together, hand in hand, beneath the starless sky of The Children of the Lord's Supper. midnight! NIGHT in the EAST. H. W. LONGFELLOW. Beautiful is the moonlight of the south! In those climes the night so quickly glides into the day, that twilight scarcely makes a bridge between them. One moment of darker purple in the sky—of a thousand rose-hues in the water-of shade half victorious over light, and then bursts forth at once the countless stars— the moon is up—night has resumed her reign. NIGHT. The Last Days of Pompeii, Book IV. Chap. VI. Solemnity of The slumbering Night rolls on her velvet car; Clifton Grove.-H. K. WHITE. Oft, in the lone church-yard at night I've seen, By glimpse of moonshine chequering thro' the trees, The school-boy with his satchel in his hand, Whistling aloud to bear his courage up, And lightly tripping o'er the long flat stones Sudden he starts! and hears, or thinks he hears, That walks at dead of night, or takes his stand NIGHT. Beauty of The Grave.-ROBERT BLAIR. I linger yet with Nature, for the night Than that of man; and in her starry shade I learned the language of another world. NIGHT the time for Study. Manfred.-LORD BYRON. Is there not A tongue in every star that talks with man, And woos him to be wise? nor woos in vain : Has closed his golden eye, and, wrapt in shades, A Summer Evening's Meditation. NIGHT the Time for REST. Night is the time for rest; How sweet, when labours close, The curtain of repose, Stretch the tired limbs, and lay the head Night.-JAMES MONTGOMERY. NONSENSE. Hudibras has defined nonsense, as Cowley does wit, by negatives. Nonsense says he, is that which is neither true nor false. These two great properties of nonsense, which are always essential to it, give it such a peculiar advantage over all other writings, that it is incapable of being either answered or contradicted. It stands upon its own basis like a rock of adamant, secured by its natural situation against all conquests or attacks. There is no one place about it weaker than another, to favour an enemy in his approaches. The major and the minor are of equal strength. Its questions admit of no reply, and its assertions are not to be invalidated. A man may as well hope to distinguish colours in the midst of darkness, as to find out what to approve and disapprove in nonsense: you may as well assault an enemy that is buried in intrenchments. If it affirms anything, you cannot lay hold of it; or if it denies, you cannot refute it. In a word, there are greater depths and obscurities, greater intricacies and perplexities, in an elaborate and well-written piece of nonsense, than in the most abstruse and profound tract of school divinity. The Whig, Examiner, No. 4.—Addison. Obedience. Necessity for Therefore doth Heaven divide The state of man in divers functions, King Henry V. Act I. Scene II.—SHAKSPERE. OBLIGATIONS and INGRATITUDE. Everybody takes pleasure in returning small obligations; many go so far as to acknowledge moderate ones; but there is hardly any one who does not repay great obligations with ingratitude. Maxims, XLVII. --ROCHEFOUCAULT. OBLIVION. Oblivion is not to be hired: the greatest part must be content to be as though they had not been; to be found in the register of God, not in the record of man. Twenty-seven names make up the first story before the flood; and the recorded names ever since contain not one living century. The number of the dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the equinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetic which scarce stands one moment. And since death must be the Lucina of life; and even Pagans could doubt whether thus to live were to die; since our longest sun sets at right descensions, and makes but winter arches, and therefore it cannot be long before we lie down in darkness, and have our light in ashes; since the brother of death daily haunts us with dying mementos, and time, that grows old in itself, bids us hope no long duration; diuturnity is a dream, and folly of expectation. Christian Morals.-SIR THOS. BROWNE. Q |