though I was then a child, I remembered his name. Thither I hastened. When I came to that part of Regent-Street fronting Conduit-Street, I was detained by a crowd of people and carriages: the blood rushed to my brain as I dashed here and there to find a crossing. The faces around me. were apparently joyful and happy. I heard voices behind full of laughter and merry thoughts, and hopes of coming delights; and at the same moment I turned and beheld a face which wore a most remarkable likeness to my mother. The thought was fire to me; I almost flung myself beneath the wheels of a cabriolet, as I sprang across the street. Dr. Mornington was out of town. I had one resource yet remaining,—a gentleman residing in Russel-Square, who had attended me in a very severe illness; he was at home, and came with me instantly. We entered the chamber together; it was miserably furnished; and a rushlight, which the nurse held in her hand, cast a sickly and yellow light over the soiled dimity curtains. My mother lay quite motionless, with one arm covering her eyes. I took her hand in mine, but for once it did not return the pressure; it was very cold. I called upon her she answered not: I had no mother! I did not shed a tear; but I folded my hands together, and knelt down by the bed-side.'

I felt that this painful story would overpower his

6

exhausted frame; and my anticipations were, alas, too soon realized. Starting up with frantic energy, he cried out, in a voice that thrilled the very heart, "Oh! my God! if, in my days of innocence, when thy secret was upon my tabernacle," I ever offered a sincere prayer at thy shrine, or breathed the thankfulness of a lowly heart, for mercies vouchsafed to me, look down upon me, O blessed Father, and take thy erring child to thy bosom."

Never did I behold so heart-rending a spectacle. He had thrown himself upon his knees, his wasted hands were rigidly clasped in supplication, and his eyes turned upwards in fearful earnestness. As he thus knelt upright in bed, the ravages of sorrow and sickness upon his once noble frame became apparent. I looked in silent grief, until every gleeful hour we had passed together, and all our sweet interchanges of affection came back upon my heart, and the tears rushed into my eyes. Gradually the paroxysm passed away, and as he sank upon the pillow, a placid expression, like that of his earlier days, crept softly over his features. By the light of the moon, which shone mildly into the chamber, I stooped over him. He was quite still -the pulse had ceased to beat-the Lost Student was with his mother!

How delicious were those lines of Cowley:-
Love in her sunny eyes does basking play;
Love walks the pleasant mazes of her hair.

Moonlight sleeps on wood and flower!
From me thy Beauty will not part.
Within my weary lids it dwells,

Beloved! that thou art.

The sweet breath of thine eyes doth fall*
Like odour on my heart.

DANCING.

Oн, Beautiful! when Venus sprung,
Eve of the waters, into sight,

And round her breast her tresses clung,
A garland of delight:

With lip, and cheek, and eye like thine,
And motion breathing music sweet,
She made the purple sea her shrine,
The white foam, lilies for her feet!

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY.

SOFTLY tread! Cythera keeps
Vigil o'er her while she sleeps;

Voices from Elysium lull

The slumber of the Beautiful!

*This was a favourite conceit of Philostratus; and has

certainly something to recommend it.

enough to alarm me, and pushed on with greater rapidity, up the green lane leading to our house.

"My father and mother had heard the sound of the wheels, and notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, were at the gate to receive me. You, my dear friend, are blessed with affectionate parents, and can enter into my feelings, as I felt myself alternately pressed in their arms. My mother parted the hair on my forehead, and discovered a fresher colour on my cheek; and my father put his hand upon my shoulder, and congratulated me on the increasing width of my chest, and manliness of my bearing. When the excitement of our first meeting had subsided, I had time to notice the alarming alteration in his appearance; even then the hand of death was upon him, and in ten days from that evening, I was sitting by his pillow, reading extracts from those books, few but excellent, which com prised his unpretending course of divinity. Why should I detain you with records of a sick chamber? It is sufficient to say that my beloved parent was taken away before that son, in whom he had treasured up all his hopes, could bring down his gray hairs in sorrow to the grave.

"My father's death was attended by no particular suffering; it resembled the placid slumber of a weary man, more than the parting of an immortal soul. On the evening which terminated his mortal career,