And balanced oft her broider'd wings,
Through fields of air prepared to sail :
Then on her venturous journey springs,
And floats along the rising gale.

Go, child of pleasure, range the fields,
Taste all the joys that Spring can give,
Partake what bounteous Summer yields,
And live, while yet 'tis thine to live.

Go, sip the rose's fragrant dew,

The lily's honied cup explore,
From flower to flower the earth renew,
And rifle all the woodbine's store:

And let me trace thy vagrant flight,
Thy moments, too, of short repose,
And mark thee, when, with fresh delight,
Thy golden pinions ope and close.

But hark! while thus I musing stand,
Pours on the gale an airy note,
And, breathing from a viewless band,
Soft silvery tones around me float!

-They cease- -but still a voice I hear,
A whisper'd voice of hope and joy :-
"Thy hour of rest approaches near,

Prepare thee, mortal! thou must die!

"Yet start not!-on thy closing eyes Another day shall still unfold,

A sun of milder radiance rise,

A happier age of joys untold.

"Shall the poor worm that shocks thy sight, The humblest form in Nature's train,

Thus rise in new-born lustre bright,

And yet the emblem teach in vain?

"Ah! where were once her golden eyes,
Her glittering wings in purple pride?
Conceal'd beneath a rude disguise,

A shapeless mass to earth allied.

"Like thee, the hapless reptile lived,—
Like thee, she toil'd,-like thee, she spun,―
Like thine, her closing hour arrived,

Her labour ceased, her web was done.

"And shalt thou, number'd with the dead,
No happier state of being know?
And shall no future morrow shed
On thee a beam of brighter glow?

"Is this the bound of Power Divine,
To animate an insect frame?
Or shall not HE, who moulded thine,
Wake, at his will, the vital flame?
"Go, mortal! in thy reptile state,
Enough to know to thee is given;

Go, and the joyful truth relate ;

Frail child of Earth! high heir of Heaven."

ROSCOE.

The following is an extract from Kirby and Spence's highly valuable Introduction to Entomology, vol. i, p. 72:-"Swammerdam, speaking of the metamorphosis of insects, uses these strong words: "This process is performed in so remarkable a manner in butterflies, that we see therein the resurrection painted before our eyes, and exemplified so as to be examined by our hands.' To see, indeed, a caterpillar crawling upon the earth, sustained by the most ordinary kinds of food, which, when it has existed a few weeks or months under this humble form, its appointed work being finished, passes into an intermediate state of seeming death, when it is wound up in a kind of shroud and encased in a coffin, and is most commonly buried under the earth, (though sometimes its sepulchre is in the water, and at others in various substances in the air,) and after this creature and others of its tribe have remained their destined time in this death-like state, to behold earth, air, and water give up their several prisoners; to survey them, when, called by the warmth of the solar beam, they burst from their sepulchres, cast off their cerements, from this state of torpid inactivity come forth, as a bride out of her chamber,-to survey them, I say, arrayed in their nuptial glory, prepared to enjoy a new and more exalted condition of life, in which all their powers are developed, and they are arrived at the perfection of their nature; when, no longer confined to the earth, they can traverse the fields of air, their food is the nectar of flowers, and Love begins his

blissful reign ;-who that witnesses this interesting scene can help seeing in it a lively representation of man in his three-fold state of existence, and more especially of that happy day, when, at the call of the great Sun of Righteousness, all that are in the graves shall come forth, the sea shall give up her dead, and death being swallowed up of life, the nations of the blessed shall live and love to the ages of eternity? So that in this view of the subject well might the Italian poet exclaim:

'Non v'accorgéte voi, che noi siam' vermi
Nati a formar l'angelica farfalla?'"

THE AUTUMN CROCUS.

WHEN brighter hours are passing away,
And gloomy looks the shortening day,
The Herald of Autumn sear
Puts forth its leafless head,

Uprising in the mead,

To deck the path of the declining year.

O latest in the train of flowers,

Which bounteous Nature strews,
'Neath misty skies, in hoary dews,

Thou smil'st-in chilling showers:
A dull, slant beam, no breath of Spring,
Warms and unfolds thy blossoming.

Yet dear thy smile; to me as dear

As any in Flora's gayest bowers:
For thou canst wake a thought to cheer

The coming gloom of life's late hours;
Show that dim age by Hope may be
Happy as thoughtless infancy.

Thy pleasing errand fitly done,

Thou diest beneath a clouded sun,

And deep art in Earth's bosom laid:

There kept by Nature's fostering care,

Thy leaves ascend, thy fruits are shed,

When Spring returns, and bids the flowers appear.

Oh! grant that Hope, like thee, loved flower,
May blossom in my waning day,
Though earthly storms around me lour,

And darksome be my weary way;

Then, pass'd the grave's cold Winter, may I rise
With fruits of peace to bright and cloudless skies!

This plant, the Autumn Crocus, Colchicum autumnale, seems to reverse the accustomed order of the seasons; it mingles its fruits with the flowers of Spring, and its flowers with the fruits of Autumn. Dr. Paley, in his Natural Theology, introduces it as a striking instance of the compensatory system. "I have," says he, "pitied this poor plant a thousand times. Its blossoms rise out of the ground in the most forlorn condition possible, without a sheath, a fence, a calyx, or even a leaf to protect it; and that not in the Spring, nor to be visited by Summer-suns, but under all the disadvantages of the declining year. When we come, however, to look more closely into the structure of this plant, we find that Nature has gone out of her course to provide for its security, and to make up to it for all its defects. The seed-vessel, which in other plants is situated within the cup of the flower, or just beneath it, in this plant lies under ground, within the bulb. The tube of the flower extends down to the root. The germ grows up in the Spring, upon a footstalk, accompanied with leaves: the seeds have thus the benefit of the Summer, and are sown upon the surface. The order of vegetation externally is this: the plant produces its flowers in September; its leaves and fruits in the Spring following."-Nat. Theol., ch. xx.

THE VIOLET.

THOU shalt be mine, thou simplest flower,
Tenting thyself beneath the bower
Thy little leaves have made;

So meekly shrinking from the eye,
Yet mark'd by every passer by-

Of thine own sweets betrayed.

The rose may boast a brighter hue,
May breathe as rich a fragrance too,
Yet let her yield to thee;

Not hers thy modesty of dress,
Not hers thy witching artlessness,
And these are more to me.

Dear emblem of the meek-eyed maid,
Whom, nurtured 'mid retirement's shade,
The world hath never known-

Who loves to glide unseen along,
Unnoticed by the idle throng

Whom Fashion calls her own;

Who shines, nor her own shining sees,
Who pleases without toil to please,—
Unstain'd, untouch'd by art;—
Distinguish'd by that choicest gem
That lights up virtue's diadem-
A 'meek and quiet heart.'

REV. H. STOWELL.

AUTUMN FLOWERS.

THOSE few pale Autumn flowers,
How beautiful they are!

Than all that went before,

Than all the Summer store,

How lovelier far!

And why?—They are the last!

The last the last! the last!

Oh! by that little word,

How many thoughts are stirr'd
That whisper of the past!

Pale flowers! pale perishing flowers!
Ye're types of precious things;
Types of those bitter moments,
That flit like life's enjoyments
On rapid, rapid wings.

Last hours with parting dear ones,

(That time the fastest spends)

Last tears in silence shed,

Last words half uttered,

Last looks of dying friends.