THE OLD MAN.

Why gaze ye on my hoary hair,

Ye children young and gay ?
Your locks beneath the blast of care,
Will bleach as white as they.
I had a mother once like you,
Who o'er my pillow hung,
Kiss'd from my cheek the briny dew,

And taught my faltering tongue.
She, when the nightly couch was spread,
Would bow my infant knee,
And place her hand upon my head,
And kneeling, pray for me.

But then there came a fearful day—
I sought my mother's bed,

Till harsh hands bore me thence away,
And told me she was dead.

I pluck'd a fair white rose, and stole
To lay it by her side,

And thought strange sleep enchain'd her soul,

For no loud voice replied.

That eve, I knelt me down in woe,
And said a lonely prayer,
Yet, still my temples seemed to glow,
As if that hand were there.

Years fled and left me childhood's joy,
Gay sports and pastimes dear,
I rose a wild and wayward boy,
Who scorn'd the curb of fear.

Fierce passions shook me like a reed,

Yet, ere at night I slept,

That soft hand made my bosom bleed, And down I fell and wept.

Youth came the props of virtue reel'd,
But oft, at day's decline,

A marble touch my brow congeal'd
Blest mother was it thine?

In foreign lands I travell❜d wide,
My pulse was bounding high,
Vice spread her meshes at my side,
And pleasures lur'd my eye.

Yet still that hand, so soft and cold,
Maintain'd its mystic sway,

As when amid my curls of gold
With gentle force it lay.

And when it breath'd a voice of care,
As from the lowly sod,

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My son, my only one, beware!
Nor sin against thy God."
This brow the plumed helm display'd,
That guides the warrior throng,
Or beauty's thrilling fingers stray'd
These manly locks among.

That hallow'd touch was ne'er forgot!
And now, though time hath set
His frosty seal upon my lot,

These temples feel it yet.
And if I e'er in heaven appear,
A mother's holy prayer,
A mother's hand, and gentle tear,
That pointed to a Saviour dear,
Have led the wanderer there.

TIME, AS REPRESENTED BY
THE ANCIENTS.

One lock in front the ancients plac'd,
The head behind was bald;
To show that time, when once 'tis past,
Can never be recall'd.

ANON.

descending, woman; and what can earth offer so pure as your friendship, so dear as your affection?

HOME. Home can never be transferred, never repeated in the experience of an individual. The place consecrated by parental love; by the innocence and sports of childhood; by the first acquaintance with nature; by linking the heart to the visible creation, is the only home. There is a living and breathing spirit infused into nature. Every familiar object has a history; the trees have tongues, and the very air is vocal. There the vesture of decay doth not close in and control the noble functions of the soul. It sees, and hears, and enjoys, without the ministry of gross and material substance.-Hope Leslie.

CHRISTIAN COMMUNION.-Unscriptural caution is sometimes displayed towards those converts who are young in years. It is surprising to see what a panic some members are thrown into when a young person is proposed as a candidate for fellowship; and, if they happen to discover that the youth is only fifteen or sixteen, years of age, they seem to feel as if the church was either going to be profaned or destroyed. Is there then a canonical age of membership? Is the same rule established in the kingdom of Christ, which is observed in the kingdoms of the world, and every one considered as unfit for the privileges of citizenship, until they arrive at the age of one and twenty? If not, what right have we to speak about the age of a candidate? Piety is all we have to inquire into; and whether the individual be fourteen or fourscore, we are to receive him, provided we have reason to suppose "that Christ has received him."-Rev. J. A. James.

FLOWERS." All that's bright must fade" but the execution of this decree may often be arrested for a time by a little care, in the same degree that its fulfilment may be hurried by neglect, or prematurely accomplished by absolute violence. We only meant to treat of flowers, but the like remark will apply to "all that's bright,"-beauty, wit,

genius, love, friendship, fame, and fortune. At present we are chiefly solicitous that our fair readers should know, if they do not already, how flowers may be preserved fresh in the parlour. These beautiful children of the earth soon wither after plucking, chiefly because their moisture evaporates, and to supply this we immerse the stems in water, but without the full effect. They should be sprinkled with that element, and covered with a glass shade or vessel, they will thus keep fresh several days. The cover should be much larger than the flowers, or the moisture will be exhaled. A vase may be thus beautiful with fresh natural flowers. We have a passion for them they are the poetry of the earth -the inaudible harmonists of nature breathe forth a perfumed music, various in note and gorgeous in plumage, as the winged minstrels of our woods and gardens.

