e from high by tides and gales, the scream
Of sea-mew softened falls--when bright and gay
The crimson weeds, proud ocean's pendants, stream
From trophied wrecks and rock-towers darkly grey--
Through scenes so strangely fair 'twere pleasant, sure, to stray.

Why this strange thought? If, in that ocean laid.
The ear would cease to hear, the eye to see,
Though sights and sounds like these circled my bed,
Wakeless and heavy would my slumbers be:
Though the mild soften'd sun-light beam'd on me
(If a dull heap of bones retained my name,
That bleach'd or blacken'd 'mid the wasteful sea),
Its radiance all unseen, its golden beam
In vain through coral groves or emerald roofs might stream.

Yet dwells a spirit in this earthy frame
Which Oceans cannot quench nor Time destroy;--
A deathless, fadeless ray, a heavenly flame,
That pure shall rise when fails each base alloy
That earth instils, dark grief, or baseless joy:
Then shall the ocean's secrets meet its sight;--
For I do hold that happy souls enjoy
A vast all-reaching range of angel-flight,
From the fair source of day, even to the gates of night.

Now night's dark veil is rent; on yonder land,
That blue and distant rises o'er the main,
I see the purple sky of morn expand,
Scattering the gloom. Then cease my feeble strain:
When darkness reign'd, thy whisperings soothed my pain--
The pain by weariness and languor bred.
But now my eyes shall greet a lovelier scene
Than fancy pictured: from his dark green bed
Soon shall the orb of day exalt his glorious head.

I found my two uncles, Cousin George, and several other friends and
relations, waiting for me on the Cromarty beach; and was soon as happy
among them as a man suffering a good deal from debility, but not much
from positive pain, could well be. When again, about ten years after
this time, I visited the south of Scotland, it was to receive the
instructions necessary to qualify me for a bank accountant; and when I
revisited it at a still later period, it was to undertake the management
of a metropolitan newspaper. In both these instances I mingled with a
different sort of persons from those with whom I had come in contact in
the years 1824-25. And, in now taking leave of the lower class, I may be
permitted to make a few general remarks regardi