Where not a footworn path extended, And from corruptions of the day My inmost soul to God ascended; And in the silent, wild repose I heard that ringing deeper, clearer; The higher my aspirings rose, The sound descended fuller, nearer. That sound my senses so entranced, Or more, had passed while I was dreaming, When I a radiant place could see Above the mists, with sunlight streaming. The heavens a deep, dark blue appeared, The sun's fierce light and heat were flowing, And in the golden light upreared, A proud cathedral pile was glowing. It seemed to me the clouds so bright, As if on wings, that pile was raising, Until its spires were lost to sight Within the blessed heavens blazing. And lo! that sweet bell's music broke In quivering streams from out the tower; No mortal hand its tones awoke That bell was rung by holy power. And through my beating heart, too, swept Were pious scenes of martyrs sainted. Of women and God's warriors holy. I knelt before the altar there- Was o'er me painted on the ceiling; The dome's vast arch had burst, andwonder! The Heaven's gate wide open blazed, And every veil was rent asunder! What glories on mine eyes did fall While thus in reverent awe still kneeling, What holier sounds I heard than all Of trumpet blast or organ pealing, That, weird-like, through the wood is pealing. M CLEAR THE WAY. CHARLES MACKAY. EN of thought, be up and stirring There's a midnight blackness changing into T THE NOBLE REVENGE HE coffin was a plain one-a poor miserable pine coffin. No flowers on the top; no lining of white satin for the pale brow; no smooth ribbons about the coarse shroud. The brown hair was laid decently back, but there was no crimped cap with neat tie beneath the chin. The sufferer from cruel poverty smiled in her sleep; she had found bread, rest, and health. "I want to see my mother," sobbed a poor little child, as the undertaker screwed down the top. "You cannot; get out of the way, boy; why don't somebody take the brat?" "Only let me see her one minute!" cried the helpless orphan, clutching the side of the charity box, and as he gazed upon the rough box, agonized tears streamed down the cheeks on which no childish bloom ever lingered. Oh! it was painful to hear him cry the words, "Only once, let me see my mother, only once!" Quickly and brutally the heartless monster struck the boy away, so that he reeled with the blow. For a moment the boy stood panting with grief and rage-his blue eyes distended, his lips sprang apart, fire glittered through his eyes as he raised his little arm with a most unchildish laugh, and screamed, "When I am a man, I'll be revenged for that!" There was a coffin and a heap of earth between the mother and the poor forsaken child-a monument much stronger than granite built in the boy's heart the memory of the heartless deed. The court-house was crowded to suffocation. "Does any one appear as this man's counsel?" asked the Judge. There was a silence when he had finished, until, with lips tightly pressed together, a look of strange intelligence blended with a haughty reserve upon his handsome features, a young man stepped forward with a firm tread and kindly eye to plead for the erring friendless. He was a stranger, but at the first sentence there was silence. The splendor of his genius entranced-convinced. The man who could not find a friend was acquitted. 66 'May God bless you, sir; I cannot," he said. "I want no thanks," replied the stranger. "I-I-I believe you are unknown to me." "Man, I will refresh your memory. Twenty years ago, this day, you struck a broken-hearted little boy away from his dear mother's coffin. I was that boy." The man turned livid. "Have you rescued me then, to take my life?" "No, I have a sweeter revenge. I have saved the life of a man whose brutal conduct has rankled in my breast for the last twenty years. Go then, and remember the tears of a friendless child." The man bowed his head in shame, and went from the presence of magnanimity as grand to him as it was incomprehensible. FORMATION OF ICEBERGS. 627 Leisure to fathom the fathomless, leisure to seek and to know Does it seem that the noisy city never will let thee hear Marvels and secrets and glories Eternity The sound of His gentle footsteps, drawing, T an island known in the Esquimaux tongue as Ekarasak, there lived a deputy assistant of the Royal Greenland Company, a worthy man by the name of Grundeitz. It seems that the deep water of Omenaks Fiord is resorted to for halibut fishing, an operation which is carried on at the base of the cliffs, with very long lines of whalebone. While Mr. Grundeitz, in a jolly-boat belonging to the company, was fishing up the fiord, his attention was called to a large number of bearded seals, who were sporting about beneath one of the glaciers that protruded into the bay. While approaching for the purpose of a shot, he heard a strange sound, repeated at intervals like the ticking of a clock, and apparently proceeding from the body of the ice. At the same time the seal, which the moment before had been perfectly unconcerned, dis appeared entirely, and his Esquimaux attendants, probably admonished by |