ADDRESS TO THE MOON. O glorious Luna! fair and bright! A world thou art, though not first rate, I know that poets bow before thee- O gentle Moon! Shine soft and gay They'll shed their light o'er that lone dell O Moon! Could I but share thy flight Sweet Moon, good-by! But grant me this: Give all and each I love a kiss! dog and cat, Father and mother There, mother-that's my very first! I know you'll laugh, but you are a good way off, and I shan't hear it. Don't read it to father, for the world. You may say it all over to the horse and cow; tell 'em it's from me, and they'll take it in good part. I tried very hard to bring Lucy into the poem, but I could get no word to rhyme with her name, but juicy, and that didn't sound right. I really think my first effort is pretty good, considering. I intend, next, to address some lines to the Muse, but I must first find out what the Muse is. I have read about the nine Muses, but whether the Muse is their father or mother, their aunt or uncle, is what I am unable to determine. I think the subject a good one, there are so many rhymes to it, such as shoes, blues, ooze, noose, lose, snooze, &c., &c. I can bring Lucy into thus: poem this Spirit of air, they call thee gentle Muse Alas! I seek thy angel face in vain! Forgive me then, if, thus in doubt, I choose Fair Lucy for the subject of my strain. You see I got over the difficulty, arising from my not being acquainted with the Muse. Perhaps, after all, as poetry is a matter of fancy, the less we know of what one is talking about, the better. When you write, tell me what think of my you verses. It's very hard work, this writing poetry, and reminds me of an Indian cutting down an oak-tree with the horn of a buffalo. There's a monstrous deal of hacking and hewing, and counting the fingers, and trying this way and that; but, yet, there's a great deal of poetry turned out every year. What the use of it all is, I can't say; probably the poets find amusement in writing, even if their verses are good for nothing. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I suspect the fun of poetry lies in making it. Well, good-by, dear mother! give my love to all, and believe me ever yours, WILLIAM BUMP. Hagar and Ishmael. THEY sank amid the wilderness, The weary and forsaken; But death, not sleep, was on those eyes, Far, far away the desert spread; Ah! love is fain to cherish The vainest hopes: but now she said, "Let me not see him perish!" Then spake the Lord; and at his word Sprang forth a little fountain, And herb and shrub, upon the brink, From out its silvery bosom. O blessed God, thus doth thy power, When, worn and broken-hearted, We sink beneath some evil hour, And deem all hope departed. PAT AND THE ALPHABET. Then doth the fountain of thy grace When least we hope, our prayer is heard, Looking ahead. F all the look-ahead people that we have ever heard of, a certain lady, who was in the habit of buying articles she did not want, merely because she could get them cheap, bears off the palm. On one occasion, she brought home an old door-plate, with a name engraved on it. "Do tell me, my love," inquired her husband, on being invited to applaud her purchase, "if it be your intention to deal in old brass? Of what possible use can this be?" "Bless me!" replied the wife, "you know it is always my plan to 'look-ahead,' and buy things against the time of need. Now, who knows, my darling, but you may die, and I marry a man with the same name as that on this doorplate? Only think what a saving there would be!"-Newspaper. "Sure I don't know, ma'am," replies the sacred materiel was professedly imPat. "I thought you recollected that." "Why, ma'am? " ported by the crusaders; whilst the greatest of all, the shrine of Becket, at Canterbury, derived its existence from "Because it has a dot over the top an event as late as the twelfth century. of it." The passion for visiting shrines and "Och, ma'am, I mind it well, but sure other sacred places, appears, in the midI thought it was a fly-speck." "Well, now remember, Pat, it is I." "You, ma'am? "No, no, not U, but I." dle ages, to have prevailed preëminently in England. In the days of Bede, (in the seventh and eight centuries,) a pilgrimage to Rome was held to be a great virtue. "Not I, but you, ma'am-how's that?" In later ages, the "shadow" of St. James, "Not I, but you, blockhead." "O, yis, faith, now I have it, ma'am. You mean to say that not I, but you, are a blockhead!" Shrines and Pilgrimages. at Compostella, was chiefly visited by English pilgrims, and appears to have been set up to divert a part of the inundation which flowed upon Rome. In the days of Chaucer, it seems to have been almost as fashionable to make occasional visits to the tomb of some favorite saint, as it now is to frequent the different watering-places. HE custom of making pilgrimages to sites of reputed sanctity, prevailed to In the number of her domestic shrines, a great extent in the latter ages of England alone exceeded all other counpaganism, and, coupled with a rever- tries. Thirty-eight existed in Norfolk ence for relics, was transferred, at a very alone; and to one of these, that of Our early period, to the Christian church. Lady of Walsingham, Erasmus says, Journeys of this kind to Jerusalem are every Englishman, not regarded irrementioned in the third century; and in ligious, invariably paid his homage. The the fourth, they are said, by St. Jerome, pilgrims who arrived at Canterbury, on to have been common from all parts of the sixth jubilee of the translation of the Roman empire. The custom of wor- Becket, are said to have exceeded one shipping the relics of martyrs also pre- hundred thousand a number which, if vailed in Egypt in the same century. It correctly given, must have comprised was, however, much later before such nearly a twentieth of the entire population practice became established in its full ex- of the kingdom. Even on the eve of the tent; probably, not till the time of the Reformation, when pilgrimage had much crusades. In England there were few declined, it appears that upwards of five shrines or relics of great repute which dated beyond this period. In