drawn out a considerable supply. The diminution increases daily; and how, it is asked, "would he feel each time of drawing and each, time of drinking it?" Not as if he had a perennial spring to go to; "I have a reservoir, I may be at ease." No; "I had water yesterday, I have water to-day; but my having had it yesterday and my having it to-day, is the very cause that I shall not have it on some day that is approaching." Surely this is a beautiful image, and true as beautiful. It is no violent metaphor to represent life as a fortress, and man a prisoner within its gate. Time is the dark Reservoir from which he drinks; but he cannot descend to examine its depth or its quantity. He draws his supply from a fountain fed by invisible pipes. Nay, we do not often see the fountain. We conceal it with thick trees; we strive to hide Time. Still, if we would linger by it for a moment, we might discover a sad difference between the issue of the water at different seasons of the human year. In spring and summer-our childhood and early youth-the sunshine of hope silvers every drop; and if we look into the stream, the voice of some fair spirit might almost be heard speaking to us from the crystal shrine. In autumn and winter days-our mature manhood and old age the fountain pours a languider and darker current. But the thing to be remembered, in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, is, that the Reservoir which feeds the fountain is being exhausted. Every drop that fell in our sunniest days lessened the water that remains. We had life yesterday, and we have life to-day; the probability, the certainty is, that we shall not have it on some day that is approaching. It strikes a chill to the heart to think, that the Reservoir may not contain enough to supply the prisoner in life's dungeon for another week. But the shadow passes from the dial; the evening glimmers away into the thick trees: - Ah! slowly sink Behind the western ridge, thou glorious sun! Silent with swimming sense, yea, gazing round Comes sudden on my heart, and I am glad. This little lime-tree bower, have I not marked Much that has soothed me? Pale, beneath the blaze, Hung the transparent foliage; and I watch'd Dappling its sunshine! and that walnut tree Those fronting elms, and now, with blackest mass, Yet still the solitary humble bee Sings in the night-flower. Henceforth I shall know No plot so narrow, be but Nature there, No waste so vacant, but may well employ Each faculty of sense, and keep the heart Then, welcome autumn, and golden sheaves, and harvest-home! "Do not talk of the decay of the year; the season is good when the people are so. It is the best time of year for a painter." So wrote Pope. And if for a picture, surely for a life. The leaf that now drops dim and flaccid from my hand has not been gathered up in vain. It reminds me of that greener country, where, in the words of Cowper, the leaves never fall, and the eternal day is Summer Time. THE END. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. I. POEMS. SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED. His descriptions are elegant, his illustrations full of fancy, and the pleasing moral which he draws from the productions of nature and the works of Providence, are such as show the prevailing associations of a good and thoughtful mind. There is, too, a classical tone and feeling pervading the whole composition, which show equally the scholar and the poet.-Gentleman's Magazine. PUBLISHED BY JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. The Holy City: Historical, Topographical, and Antiquarian Notices of Jerusalem. By GEORGE WILLIAMS, B.D., Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. Second Edition, with considerable additions, including THE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, By PROFESSOR WILLIS. With this Edition is also published A PLAN OF THE TOWN & ENVIRONS OF JERUSALEM, copied, by permission of Field-Marshal the MARQUIS OF ANGLESEY, from the Original Drawing of the Survey made by Lieutenants ALDRICH and SYMONDS, of the Royal Engineers, under the orders of Lieut. Colonel ANDERSON, Commanding the Royal Engineers in Syria. 2 vols. octavo. 21. 5s. *The Survey, of which this is a copy, is the only one that has ever been made by professional Surveyors. The forms of the mountains and valleys are for the first time rendered with the accuracy of a model from the contour lines of the original Drawings. The Plan is beautifully engraved by Mr. LowRY, and published with the Memoir reprinted from Williams's Holy City, price 9s.; and also Mounted on Canvas, with Rollers, for use in Libraries, Schools, &c., price 188. The Architectural History of the Holy Sepulchre. By PROFESSOR WILLIS. Reprinted from the above work. Octavo, illustrated by Engravings from Drawings never before published. 9s. On the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion. By G. CORNE WALL LEWIS, Esq., M.P. Octavo. 10s. 6d. Wales: the Language, Social Condition, Moral Character, and Religious Opinions of the People, considered in their Relation to Education. By SIR THOMAS PHILLIPS. Octavo. 14s. |