Nor to his pleasure, power, or pelf,

Came I to crouch, as I conceive: Dame Nature doubtless has design'd A man the monarch of his mind.

Now taste and try this temper, sirs,
Mood it and brood it in your breast-
Or if ye ween, for worldly stirs,

That man does right to mar his rest,
Let me be deft and debonair,

I am content, I do not care.

THE BEST OF HUSBANDS.

Imitated from the German.

JOHN G. SAXE.

OH, I have a husband as good as can be ;
No woman could wish for a better than he !
Sometimes, indeed, he may chance to be wrong,
But his love for me is uncommonly strong!

He has one little fault that makes me fret,
He has always less money, by far, than debt;
Moreover, he thrashes me, now and then,—
But, excepting that, he's the best of men!

I own he is dreadfully given to drink ;
And besides he is rather too fond, I think,

Of playing at cards and dice; but then,
Excepting that, he's the best of men!

He loves to chat with the girls, I know

('Tis the way with the men,-they're always so),--
But what care I for his flirting, when,
Excepting that, he's the best of men?

I can't but say I think he is rash
To pawn my pewter, and spend the cash;
But how can I scold my darling, when,
Excepting that, he's the best of men?

When soak'd with tipple, he's hardly polite,
But knocks the crockery left and right,
And pulls my hair, and growls again ;
But, excepting that, he's the best of men!

Yes, such is the loyalty I have shown;
But I have a spouse who is all my own;
As good, indeed, as a man can be,

And who could ask for a better than he?

THE CATARACT OF LODORE.

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

Robert Southey, 'Lake Poet,' associate of Coleridge and Wordsworth, and miscellaneous writer, was born at Bristol in 1774. In 1813 he was appointed Poet Laureate. His principal poems are Joan of Arc, Thalaba, Madoc, and The Curse of Kehama;

while his Life of Nelson is acknowledged to be one of the most perfect biographies in the English language; and his philosephical Doctor and laboriously compiled Common-Place Book will long continue to be the wonder and delight of the reading public He was a voluminous writer, and also an industrious editor. Died 1843.

How does the water come down at Lodore?

From its sources which well

In the tarn on the fell;

From its fountains

In the mountains,

Its rills

And its gills;

Through moss and through brake,

It runs and it creeps

For awhile, till it sleeps

In its own little lake.

And thence at departing,
Awakening and starting,
It runs through the reeds,
And away it proceeds
Through meadow and glade,
In sun and in shade,

And through the wood shelter,

Among crags in its flurry,
Helter-skelter,

Hurry-skurry.

Here it comes sparkling,
And there it lies darkling;
Now smoking and frothing
Its tumult and wrath in ;

Till, in this rapid race
On which it is bent,
It reaches the place

Of its steep descent.
The cataract strong
Then plunges along ;
Striking and raging,

As if a war waging

Its caverns and rocks among :

Rising and leaping,

Sinking and creeping,
Swelling and sweeping,
Showering and springing,
Flying and flinging,
Writhing and ringing,

Eddying and whisking,

Spouting and frisking,

Turning and twisting,
Around and around
With endless rebound:

Smiting and fighting,

A sight to delight in,

Confounding,

Astounding,

Dizzying and deafening the earth with its sound:

Collecting, projecting,

Receding and speeding,

And shocking and rocking,

And darting and parting,

And threading and spreading,

And whizzing and hissing, And dripping and skipping, And hitting and spitting, And shining and twining, And rattling and battling, And shaking and quaking, And pouring and roaring, And waving and raving, And tossing and crossing, And flowing and going, And running and stunning, And foaming and roaming, And dinning and spinning, And dropping and hopping, And working and jerking, And guggling and struggling, And heaving and cleaving, And moaning and groaning; And glittering and frittering, And gathering and feathering, And whitening and brightening, And quivering and shivering, And hurrying and skurrying, And thundering and floundering; Dividing and gliding and sliding; And falling and brawling and sprawling, And driving and riving and striving, And sprinkling and twinkling and wrinkling, And sounding and bounding and rounding, And bubbling and troubling and doubling,