11.

Shook with the thunders. They awoke; they sprung
Amazed upon their feet. The dungeon glowed

A moment as in sunshine,—and was dark :-
Again a flood of white flame filled the cell;
Dying away upon the dazzled eye

In darkening, quivering tints, as stunning sound
Dies throbbing, ringing in the ear.

And blackest darkness.

Silence,

With intensest awe

The soldier's frame was filled; and many a thought
Of strange foreboding hurried through his mind,
As underneath he felt the fevered earth
Jarring and lifting—and the massive walls

Heard harshly grate and strain:-yet knew he not,
While evils undefined and yet to come

Glanced through his thoughts, what deep and cureless wound
Fate had already given. Where, man of woe!

Where, wretched father, is thy boy? Thou call'st
His name in vain :-he can not answer thee.

12. Loudly the father called upon his child :— No voice replied. Trembling and anxiously

13.

He searched their couch of straw; with headlong haste
Trod round his stinted limits, and, low bent,
Groped darkling on the earth:-no child was there.
Again he called:-again at farthest stretch

Of his accursed fetters,-till the blood

Seemed bursting from his ears, and from his eyes
Fire flashed,—he strained with arm extended far
And fingers widely spread, greedy to touch
Though but his idol's garment.

Useless toil!

Yet still renewed:-still round and round he goes,
And strains and snatches,—and with dreadful cries
Calls on his boy. Mad frenzy fires him now:-
He plants against the wall his feet; his chain
Grasps;-tugs with giant strength to force away
The deep-driven staple;-yells and shrieks with rage,

And like a desert lion in the snare

Raging to break his toils,—to and fro bounds.

14. But see! the ground is opening:-a blue light
Mounts, gently waving,-noiseless:-thin and cold
It seems, and like a rainbow tint, not flame;
But by its luster, on the earth outstretched,
Behold the lifeless child!-his dress is singed,
And over his serene face a dark line

15.

16.

Points out the lightning's track.

The father saw,

And all his fury fled:-a dead calm fell
That instant on him:-speechless, fixed he stood,
And with a look that never wandered, gazed
Intensely on the corse. Those laughing eyes
Were not yet closed, and round those pouting lips
The wonted smile returned.

Silent and pale

:

The father stands :-no tear is in his eye:-
The thunders bellow, but he hears them not:-
The ground lifts like a sea; he knows it not:-
The strong walls grind and gape:-the vaulted roof
Takes shapes like bubble tossing in the wind:-
See! he looks up and smiles;-for death to him
Is happiness. Yet could one last embrace
Be given, 't were still a sweeter thing to die.

17. It will be given. Look! how the rolling ground,
At every swell, nearer and still more near
Moves towards the father's outstretched arm his boy:-
Once he has touched his garment;-how his eye
Lightens with love and hope, and anxious fears!
Ha! see! he has him now!-he clasps him round;
Kisses his face; puts back the curling locks
That shaded his fine brow; looks in his eyes;
Grasps in his own those little dimpled hands;
Then folds him to his breast, as he was wont
To lie when sleeping; and resigned awaits
Undreaded death.

18.

And death came soon, and swift,
And pangless. The huge pile sunk down at once
Into the opening earth. Walls-arches-roof-
And deep foundation stones-all mingling fell!

Edwin Atherstone.

EV

CVII.-OCEAN CURRENTS.

VERY atom of the boundless sea is constantly moving and changing its place-from the depth to the surface, or from the surface to the depth; from the frozen pole to the burning equator, or from the torrid zone to the Arctic Ocean; now rising in the air in the form of invisible vapors, and then again descending upon our fields in fertilizing showers.

2. The waters are, in fact, the greatest travelers on earth. They know all the secrets of the submarine world; climb the peaks of inaccessible mountains; shame the flight of the condor as he soars over the summits of the Andes; and penetrate deeper into the bowels of the earth than the miner has ever sunk his shaft.

3. Even in the torrid zone the waters of the ocean, like a false friend, are warm merely on the surface, and of almost icy coldness at a considerable depth. This low temperature can not be owing to any refrigerating influence at the bottom of the sea, as the internal warmth of the earth increases in proportion to its depth, and the waters of deep lakes, in a southern climate, never show the same degree of cold as those of the vast ocean.

4. The phenomenon can thus only arise from a

constant submarine current of cold water from the poles to the equator; and, strange as it may seem, its primary cause is to be sought for in the warming rays of the sun, which, as we all know, distributes heat in a very unequal manner over the globe.

5. Heat expands all liquid bodies, and renders them lighter; cold increases their weight by condensation. In consequence of this physical law, the waters of the tropical seas, rendered buoyant by the heat of a vertical sun, must necessarily rise and spread over the surface of the ocean to the north and south, while colder and heavier streams from the higher latitudes flow toward the equator along the bottom of the ocean, to replace them as they ascend.

6. In this manner the unequal action of the sun calls forth a general and constant movement of the waters from the poles to the equator, and from the equator to the poles; and this perpetual migration is one of the chief causes by which their purity is maintained. These opposite currents would necessarily flow direct to the north or south, were they not deflected from their course by the rotation of the earth, which gradually gives them a westerly or easterly direction.

7. The unequal influence of the sun in different parts of the globe, and the rotation of the earth are, however, not the only causes by which the course of ocean currents is determined. Violent storms move the waters to a considerable depth, and retard the flow of rivers, and thus it is to be expected that continuous winds, even of moderate strength, must have a tendency to impel the waters in the same direction.

8. The steady trade-winds of the tropical zone, and the prevailing westerly winds in higher latitudes, consequently unite their influence with that of the above-mentioned causes, in driving the waters of the tropical seas to the west, and those of the temperate zones to the east.

9. The tides, also, which, on the high seas, generally move from east to west, promote the flow of the ocean in the same direction, and thus contribute to the westerly current of the tropical seas.

10. Nor must we forget that the obstacles which the ocean currents meet on their way—such as intervening lines of coast, sand banks, submarine ridges, or mountain chains-have a great influence upon their courses, and may even give them a diametrically opposite direction to that which they would otherwise have followed. Adapted from Hartwig.

CVIII.-HARMOSAN.

OW the third and fatal conflict

Now

For the Persian throne was done,

And the Moslem's fiery valor
Had the crowning victory won.

2. Harmosan, the last and boldest
The invader to defy,

Captive, overborne by numbers,
They were bringing forth to die.

3. Then exclaimed that noble captive:
"Lo, I perish in my thirst;