In her white hand a cup she bore

The cup I quaffed in days of yore,

'Twas HOPE and thus she spake :—“ O, drink! And though upon the gloomy brink

Of the dark grave, yet thou shalt live-
The draught shall LIFE'S ASSURANCE give!"

Life! Life!-0, magic words, whose power
Wrought on my heart in that wild hour
Of visioned woe !-I drained the bowl-

That nectar of a fainting soul!
Would gracious Heaven my days prolong?
Yes! for methought my limbs grew strong;
My breast no longer owned despair,
For HOPE-the syren HOPE-was there!

I gazed around—what words were those?
What mansion that so stately rose?
Ha! "LIFE'S ASSURANCE!"-Breathe I yet!
I rushed within the gate-I met
The fleshless form-the orbless eye-
The breast without a heart-a sigh-

That man's worst foe declared! Around-
Huge folios-bags of gold-embrowned
With dust of time :-Was gold the price

Of earth's still longed-for Paradise?

"Ah! give me years of vigour-healthAnd take, O, take my sordid wealth!"

The spectre grimly smiled, and said :
"Thou fool-go, rest thee with the dead!
Behold yon feeble withered crone-
Like thee, she'd breathe, a thriftless drone-
Like thee, she'd live o'er life again,

Through years of feverish grief and pain.
To-morrow, she must meet her doom-
To-morrow, rest within the tomb!

"THY days are numbered, too. Away! Thy mother earth now chides thy stay! Go-and, within her silent home,

Await the life-the life to come!"

With gaunt and outstretched arm he gave
A scroll-my passport to the grave.

I shrank, and read with gasping breath

"Thy LIFE'S ASSURANCE is alone through DEATH!"

T. H.

THE ASSURANCE OFFICE.

"I'll make assurance doubly sure, And take a bond of fate."-Shakspeare.

To persons ignorant of commercial and financial mysteries, the notion of insuring life seems a strange one. How a house or a ship may be insured is easily comprehended; for the first may probably never be burnt, nor the second wrecked. But man

must, at some time or other, die; and yet, against death, not only the young and vigorous, but the aged and valetudinary, find no difficulty in obtaining, on various conditions, what is technically called a policy of insurance. Is it not rather a sentence of execution, the term of which is not precisely defined?

Slanderers of human nature deny that there is such a thing as friendship. Even the less misanthropic consider themselves remarkably fortunate if they possess one true friend. Shall I inform you how you may make yourself certain of having at least eight staunch hearty friends, who will feel the

greatest interest in you during the whole course of your existence? Go, and insure your life, for a good round sum, at the office of one of the assurance companies. From the From the very moment of your doing so, the directors of that company will become your warm and sincere friends; friends, whom no neglect of yours, except neglecting to pay your annual premium, can alienate. "The how d'ye do?" of other people is merely the conventional phrase by which conversation is commenced, but with the gentlemen to whom I allude it is a bona-fide inquiry. To them your health is an object of constant solicitude. They watch with anxious sympathy the expression of your countenance; exult when your eye sparkles with vivacity, and are depressed when your cheek is invaded by "the pale cast" of sickness. And when at length the awful moment shall arrive,—

"For come it will, the day decreed by fate,”—

that is to terminate your earthly career, their grief at your loss will be unmingled with the slightest hypocrisy. Why? The event which puts your nearest connexions in possession of twenty thousand pounds, takes exactly the same sum out of the pockets of these gentlemen. Yes, my dear madam; notwithstanding what you hasten to tell me about

"the emotions of conjugal affection," and "the tears of filial sensibility," I maintain that the most inconsolable mourners over a man's grave are the directors of the company by whom his life has been insured.

There is no rule, however, without an exception. Among the conditions on which a policy of life assurance is granted, is generally one, which it is difficult to describe in terms of sufficient delicacy. The benefits of the policy are withheld from that particular casualty to which a want of due regard for the lives and property of others may unhappily subject any man. In plain English, the insurance company declare that if the person insured should be hanged, they will be hanged if they pay a farthing to his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns. He and the policy drop together. It is clear therefore that this unamiable reservation is likely to produce a little deviation from the otherwise uniformly warm tone of friendship to which I have been adverting. In fact, it must create an anomaly of feeling rather curious. "My dear sir, I have the highest regard for you, and put up daily prayers for your health and prosperity; I am delighted at the ruddiness of your complexion, and the firmness of your