The Sun,--his rise and set we know;
The Sea, -we mark its ebb and flow :

The Moon,-her wax and wane;
The Stars --Man knows their courses well,
The Comet’s vagrant paths can tell ;-

But you his search disdain.

What epithet can words supply
Unto the Bard who takes such high

Unmanageable theme?

But one :-to me, when Fancy stirs
My thoughts, ye seem Heav'n's Messengers,

Who leave no path untrod;
And when, as now, at midnight's bour,
I hear your voice in all its power,

It seems the Voice of God.

Ye restless, homeless, shapeless things!
Who mock all our imaginings,

Like Spirits in a dream;

CLOUDS.

THE CLOUD S.

But when the day was almost done,
S. C. HALL,

The clouds were beautiful indeed,

When from his daily duty freed, WHEN the first day-beam bless'd the sky,

Still in bis glorions strength, the sun I marked the varied clouds on high,

Shone forth upon the twilight skies, The clouds through which the sunlight broke,

And graced them with his myriad dyes. As if it came from heaven, and woke

I saw the clouds that onward drew Their sleepy shadows into smiles,

From out the deep and distant blue, And wooed them with a thousand wiles :

Become all beautiful and bright, Those at a distance yet, were cold

As if to shew the coming night And dull and naked, after night;

How great the radiance of the power, But on, toward the east they rollid

E’en of the sun's departing hour: And clad them in a robe of light.

They took all shapes, as Fancy wronght Others, as if they loved to dwell

Her web, and mingled thought with thought: In darkness, moved but slowly on,

Some like familiar forms-the themes And when on them its brightness fell,

Of eartbly loves that fall to dreamsBut little of tbeir gloom had gone:

Some were of rainbow shape and hues; One, gloomier still, its course delays,

Some glisten'd like our earth with dews; As though too heavy for the sky,

Some were like forests seen afar; Then breaks and passes gaily by :

Some like the restless wandering star; While some had gathered round the rays

While some appear'd like coral caves That gave them hues and forms so fair,

Half bidden by the ocean waves, As loth to leave that glorious place, All cover'd with their snow-white spray; To lose their beauty and to trace

Others were there, which seem'd to be Their pathway through the murky air.

Fair islands in a dark blue sea, I marked when day was at its height,

Which human eyes at eve behold; Others of many a varied dye,

But only then-unseen by day More fair of form, more purely bright

Their shores and mountains all of gold. Than those that deck'd the morning sky,

And gaz'd, till over all on high The sun held uncontrolled sway

They vanish'd, as the night came unAnd chased from heaven all gloom away, Those various hues and forms were gone :While the few clouds that o'er it past, But in their stead, Reflection woke No beam obscur'd, no shadow cast. | To teach her lesson-thus she spoke :

" Those very clouds, so bright, so gay, Or in your threaten'd thunder's grave, So fair-are vapours which the earth

black vest, Flung, as diseased parts away,

Like black, deep waters slowly moving by, Foul mists, which owe their second birth Awfully striking the spectator's breast To him who keeps his throne on high, | With your Creator's dread sublimity, To bless the earth and gild the sky,

As admiration mutely views your storms; Yes! 'tis the sun whose influence brings And I do love to see you idly lie, A change to these degraded things

Painted by heav'n as various as your forms, That gives them lovely forms--and then Pausing upon the eastern mountain high,

Deprives them of their baueful powers, As morn awakes with spring's wood-harAnd sends to mother Earth again

mony ; In gentle dews and cheering showers, And sweeter still, when in your slumber's What was her burthen and her bane.

sooth

| You hang the western arch o'er day's proud Man feels a change as great-when man

eye: Feels that immortal spark within

Still as the even-pool, uncurv'd and Whose might no human tongue can tell,

smooth, Which shines to lighten and dispel

My gazing soul has look'd most placidly ; The darkness and the weight of sin ; | And higher still devoutly wish'd to strain, When He, who form'd Creation's whole, To wipe your shrouds and sky's blue blinders To school and guide the human soul,

by, Bids o'er the intellectual skies

With all the warmness of a moon-struck The Sun of Righteousness arise,

brain, And things of heaven and earth assume To catch a glimpse of Him who bids you Their proper shape of light or gloom."

reign,

And view the dwelling of ALL MAJESTY.
Now let the contemplative mind
Fill up the blank I leave behind ;
And see through all Creation's plan
Some useful lesson taught to man;
Compare the changes wrought within,
And those without,-by nature wrought--

THE CLOUD.
Compare the man who lives in sin,
And him, by Jesus led and taught.

WILSON
See how the Christian's shining light
Makes all that once was darkness, bright; | A Cloup lay cradled near the setting sun,
And see how, like the clouds on high, A gleam of crimson tinged its braided
His every feeling, every thought,

snow, Adorn and bless the mental sky,

Long had I watch'd the glory moving on, And then his glories never die !

O'er the still radiance of the lake below; Tranquil its spirit seem'd, and floated slow,

E'en in its very motion there was rest;

While ev'ry breath of eve that chanced to TO THE CLOUDS.

blow, CLARE.

