Threaded the darksome earth below.
Then came a change: a sudden glow
Flushed from a broad and waveless sea,
O'er which I wandered silently.
Anon, far in the clear expanse,

An object rose, and, as a glance
Of quickest thought, I found me near
A small green isle, unearthly fair.

A spot it seemed 'twixt earth and heaven,
A dwelling not for mortals given.
The waves, all pure as crystal round,

The bright sands laved with gentle sound;
The ground was strewn with fruits unknown,
The flowers on earth had never blown.
A central fount, embowered in trees,
With murmurs filled the scented breeze.
Then came a silvery mist, and spread
A crown of glory over head;

While, here and there, a wreath was seen

To float along the velvet green.

When lo, the whole in parcels broke,

And each a glorious image took,

And myriad winged forms appear
Suspended in the balmy air,

Or lighted on the fairy isle,

And harping golden harps the while.

Nor tongue can tell, nor heart conceive,
What sounds their harps and voices give;
As thunder harsh Eolia's lyre,
Compared with this celestial choir.

I saw one coming from afar,

That seemed at first the evening star;
More bright than these: their harpings cease,

And all the stranger greet with peace.

'From earth I come, another there Hath bowed in penitential prayer;

Now strike a chorus on your lyres,

And spread it through the heavenly choirs.' At once they snatched their harps and sung, And sea and air melodious rung.

I heard the echoes all around

of unseen ones who caught the sound,
'The dead's alive, the lost is found;'
They send it back,-it came again,
A louder and a sweeter strain.

Up rose the choir from that green shore,
The skies grow brighter than before,
The moon and stars sunk from the sight,
Extinguished in a blaze of light,

As one, to whom their songs were given,
Received them at the gates of heaven.

I woke to hear the matin song
Of birds, the dewy leaves among :
The sun upon my pillow shone,
And every airy form was flown.

STANTON, VA.

B.

-N.

WASHINGTON.

THE following short and simple anecdote may have some interest, coming, as it does, from the lips of one who was personally acquainted with the father of our country; and who, fifty-seven years ago, stood with him on the border of the Hudson, receiving his orders. I will, therefore, give it in the old officer's own words, as I had it from him a few days since.

'We were standing near Fort Washington-I thought I had never seen the countenance of Washington evince so much anxiety as at this moment; and I soon learnt the cause. He had laid a plan to prevent the enemy's shipping from passing up the river, by sinking a chevaux-de-frise; and now, he had just discovered that his plan had been detected, and its object frustrated. The enemy were coming up rapidly, without any obstacle; while the relative

positions of their ships and our fort were such as to render it a vain attempt to fire, while they were so much below us that our pieces could not be depressed to strike them. Washington feeling that we were in great peril, and that something must be done, had just uttered, 'if we cannot strike the hull, we must try to cut the rigging,' when, in the same moment, they sent two cannon balls, which, passing between us, entered into the battery a little beyond where we stood conversing together.

'At this trying crisis, General Washington probably felt that the day was lost to us; yet, he made no expression of discouragement, but, soon as the balls had passed, he averted his face, and lifting his hands, ejaculated in a low voice, 'thy will be done!'

Here the good old man's voice was choked, and his eye suffused with tears, at the recollection of this sudden and affecting proof of the readiness of his beloved commander-in-chief to do all that human means could effect for the safety of his country, and yet to bow so submissively to the Divine will.

H.