,,A very moral and proper observation," said my friend, evidently displeased with my woralizing.

,,Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." Saying which, he turned upon his heel, and was lost among the throng.

I have several times since seen the old gentleman walking about London, looking as hale and as hearty as ever, but I have always avoided him; and although I have reason to believe he has seen me, more than once; by a sort of tacit consent we never acknowledge each other.

I returned to my home, blest with an affectionate wife; hoping for the best, profiting by the past, enjoying the present, and putting our trust in God for the future.

A DAUGHTER'S APOSTROPHE TO A DEPARTED MOTHER.

BY ROBERT MONTGOMERY.

If gentle spirits, wing'd away,
To their seraphic sphere,
May hear affection fondly pray,
Or mark a mourner's tear;

Pure spirit! floating realms of love,
Beyond this earthly wild,
Shed down sweet influence from above,

To bless thine orphan child.

As oft at pensive eve I roam,

Thine image visits me;

While Fancy paints the happy home,

Once so adorn'd by thee.

The smile that rambled o'er thy cheek,
And shamed the pang of art;
The mellow tones I heard thee speak,
Still linger round my heart!

That glowing welcome of thine eye,
The fondness in thy fear;
The meek-borne anguish in thy sigh,
The pity in thy tear;

The mild reluctance in that frown
That won me ere it changed;

The glance that charm'd my spirit down,
When giddily it ranged;

Those lips that lull'd each maiden woe,
And bade the smile to play;
Nor left the burning tears to flow,
But kiss'd them all away:

Yes! these, and all thy sweeter love,
Shed round my childhood's hour,
Oft bear me to yon home above,
To thine Elysian bower.

Oh! if thou hear my orphan prayer,
And faithful fondness see;

Thou know'st I sigh to enter there,
And be at rest with thee.

DESTRUCTION OF A SLAVE SHIP. FROM,,WILL WATCH," A TALE OF THE SEA.

To windward in the east, the deep blue of the sky had begun to be broken by the faintest tinge of light, while before its pale silvery line of grey, the herald of the day's approach, the stars seemed counselling the night to withdraw. In the middle of this dim gleam, I beheld a dark mass uprearing itself. It was the seventy-four in chase of the slaver on board which Will Watch and I were captured. With the most beautiful effect which it is possible to conceive, a sudden gleam of flame bursting from its base seemed to spread itself over the whole space of sea and sky; the plunging of a shot about half a mile to windward, and the heavy sullen sound succeeding, announced that our pursuer had commenced firing. Looking on the instant towards the quarter-deck to see how this summons would be recieved by Mackay, the captain of the slaver, I saw him standing by the wheel with upturned eyes, momentarily expecting to see some of his spars go overboard, or it might have been ransacking that receptacle and engenderer of guilty thoughts, his brain, for some new resource against approaching fate. If thus employed, it was in vain. His ship had been beaten on her best point, of sailing. For a quarter of an hour after the first gun, no further notice was taken of us than by her continuing to bear gradually down. At the end of this time, one, two, three, successive flashes again lit up the scene around us with uncommon grandeur and

beauty: nor was that all the flash was succeeded by a sudden tear, and crack went some of the canvass aloft, rending into strips. I looked up; a ball had passed through the leach of the weather foretopmast - studding-sail, and the wind following up the mischief which the shot had begun, in two seconds reduced the sail to rags. The captain regarded the spectacle with a mingled look of fury and despair, which would beggar all description. He uttered no sound, but stooping down, as I thought, to hide his countenance, he patted the head of his spaniel which was sitting at his feet; while I heard him say to the helmsman in a husky voice,,,Take that poor creature below, and tie her up out of the way of those devil's messengers," meaning the shots; after which little trait of kindness, he took the steerage into his own hand, and cried out in a sullen voice, „All hands shorten sail! Aft there, Roberts, and hoist the red ensign."

The studding-sails were now by his orders successively taken in, and the top-gallant - sail clued up, when the ship's canvass being sufficiently reduced, he rounded her to the wind, and hove the main - topsail aback. After this he called his mate aft, and gave some orders, which the latter executed by placing several of the crew in different stations. I in the meanwhile had been lying perdu, as it were, „among the pots," wondering not a little that he had never asked for one whose existence so strongly threatened his own. The seventy-four, for such, as Will had pronounced her, she now appeared to be, came rapidly up with us; nor since her last summons had she fired another shot. Before day had well broken, she too had shortened sail, and hove-to at the distance

of six hundred yards upon our quarter. Having us now pretty safe, she lowered down one of her barges, and manning it, sent a lieutenant and a midshipman to board us. How wildly my heart beat at this sight!

my breath seemed to be impeded by my excess of joy at this approaching deliverance. Scarcely did I permit the lieutenant to ascend from the boat and gain a footing on the quarter-deck, where the captain was waiting to receive him, when I rushed forward, threw myself between them, and claimed the officer's protection. At the sight of me, Mackay, who before seemed cowed beneath the weight of his own guilt, now became transported with the most deadly rage. Stepping aside, and swinging round his head an iron bar a monkey-tail which he had hitherto kept behind his back, I suppose for the demolition of the lieutenant he struck directly at me. Shrinking myself, however, into as small a space as possible, I darted on one side to escape the blow, which thus fell upon one of Mackay's own,,gang;“ and so effectually was the poor fellow's skull cleft, that he dropped instantaneously dead upon the deck. Incensed at this outrage, the lieutenant's sword was in a moment drawn, and pointed at the captain's throat.,,Sway away the mainyard," roared Mackay to his crew, who, it seems, had been ready primed for this occasion, and now surrounded the king's officer so closely, that it was impossible for him to get at the chief object of his vengeance.

The captain flew to the gang way, where one of his men was opposing the entrance of the barge's bowman; and thrusting at the seaman with all his strength, the blow hurled the poor fellow back into