Wafted the trav'ller to the beauteous west. O PAINTED CLOUDS! sweet beauties of the

Emblein, methought, of the departed soul sky,

To whose white robe the gleam of bliss How have. I viewed your motion and

is giv'n, your rest,

And by the breath of mercy made to roll When like feet hunters ye have left mine

Right onward to the golden gates of heav'n, eye,

Where to the eye of faith it peaceful lies, In your thin gauze of woolly-leecing drest: | And tells to man his glorious destinies.

The evening was glorious, and light through the trees,
Play'd the sun-shine and rain-drops, the birds and the breeze,
The landscape, outstretching in loveliness, lay
On the lap of the year, in the beauty of May.

For the Queen of the Spring, as she pass'd down the vale,
Left her robe on the trees, and her breath on the gale ;
And the smile of her promise gave joy to the hours,
And flush in her footsteps sprang herbage and flowers.

The skies, like a banner in sunset unroll'd,
O'er the west threw their splendour of azure and gold;
But one cloud at distance rose dense, and increased,
Till its margin of black touch'd the zenith and east.

We gaz'd on the scenes, while around us they glow'd,
When a vision of beauty appear'd on the cloud ;-
'Twas not like the sun, as at mid-day we view,
Nor the moon, that rolls nightly through starlight and blue.

Like a Spirit, it came in the van of a storm!
And the eye, and the heart, hail'd its beautiful forin;
For it look'd not severe, like an Angel of Wrath,
But its garment of brightness illum'd its dark path.

In the hues of its grandeur, sublimely it stood,
O'er the river, the village, the field, and the wood,
And river, field, village, and woodlands grew bright,
As conscious they gave and afforded delight.

'Twas the bow of Omnipotence; bent in His hand,
Whose grasp at Creation the Universe spann'd;
'Twas the presence of God, in a symbol sublime;
His Vow from the Flood to the exit of Time!

Not dreadful, as when in the whirlwind he pleads,
When storms are his chariot, and lightnings bis steeds;
The black clouds his banner of vengeance unfurl'd,
And thunder his voice to a guilt-stricken world ;-

In the breath of his presence, when thousands expire,
And seas boil with fury, and rocks burn with fire,
And the sword, and the plague-spot with death strew the plain,
And vultures, and wolves, are the graves of the slain.

Not such was that Rainbow, that beautiful one!
Whose arch was refraction, its key-stone the sun;
A pavilion it seem'd which the Deity graced,
And Justice and Mercy met there, and embraced.

Awhile, and it sweetly bent over the gloom,
Like Love o'er a death-couch, or Hope o'er the tomb;
That left the dark scene, whence it slowly retired,
As Love had just vanish'd, or Hope had expired.

I gaz'd not alone on that source of my song ;--
To all who beheld it these verses belong,

Its presence to all was the path of the Lord !
Each full heart expanded, grew warm—and adored !

Like a visit—the converse of friends—or a day,
That Bow, from my sight, pass'd for ever away ;
Like that visit, that converse, that day-to my heart,
That Bow from remembrance can never depart.

'Tis a picture in memory distinctly defined,
With the strong and unperishing colours of mind;
A part of my being beyond my control,
Beheld on that cloud, and transcribed on my soul.

SUN.

ODE TO THE SUN.

| But thou shalt hear the morning call,

Till heaven and earth shall pass away; FELLOWES.

Thy youth, thy strength shall last, O Sun ! Thou whose rejoicing eye of light

Till life, and light, and time are done.
Look'd forth, at God's inspiring call,
When order lay in boundless night,
And darkness wanton'd over all;
Whence thy perpetual youth, O Sun !

SUNRISE.
Since life, and light, and time begun?

THOMSON.
Exulting on thy course snblime,
How bright thy yellow cresses glare,

See, yonder comes the powerful King of As still, they wave uphort by time,

Day, High o'er the azure depths of air ;

Rejoicing in the east. The less'ning cloud, As still thy wings unwearied go,

The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow While earth and ocean laugh below.

Illam'd with fluid gold, his near approach

Betoken glad. Lo; now, apparent all, When first thy ruddy pinions lave

Aslant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air, The skies, careering round the day ; He looks in boundless majesty abroad; The moon sinks down the western wave, | And sheds the shining day, that burnish'd Retreating from thy fiery ray ;

plays The stars are blench'd, the ghost of night | On rocks, and hills, and tow'rs, and wanFlies sullen from thy blasting light.

dering streams,

High-gleaming from afar. Prime cheerer Unchang'd art thou when darkness shrouds, light! When angry nature weeps around,

Of all material beings first, and best ! Far, far above the ebon clouds

Efflux divine ! Nature's resplendent robe ! Thy splendours sweep the blue profound ;

Without whose vesting beauty all were Where still unshaken wheel the spheres

wrapt Beyond the reach of parting years.

In unessential gloom ; and thou, O Sun!

Soul of surrounding worlds ! in whom best The mountain-oak, with age shall fall,

seen The everlasting hills decay;

| Shines out thy Maker! may I sing of thee!