BLESSINGS OF DRUNKENNESS.-An eminent physician says, "The observation of twenty years has convinced me, that were ten young men, on their twenty-first birth-day, to begin to drink one glass of ardent spirit, and were they to drink this supposed moderate quantity daily, the lives of the ten would be abridged by twelve or fifteen years.

SINGULAR DREAM.-The late Dr. Rush, of America, once related the following singular dream, to prove that the memory sometimes exerts itself more powerfully in our sleeping than in our waking hours. A gentleman in Jersey, of large property, had provided in his will, that his wife, in connexion with a neighbour, should settle his estate. After his death, in fulfilling the intentions of his will, a certain important paper was missing. Repeated and diligent search was made for it, but in vain. The widow at length dreamed that the said paper was in the bottom of a barrel in the garret, covered with a number of books. The dream made so strong an impression on her mind, that she was induced to make an examination; and there, to her astonishment, she found the paper! The doctor explained that no supernatural agency had been employed, but that during the abstraction of all external objects and impressions

from the senses in a sleeping state, the memory exerted itself with an intenseness that it could not do in wakefulness. He supposed that her husband had informed her at some time of the

situation of this paper, and that the knowledge of the fact had become dormant in the memory till the dream called it up.

No. II. THE DOG. PART III. The following curious instance of the sagacity of a dog is thus quaintly recorded in Mr. Pepys's Memoirs

"To Dr. Williams, who did carry me into his garden, where he hath abundance of grapes; and he did show me how a dog that he hath do kill all the cats that come thither to kill his pigeons, and do afterwards bury them; and do it with so much care, that they shall be quite covered; that if the tip of the tail hangs out, he will take up the cat again, and dig the hole deeper. Which is very strange; and he tells me that he do believe that he hath killed above one hundred cats."

The servants of a gentleman who had a house near the river's side, opposite to the little island in the river Thames, called the Isle of Dogs, observed that a dog came constantly every day to them to be fed, and, as soon as his wants were satisfied, took to the water and swam away. On relating this to the master, the gentleman desired them to take a boat and follow the dog the next time he came. They did so; and the dog, on their landing, expressed, by his emotions, great pleasure, and made use of all the gestures in his power to invite them to follow him, which they continued to do till he stopped, and began scratching with his foot on the ground, and from that spot he would not move. Either that day or the next, they dug up the earth in the place, and found the body of a man, but it was impossible to discover who it was; and after every requisite step had been ineffectually taken to find out the murderer, the corpse was buried, and the dog discontinued to visit the island. The gentleman, pleased with a creature which had shown such uncommon sagacity, and such faithful attachment to his former master, caressed him greatly, and succeeded in gaining his attach

ment; he became an inmate of his domicile, and made him the frequent companion of his walks. When he had possessed the faithful animal for some time, he was going to take a boat at one of the stairs in London, when the dog, which had never before been known to do such a thing, seized one of the watermen. The gentleman immediately thought that this fellow was the murderer of the dog's former master, and taxed him with it; and he directly confessed it, on which he was taken into custody, and soon afterwards suffered for the crime.

During a snow storm, in February, 1829, a remarkable incident of the brute-reasoning kind occurred at a farm house in the neighbourhood of Falkirk. A number of fowls were missing one evening at the hour when they usually retired to their roost, and all conjectures were lost in trying to account for their disappearance. While sitting around the kitchen ingle, blaming all the "gangrel bodies" who had been seen that day near the house, the attention of the family was roused by the entrance of the house-dog, having in his mouth a hen apparently dead. Forcing his way to the fire, the cautious animal laid his charge down upon the warm hearth, and immediately set off. He soon entered again with another, which he deposited in the same place, and so continued till the whole of the poor birds were rescued. Wandering about the stack-yard, the fowls had become quite benumbed by the extreme cold, and had crowded together, when the dog observing them, effected their deliverance. They had not lain long before the glowing ribs, before they started to their legs, and walked off to their bawks, cackling the hen's march, with many new variations, in thanks to their canine friend.