some of the most celebrated, as that of the Virgin of Walsingham, and the true blood at Hailes, hundred devotees, bringing money or cattle, arrived in one day at an obscure shrine in Wales. These facts give some idea of the extent to which pilgrimages were carried in this country, and impart | he were going to Jerusalem, the crosses a peculiar interest to the subject. The pilgrimages of the middle may be divided into four classes pilgrimages of penance or devotion to foreign shrines; secondly, pilgrimages of the same kind to English shrines; third- led out of the parish in procession, with ly, pilgrimages to medical or charmed the cross and holy water borne before shrines; and, fourthly, vicarious pilgrim- him. Before commencing his journey, ages, for the good of the soul of the princi- he also settled his worldly affairs, and frepal. Other kinds have been enumerated; quently gave a part of his goods to relibut these contain all which had any pro- gious uses. fessed reference to devotion. of his gown were sprinkled in the same ages way, and publicly sewed upon his gar first, ment. The service then ended with the mass, De iter agentibus; and, on the day of taking his departure, he was sometimes In Blomefield's "Norfolk," an instance The professional costume of a pilgrim is cited of a pilgrim who insured the prayers is usually described as consisting of a of a religious house during his absence, long, coarse, russet gown with large by a gift of cattle and corn, and gave the sleeves, and sometimes patched with reversion of his estates to it, if he should crosses; a leathern belt worn round the not return. Such acts of generosity had, shoulders or loins, a bowl or bag sus- probably, a reference to the protection pended from it; a round hat turned up which the church bestowed on these devin front, and stuck with scallop shells, or otees. During their absence their propsmall leaden images of saints; a rosary erty was secured from injury, nor could of large beads hanging from the neck or they be arrested or cast in any civil proarm, and a long walking-staff, (the bour-cess. The most desperate characters don,) hooked like a crosier, or furnished respected the sanctity of their profession, near the top with two hollow balls, which and, in some instances, have been known, were occasionally used as a musical in- after robbing them by the way, to restore all they had taken from them. strument. Before setting out, the pilgrim received The pilgrims to foreign places were consecration, which was extended also to compelled, by a law of 9 Edward III., to the several articles of his attire. On a embark and return by Dover, "in relief certain day, he repaired to the church, and comfort of the said town;" and, in and, after making confession, he prostrat- 13 Richard II., 1389, at the request of ed himself before the altar, where cer- the "barons of Dover," who alluded to tain prayers and masses were said over this ordinance, the king commanded, that him, ending with the Gloria Patri, Ad all pilgrims and others, excepting soldiers te, Domine, levavi, and the Miserere. and merchants, should embark at Plym. He then arose, and the priest consecrated outh or Dover, and nowhere else, withhis scrip and staff, sprinkling each with out special license from the king himself: holy water, and placing the former round those, however, who wished to go to Irehis neck, and the latter in his hand. If land, might embark where they pleased. From the reason assigned by the barons but the palmer professed wilful poverty, for their petition, it has been inferred that and went upon alms. The pilgrim might the restriction arose from a desire to give over his profession, and return check the smuggling which is said to have home; but the palmer must be consistbeen extensively carried on by persons in ent till he obtained his palm by death." this disguise. At Dover, too, was founded These distinctions, however, were not invaa hospital, called the Maison Dieu, for the riably preserved ; and it would be, perhaps, reception of poor pilgrims; a considerable difficult to determine any that were so. portion of which building remains to the present day. The profession of a palmer was, at first, voluntary, and arose in that rivalry of In the order of foreign pilgrims must fanaticism which existed in the earlier be reckoned the palmers; a class of men part of the middle ages. But, afterwards, whose real history and condition are little in the tenth and eleventh centuries, it was known, though the name is familiar to not unfrequently imposed as a penance; the readers of Scott's "Ivanhoe." Their and by a law of Henry I., priests who redesignation is supposed to have been de- vealed the confessional were punished by rived from the palm, (the symbol of Pales- these perpetual pilgrimages, amounting tine,) branches of which were brought to banishment. In some cases, a variety home by them, as evidences of their of severe conditions were added to the journey. The distinction between them sentence. Some who were thus conand ordinary pilgrims has been defined demned, were made to wander about alas follows: "The pilgrim had some home most naked, carrying rings and chains of or dwelling-place; but the palmer had iron; and others were bound, in all their The pilgrim travelled to some journeys, to kneel down at short intervals certain designed place; but the palmer to and beat the earth with the palms of their all. The pilgrim went at his own charges; | hands. none. Merry's Monthly Chat with his Friends. We think the first letter we give this month should be the following from our friend Peter Parley: I don't know how it is with you, but it seems to me I never knew it so cold. I see by the Canada papers, that they have heard the Aurora Borealis there, and I think I heard Jack Frost, last night, as plain as day It seemed to me, as he came snorting around the corner of the house, pushing and shoving at the windows, and sticking his claws in at the cracks of the doors, that I heard him talking to himself. It positively sounded as if he was swearing; but I suppose this was a mistake. He was in a desperate bad humor, at any rate, |