Bethink thee of oaths that were lightly spoken, Alone in the dark, alone on the wave, To struggle aghast at thy watery grave, The stout limbs yield, for their strength is past, The white brow gleams a moment more, Down, down where the storm is hushed to sleep, The gem and the pearl lie heaped at thy side, As they slowly sunk to the wave below. A peopled home is the ocean bed, The mother and child are there The fervent youth and the hoary head, As the water moveth they lightly sway, Charles Fenno Hoffman. BORN in New York, N. Y., 1806. DIED at Harrisburg, Penn., 1884. 'TIS (And who the bright legend profanes with a doubt?) One night, 'mid their revels, by Bacchus were told But determined to send round the goblet once more, In composing a draught which, till drinking were o’er, Grave Ceres herself blithely yielded her corn, And the spirit that lives in each amber-hued grain, And which first had its birth from the dew of the morn, Was taught to steal out in bright dew-drops again. Pomona, whose choicest of fruits on the board The liquids were mingled while Venus looked on Flora, then, from her bosom of fragrancy, shook, The draught was delicious, and loud the acclaim, But JULEPS the drink of immortals became, When JOVE himself added a handful of hail. PRES Matthew Fontaine Maury. BORN in Spottsylvania Co., Va., 1806. DIED at Lexington, Va., 1873. THE SOUTHERN SKY. [The Physical Geography of the Sea. 1855.—Revised Edition. 1860.] η RESENTLY the stars begin to peep out, timidly at first, as if to see whether the elements here below had ceased their strife, and if the scene on earth be such as they, from bright spheres aloft, may shed their sweet influences upon. Sirius, or that blazing world n Argus, may be the first watcher to send down a feeble ray; then follow another and another, all smiling meekly; but presently, in the short twilight of the latitude, the bright leaders of the starry host blaze forth in all their glory, and the sky is decked and spangled with superb brilliants. In the twinkling of an eye, and faster than the admiring gazer can tell, the stars seem to leap out from their hiding-places. By invisible hands, and in quick succession, the constellations are hung out; but first of all, and with dazzling glory, in the azure depths of space appears the Great Southern Cross. That shining symbol lends a holy grandeur to the scene, making it still more impressive. Alone in the night-watch, after the sea-breeze has sunk to rest, I have stood on the deck under those |