Light For The Blind.

We have also seen some very remarkable astronomical diagrams for the blind , -which reflect the highest credit on Dr . Moon . May all of good attend the Avork , and may God's blessing rest on such truly p hilanthropic labours . W .

The Nightingale.

THE NIGHTINGALE .

[ From an unpublished blank verse poem , entitled Welcombc Bills , or the Laud of Shahs Hre , composed by Br . GEORGE MARKHAM TWEDDELL , during a week's visit to the late Mark Philips , Esq ., at AVclcomhe House , Stratford-on-Avon , in May , 1873 . ]

Hark ! ' tis the nightingale ! how that song thrills Throughout my soul ! That lay I long have yearn'd ( With fervent longing , like a pregnant dame , ) To hear ; and now its welcome notes salute Mine ears with floods of music . 0 how rich The melody!—what fine variety Of pleasing sounds does this one bird possess

In its small windpipe , —small but muscular : For Nature ' s God adapts to its true end AH He creates . And well has WALTON ask'd , ( Honest old TZAAK , whose delightful book On angling makes the subject seem divine Of which he treats , though it be but to take A simple trout with baited hook and line , )—

If God provideth for bad men on earth Such music , what then must He have in store For saints in heaven ?* For the Nightingale , Through all the ages man has heard its song , Has been admired o ' er all the feather'd choir . Pliny preferr'd it to all instruments . Like the immortal bards of Greece before

Rome ' s Ovid sang of Philomela ' s woes , The much-wronged daughter of King Pandion Changed to the Nightingale ; and hence its song Has over since been plaintive . Perhaps 'twas here SIIAKSPEUE first listen'd to its pensive notes , A Stratford school boy , or e ' en earlier still ,

A child led by his loving mother ' s hand , — That Mary Arden , whose sweet name itself is redolent of rural poetiy ; And wander'd here in manhood ' s riper years , Soliloquising like his A alentine : — " How use dotli breed a habit in a man ! 'i'his shadowy desert , unfrequented woods , I better brook than flourishing peopled towns ;

Here can I sit alone , unseen of any , And to the nightingale ' s complaining notes , Tune my distresses , and record my woes . "f To name the poets who have loved its lay Would be to conjure up a galaxy Of shining spirits in the world of song ,

Such as would need my SHAKSPEBE ' S magic pen To passion view before us : one great soul The Godlike MILTON—may alone suffice To hallow its sweet notes throughout all time . For he had heard it on the "bloomy spray Warble at eve , when all the woods were still , " And has embalm'd that folklore of our sires ,

That the fond lover who is fortunate Its " liquid notes that close the eye of day , " To hear " before the cuckoo ' s shallow bill , " Shall have " success in love . ' ' Giving poor hopes For sighing swains where it ne ' er sings at all . 'Tis said at times its thrilling lay is heard Even in Yorkshire ; but our Cleveland coast

Ne ' er echoes back its heavenly melody . Cornwall , and Scotia , and green Erin ' s isle . The Channel Islands , though their climate ' s mild , ' Tis said it never visits . Let us then Be thankful for our larks , that overhead

Soar singing to the sky , as sweet as those That sang to SHAKSPERE meditating here : Thankful for thrush and blackbird , linnet tribe ; For robin redbreast's piping winter note ; For all the merry songsters we possess ; Yea , for the peewit and the cawing rook ; For all their notes are musical to him Whose ears are tuned to nature ' s melody .

* " But the nightingale , another of my airy creatures , breathes such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat , that it might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased . He that at midnight , when the very labourer sleeps securely , should hear , as I have very often , the clear airs , the sweet descants , the mutual rising and falling , the doubling and redoubling of her voicemight well be lifted above

, earth , and say , ' Lord , what music hast Thou provided for the saints in heaven , when thou aftbrdest bad men such music on earth !'"— Walton ' s Complete Angler , or Contemplative Man ' s Recreation . f Two Gentlemen of Verona , act v ., scene i .

Scene hi court : Judge . — "Have you anything to oiler to the court before sentence is passed on you ? " Prisoner . — " No , Judge ; I had ten dollars , but my lawyer took that . " n 1