Give us old Noah and his sons and daughters,
Just as they sailed upon the world of waters.
We fain would see too, if we now were able,

The plain of Shinar,whence“ men's sons" were driven From that vast structure called the Tower of Babel,

Whose top should reach unto the height of heaven; We cannot for our lives and souls conjecture How people raised such piles of architecture. Show us that picture-twould be worth the showing

When miracles were wrought to save mankind;
When all dry-shod, the Israelites were going

Across the Red Sea, wall’d up by the wind;
And Pharaoh's iron chariots, and armed host,
Were madly rushing in to be o’erwhelm’d and lost.
Display that scene, when for the son of Nun

Thou stoodest still on Gibeon, and the Moon,
At God's command, stopped over Ajalon ;-

For one whole day refused ye to go down, While to Bethoron sped the flying Amorite, And heaven's hailstones crushd him in his headlong

flight. How many famous scenes from ancient story,

Of Athens, Rome, and Egypt rise before me ! What monuments of art! what deeds of glory!

“Give back the lost”-restore ye them! restore ye ! Thy pass, Thermopylæ! and, Marathon, thy fight! Oh Sun! bring such as these, with Salamis, to sight. But if, bright orb! the past be now denied us,

The present time at least is in our power, Since with thy secret, Genius hath supplied us;

Ye pupils of Daguerre ! improve the hourMake haste to paint the fragments which are left us, Of what stern Time and Vandals have bereft us. Bring us the city of great Alexander,

Which once was so magnificent and vast; Amid her ruins we would like to wander, And muse upon the glories of the past :

Four thousand baths and palaces did fill her,
All crumbled into dust 'round Pompey's Pillar.
From Cairo's walls go bring that scene sublime,

(And with our latest breath we'll bless the giver,) Of Pyramids still battling with old Time

The land of Goshen and th’Eternal River !
And tomb and monument, and obelisk that stands
In solitary grandeur, 'mid the desert's sands.
Be quick, and let our eager eyes devour

Old Hecatompylos, though not as when
Through every gate, she could at once outpour

Two hundred chariots and ten thousand men; . But of her mighty self, the granite skeleton, Whose giant bones for miles lie whitening* in the sun. Imagination flags and falters on the rack

Description 's beggar'd, and in vain would rise Up to thy vastness, Luxor! and Carnac !

Naught but the eye that scene can realizeGive us the temples! columns ! gateway! propylon !None but thy master-hand can do it, glorious Sun! Bring Edom's long lost Petra—she who made

Her dwellings in the "rocky clefts”—all brought To desolation, or in fragments laid,

A thousand years unheard of and forgot!-High as the eagle's nest her palaces she built, But God did smite her for her haughtiness and guilt. Bring us each Grecian and each Roman wreck

Th’ Acropolis and Coliseum bring; And Tadmor or Palmyra, and Balbec

The costly cities reared by Israel's king :f Collect the whole—all left by Turk, Goth, Vandal, Hun, In one vast gallery of pictures by the Sun.

A MENTAL RETROSPECTION.

I once could see, but now am blind

The world is dark to me;
But, oh, 'tis fresh within my mind,

As once it used to be.
I can recall the break of day-

The first faint streak of light-
The mists which rose and swept away,

Along the mountain height.
The last dim stars which 'gan to fade

Before the approaching sun-
The flood of light his advent made-

His glory going down.
I knew not which did please me best,

That flood of morning light,
Or that refulgent plunge to rest,

Within the arms of night.
I recollect the opening Spring,

The Violet's early bloom ;
The Iris I was first to bring

To my dear mother's room ;
The Hyacinth soon followed these,

With white or purple bells;
And shrubs among yet leafless trees

Peep'd out from sunny dells.
The Red Bud stood, with blushes deep,

Beside the Dogwood pale ;
And made my heart exulting leap,

Returning warmth to hail,
Methinks I now can see the wheat,

Spread like a carpet green,
With peach and cherry blossoms sweet,

Embroid'ring all the scene.
That wheat, in Summer, changed in hue--

Wav'd like a sea of gold-
And as the soft winds o'er it flew,

'Twas beauteous to behold;

Those blossoms had been early shed

The type of man's own doom ;
For thus as soon our early dead

Oft sink into the tomb.
But, oh! their place was quick supplied

By many a verdant lear;
And for the loss of those who died,

There was no heart for grief.
For there was fruit, and there were leaves-

Fast flutt'ring ev'ry, one-
The shady veils which Mercy waves

To curtain out the sun.
Autumnal days! ah, they were soft-

Sometimes with smoky light;
And those were sad; but then they oft

Foreran the clear and bright.
And then the wood--the waving wood-

Look'd rich beyond belief;
With some trees dyed as red as blood,

And some with golden leaf;
Deep orange tints, and purple too,

Were mix'd with evergreen,
And ev'ry shade and ev'ry hue

Within the rainbow seen;
In color'd map, these trees were group'd

All over hill and dale-
And such the groves, where fairies troop'd,

In some Arabian tale.
But Winter came to blast that scene,

And lay it bleak and bare;
And nothing save the evergreen,

Was left of all so fair.
How was it, glorious evergreen !

That thou wert smiling on,
When other trees around, were seen

So sad and woe-begone ?
Yet, still there was in winter's face

A charm unto my eye;
A might-a majesty and grace,

To lift the soul on high :

The storm and tempest sweeping past,

The torrents too of rain,
The flaky snows descending fast,

And burying all the plain.
And there were moonbeams cold and bright,

Out on the waste which froze;
What lovelier thing than starry night,

Upon the sparkling snows?
"The floor of heaven was thick inlaid

With patines of bright gold;'
A firmament beneath was made-

A mimic heaven unroll'd.
Yes, Winter, lock'd in "thick-ribb’d ice,”

Thou too had charms for me :
Those skies were worth a countless price,

And I could welcome thee.
Life's winter on me dreary lies,

And dark my path on earth, But I may see those starry skies,

Through my Redeemer's worth.

Battle of New Orleans.

Of Jackson and the brave,

The day to mem’ry, bring, When to battle o'er the wave,

Came the host of England's king;
And their ships poured them out along the strand.

Our hearts of sterling gold,
Saw their phalanxes