MUSIC IN A ROOM OF SICKNESS. BY MRS. HEMANS. BRING music! stir the brooding air Bring sounds, my struggling soul to bear A voice, a flute, a dreamy lay, O, no, not such! that lingering spell When my wean'd heart hath said farewell, Let not a sigh of human love But pour a solemn breathing strain, Deeper, yet deeper, in my thought A harmony intensely fraught A passion unto music given,~ A breaking heart's appeal to heaven,- Deeper! O, may no richer power Be in those notes enshrined 1 Can all which crowds on earth's last hour, No fuller language find? Away! and hush the feeble song, Far in another land ere long, My dream shall be fulfill'd. In vain my soul its life would pour The voices of the spirit-shore Even now are in my ear. ART. BY CHARLES SPRAGUE. When from the sacred garden driven, And cross'd the wanderer's sunless path. "T was Art! sweet Art! new radiance broke, Where her light foot flew o'er the ground; And thus with seraph voice she spoke, "The curse a blessing shall be found.' She led him through the trackless wild, He rends the oak-and bids it ride, To guard the shores its beauty graced; He smites the rock-upheaved in pride, See towers of strength, and domes of taste. Earth's teeming caves their wealth reveal, Fire bears his banner on the wave, He bids the mortal poison heal, And leaps triumphant o'er the grave. He plucks the pearls that stud the deep, In fields of air he writes his name, He moves in greatness and in grace; If every ones internal care, THE city of Benares stands on the left bank of the Ganges, at a part where the river forms a fine sweeping curve of nearly four miles in length. The bank on which the city is situated is the concave side of the river, and is considerably higher than the opposing shore; so that if the town is viewed from a position in the upper part of it, from the breadth of the Ganges at this place, and the lowness of the opposite side, it has the appearance of standing on the margin of a beautifully formed bay. Benares stands on a spot held peculiarly sacred by the Hindoos, and it has long been considered as the head quarters of brahminical learning. The edifice, with the high minarets so conspicuous in the annexed sketch, was built by the Mohammedan emperor, Aurungzebe, it is said with the intention of humbling the pride of the Hindoos, as not only possessing a very elevated station in the city, but being also erected on the site of a Hindoo temple, removed on purpose to make room for the Mussulman mosque. The immense flight of steps called the Ghauts of Benares, form a great ornament to the river face of the city. Various Christian missionaries are now laboring in this city. |