THE FALL OF NIAGARA.

Labitur et labetur.

THE thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain, While I look upward to thee. It would seem

As if God pour'd thee from his "hollow hand,”
And hung his bow upon thine awful front;

And spoke in that loud voice, which seem'd to him
Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake,
"The sound of many waters ;" and had bade
Thy flood to chronicle the ages back,

And notch His cent'ries in the eternal rocks.

Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we, That hear the question of that voice sublime? Oh! what are all the notes that ever rung From war's vain trumpet, by thy thundering side!

Yea, what is all the riot man can make

In his short life, to thy unceasing roar !

And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to HIM,
Who drown'd a world, and heap'd the waters far
Above its loftiest mountains?-a light wave,
That breaks, and whispers of its Maker's might.

MATCHIT MOODUS.

A traveller, who accidentally passed through East Haddam, made several inquiries as to the "Moodus noises," that are peculiar to that part of the country. Many particulars were related to him of their severity and effects, and of the means that had been taken to ascertain their cause, and prevent their recurrence. He was told that the simple and terrified inhabitants, in the early settlement of the town, applied to a book-learned and erudite man from England, by the name of Doctor Steele, who undertook, by magic, to allay their terrors; and for this purpose took the sole charge of a blacksmith's shop, in which he worked by night, and from which he excluded all admission, tightly stopping and darkening the place, to prevent any prying curiosity from interfering with his occult operations. He however so far explained the cause of these noises as to say, that they were owing to a carbuncle, which must have grown to a great size, in the bowels of the rocks; and that if it could be removed, the noises would cease, until another should grow in its place. The noises ceased

the doctor departed, and has never been heard of since. It was supposed that he took the carbuncle with him. Thus far was authentic. A little girl, who had anxiously noticed the course of the traveller's inquiries, sung for his further edification the following ballad:

SEE you upon the lonely moor,

A crazy building rise?

No hand dares venture to open the door-
No footstep treads its dangerous floor-
No eye in its secrets pries.

Now why is each crevice stopp'd so tight?
Say, why the bolted door?

Why glimmers at midnight the forge's light—
All day is the anvil at rest, but at night

The flames of the furnace roar?

Is it to arm the horse's heel,

That the midnight anvil rings?

Is it to mould the ploughshare's steel,

Or is it to guard the wagon's wheel,

That the smith's sledge-hammer swings?

The iron is bent, and the crucible stands
With alchymy boiling up;

Its contents were mix'd by unknown hands,
And no mortal nre e'er kindled the brands,
That heated that corner'd cup.

O'er Moodus river a light has glanc'd,
On Moodus hills it shone ;

On the granite rocks the rays have danc'd,
And upward those creeping lights advanc'd,
Till they met on the highest stone.

O that is the very wizard place,
And now is the wizard hour,

By the light that was conjur'd up to trace,
Ere the star that falls can run its race,

The seat of the earthquake's power.

By that unearthly light, I see

A figure strange alone

With magic circlet on his knee,

And deck'd with Satan's symbols, he

Seeks for the hidden stone,

Now upward goes that gray old man,
With mattock, bar and spade-

The summit is gain'd, and the toil began,

And deep by the rock where the wild lights ran, The magic trench is made.

Loud and yet louder was the groan
That sounded wide and far;

And deep and hollow was the moan,
That roll'd around the bedded stone,
Where the workman plied his bar.

Then upward stream'd the brilliant's light,
It stream'd o'er crag and stone :-

Dim look'd the stars, and the moon, that night;
But when morning came in her glory bright,
The man and the jewel were gone.

But wo to the bark in which he flew

From Moodus' rocky shore;

Wo to the Captain, and wo to the crew,
That ever the breath of life they drew,
When that dreadful freight they bore.