O'ershadow'd by its ancient yew, His sheep-cot met the shepherd's view; And, placid, in that calm profound, His silent flocks lay slumbering round: With flowing mantle, by his side, Sudden, a stranger he espied, Bland was his visage, and his voice Soften'd the heart, yet bade rejoice.-- "Why is thy mourning thus?" he said, "Why thus doth sorrow bow thy head? Why faltereth thus thy faith, that so Abroad despairing thou dost go? As if the God who gave thee breath, Held not the keys of life and death! When from the flocks that feed about, A single lamb thou choosest out, Is it not that which seemeth best That thou dost take, yet leave the rest? Yes! such thy wont; and, even so, With his choice little ones below Doth the Good Shepherd deal; he breaks Their earthly bands, and homeward takes, Early, ere sin hath render'd dim The image of the seraphim!" Heart-struck, the shepherd home return'd; Again within his bosom burn'd The light of faith; and, from that day, He trode serene life's onward way. * * * * * COMTE. _Cours de Philosophie Positive_, par M. Auguste Comte. It is pleasant to find in some extreme, uncompromising, eccentric work, written for the complete renovation of man, a new establishment of truth, little else, after all its tempest of thought has swept over the mind, than another confirmation of old, and long-settled, and temperate views. Our sober philosophy, like some familiar landscape seen after a thunder storm, comes out but the more distinct, the brighter, and the more tranquil, for the bursting cloud and the windy tumult that had passed over its surface. Some such experience have we just had. Our Conservative principles, our calm and patient manner of viewing things, have rarely received a stronger corroboration than from the perusal or the extraordinary work of M. Comte--a work written, assuredly, for no such comfortable purpose, but for the express object (so far as we can at present state it to our readers) of re-organizing political society, by means of an intellectual reformation amongst political thinkers.