udless scene,
Bright as my thoughts when wand'ring to thy home;
Where Nature looks _as though she were divine_,
Not in the richness of the rip'ning vine,
Not in the splendour of imperial Rome.
It is a ruder scene of rocks and trees,
Where even barrenness is beauty--where
The glassy lake, below the mountain bare,
Curls up its waters 'neath the casual breeze;
And, 'midst the plenitude of flower and bud,
Sweet violets hide them in the hilly wood.

II.

I parted with thee one autumnal day,
When o'er the woods the northern tempest beat--
The spoils of autumn rustling at our feet,
And Nature wept to see her own decay.
The pliant poplar bent beneath the blast;
The moveless oak stood warring with the storm,
Which bow'd the pensive willow's weaker form;
And naught gave token that thy love would last,
Save the mute eloquence of forcing tears;
Save the low pleading of thy ardent sighs,
The fervent gazing of thy glowing eyes;
A firm assurance, spite of all my fears,
That, as the sunshine dries the summer rain,
Thy _future_ smile should bless for parting pain.

* * H.

* * * * *

ILLUSTRATION OF SOME OLD PROVERBS, &c.

(_For the Mirror_.)

_"Ax." To ask_. This word which now passes for a mere vulgarism, is the
original Saxon form, and used by Chaucer and others. See "Tyrwhitt's
Glossary." We find it also in Bishop Bale's "God's Promises." "That their
synne vengeaunce _axed_ continually." Old Plays. i. 18. Also in the "Four
P.'s," by Heywood, "And _axed_ them thys question than." Old Pl. i. 84. An
_axing_ is used by Chaucer for a request. Ben Jonson introduces it
jocularly:

"A man out of wax,
As a lady would ax."

_Masques_, vol. 6, p. 85.

"_Between the Cup and the Lip_." The proverb that many things fall out
between the cup and the lip, is a literal version of one in Latin. _Multo
inter pocula ac libra cadunt_. The origin of which was as follows:--A king
of Thrace had planted a vineyard, when one of his slaves, whom he had much
oppressed in that very work, prophesied that he should never taste of the
wine produced in it. The monarch disregarded the prediction, and when at
an entertainment he held a glassful of his own wine made from the grape of
that vineyard, he sent for the slave, and asked him what he thought of his
prophecy now; to which the other replied, "Many things fall out between
the c