts unchecked to heaven aspire-
Revealed in him.

STERLING.

Conceive the stars or material universe to be a central ground, around, upon, and within which exists an unseen world of spiritual beings and substances. Conceive too, that this material universe is built to fix the unseen world, as a body fixes its soul; and fitted up with every convenience and ornament, that men therein may be instructed and trained to live for ever in the unseen world.

Immortal beings not born men, have their existence only, like the wings of angels, in the imagination.

'Tis midnight! from the dark blue sky

The stars, which now look down on earth, Have seen ten thousand centuries fly,

And given countless changes birth.

And, when the pyramids shall fall
And mouldering mix as dust in air,
The dwellers in this altered ball

May still behold them glorious there.
Shine on! shine on! with you I tread
The march of ages, orbs of light!
A last eclipse o'er you may spread—
To me, to me there comes no night!
Oh! what concerns it him, whose way
Lies upward to the immortal dead,
That a few hairs are turning gray,
Or one more year of life is fled.

Teach me, swift years ! but how to hear,
To feel, and act with strength and skill,
To reason wisely, nobly dare;

Then speed your courses as ye will!

But sorrow, sickness, death, the pain
To leave or lose wife, children, friends!
What then-Shall we not meet again
Where parting comes, not sorrow ends?
The fondness of a parent's care,

The changeless trust which woman gives,
The smile of childhood-it is there!

That all we love in them still lives.

ANDREW NORTON.

Welcome! sweet hour of full discharge,
That sets the captive soul at large,
Unbinds her chains, breaks up her cell,
And gives her with her God to dwell.

Where, like a mist, time disappears,

Melting into eternity.

AMELIA WELBY.

Like perfumes on the wind,

Which none may stay or bind,

The beautiful comes floating through my soul;

I strive with yearnings vain

The spirit to detain

Of the deep harmonies that past me roll!

Shall I then fear the tone

That breathes from worlds unknown?

Surely these feverish aspirations there
Shall grasp their full desire,

And this unsettled fire

Burn calmly, brightly in immortal air.

HEMANS.

I did not hear the dog howl, mother, or the death watch

beat;

There came a sweeter token when the night and morning

meet:

But sit beside the bed, mother, and put your hand in mine, And Effie on the other side and I will tell the sign.