yours, which stands so grievously in your way? If it be a small thing to enjoy inward freedom from remorse and perturbation, and a genuine integrity, pure in the last recesses of the mind, if you think these advantages an inadequate recompense for what you resign,-dismiss your scruples this instant, and be a slave-merchant, a parasite, or what you please. MRS BARBAuld.

THRENODIES.

BRING the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet,
The glowing violet,

The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine,
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad embroidery wears:
Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed,

And daffodillies fill their cups with tears,
To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.

MILTON.

How loved, how honoured once, avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot;
A heap of dust alone remains of thee,

'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.

PERHAPS in this neglected spot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre:

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of Time, did ne'er unroll;

Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast,
The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,

Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood.

The applause of listening senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read their history in a nation's eyes,

Their lot forbade; nor circumscribed alone,
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of Mercy on mankind,

The struggling pangs of conscious Truth to hide,
To quench the blushes of ingenuous Shame,
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride

With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
Along the cool sequestered vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Yet e'en these bones from insult to protect,
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked,
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

For who, to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?

On some fond breast the parting soul relies,
Some pious drops the closing eye requires;
E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries;
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.

GRAY.

THEY grew in beauty, side by side,
They filled one home with glee;
Their graves are severed, far and wide,
By mount, and stream, and sea.

The same fond mother bent at night
O'er each fair sleeping brow;
She had each folded flower in sight,—
Where are those dreamers now?

One, 'midst the forests of the West,
By a dark stream is laid,—
The Indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar shade.

The sea, the blue lone sea, hath one,
He lies where pearls lie deep:
He was the loved of all, yet none
O'er his low bed may weep.

One sleeps where southern vines are dressed
Above the noble slain:

He wrapt his colours round his breast,
On a blood-red field of Spain.
And one-o'er her the myrtle showers
Its leaves, by soft winds fanned;
She faded 'midst Italian flowers,-
The last of that bright band.

And parted thus they rest, who played
Beneath the same green tree;
Whose voices mingled as they prayed
Around one parent knee!

They that with smiles lit up the hall,

And cheered with song the hearth,—

Alas! for Love, if thou wert all,

And nought beyond, oh Earth!

MRS HEMANS.

CLASSIFICATION AND STRUCTURE OF ANIMALS.

ANIMALS, though nearly countless in number and exceedingly diversified in outward form, exhibit such order and system in their internal structure, that naturalists have been able to arrange and classify them all under four groups.

The lowest group has the name of Radiata-that is, rayed -and comprises all animals which have the parts of their bodies arranged or disposed like rays round a centre. fishes, jelly-fishes, and sponges are familiar examples.

Star

The group immediately above this is called Articulata— that is, jointed-and sometimes Annulosa—that is, ringed It includes all animals which have their body and limbs divided into joints or rings. Spiders, insects, crabs, and worms belong to this group.

The next group-the Mollusca-comprehends all animals which have a soft and moist body covered with a skin or shell. The cuttle-fish, the snail, and the oyster may be named as examples.

The highest group is the Vertebrata; a name which sufficiently indicates that all animals which have a vertebral column, or in other words, a back-bone and a skull, belong to it. In this group, and at the head of it, is man.

The group Vertebrata presents a much greater variety of structure than any of the other groups; and it is accordingly divided into four classes-namely, Mammalia—that is, animals (such as quadrupeds, bats, seals, and whales) which produce living offspring, and nourish their young with milk supplied from their own bodies;—Birds—that is, animals which have their bodies clad with feathers;—Amphibia—that is, animals (such as reptiles and serpents) with cold blood, some of which, like the frogs, from their power of suspending respiration, are able to live either on the earth or in the water;—and Fishes—that is, animals which live in water, moving by fins, and breathing by gills.

To show the admirable structure of animals and the fine adaptation of their organs to the functions they have to perform, it is not necessary to describe these four groups and their subdivisions in detail. For this purpose a glance at three classes of animals-Birds, Fishes, and Insects—will be sufficient.

It must be evident to even the most cursory observer that the structure of Birds is wisely and wonderfully adapted to their condition and habits of life. To fit them for cleaving the air, their head is small, their bill wedge-shaped, their neck long and movable in all directions, their body sharp on the under-side and flat on the back, and their bones hollow and comparatively light. Their feathers form an envelope for their bodies, which combines the apparently

incompatible properties of lightness and warmth; and they are, moreover, so disposed one above the other, and from the fore part backward, that they present the least possible resistance to the air; while the warmth of the body is further provided for by the short soft down which fills up all the vacant spaces between the shafts of the feathers.

Nor is this wise adaptation discernible only in the general structure of birds. It may be seen in every part of that structure, even the most minute. It may be seen in the supply of unctuous matter which is given for defending the feathers from the moisture of the atmosphere,―a supply which invariably accords with the necessities of the different species,--those birds having most that reside in the water or open air, and those that live principally under cover having a more scanty share.* It may be seen in the movable membrane which defends the eye from injury when passing through hedges and thickets,-a membrane which is semi-transparent, and which the bird can move at pleasure. It may be seen in the singular contrivance by which the bird is enabled to change the shape of the eye so as to see the insect that is within a few inches of it, and the bird of prey which is several miles distant. And it may be further seen in the air-vessels which are spread over the whole body, and which, by the constant supply of air which they receive from the lungs, prevent respiration from being stopped or interrupted even in the swiftest flight.

The structure of Fishes is not less admirably adapted to their element and mode of life than the structure of birds. Their shape, it cannot escape the most careless observer, is finely fitted to cleave their native deeps with the least possible resistance. The use of their fins and tail, too, is obvious; and their belly-fins cannot appear unnecessary, when it is recollected that their centre of gravity lies near the back, and that without some kind of feet they would float with their backs downward.

Not less adapted to their condition, as inhabitants of the

*This accounts for poultry, when wet, having a ruffled and uncomfortable appearance.