Earth's most celestial region! Babylon The mighty, the magnificent, to thee, With all the trappings of her bravery on, Seems but a river to the engulfing sea. What are its oracles but lies? 'Tis given Thy prophets only to converse with Heaven-- The hidden to reveal, the dark to scan, And be the interpreters of God to man. The idols dumb that erring men invoke, Themselves are vanities, their power is smoke: But, while the heathen's pomp is insecure, Is transient, thine, O Sion! shall endure; For in thy temples, God, the only Lord, Hath been, and still delights to be, adored. Blessed are they, who, by their love, Themselves thy veritable children prove! Yea! blessed they who cleave To thee, with faithful hearts, and scorn to leave! Come shall the day--and come it may full soon-- When thou, more splendid than the moon, Shalt rise; and, triumphing o'er night, Turn ebon darkness into silver light: The glory of thy brightness shall be shed Around each faithful head: Rising from thy long trance, earth shall behold Thee loftier yet, and lovelier than of old; And portion'd with the saints in bliss shall be All who, through weal and woe, were ever true to thee! FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 7: "The doings of God by the Franks."] RHYMED HEXAMETERS AND PENTAMETERS. [This species of versification, consisting of rhymed Hexameter and Pentameter lines, we do not remember to have seen before attempted, and we now offer it as a literary curiosity. It is, perhaps, subject to the objection that applies against painted statuary, as combining embellishments of a character not altogether consistent, and not adding to the beauty of the result. But we are not without a feeling that some additional pleasure is thus conveyed to the mind. The experiment, of course, is scarcely possible, except in quatrains of an epigrammatic structure. But the examples are selected from the most miscellaneous sources that readily occurred.] HIS OWN EPITAPH. BY ENNIUS. Adspicite, O cives! senis Ennii imagini' formam; Hic vostrum panxit maxuma facta patrum. Nemo me lacrumis decoret, nec funera fletu Faxit. Cur? volito vivu' per ora virum. See, O citizens! here old Ennius's image presented, Who to your forefathers' deeds gave their own glory again. Honour me not with your tears; by none let my death be lamented: Why? still in every mouth living I flit among men. ON GELLIA. FROM MARTIAL. Amissum non flet, cum sola est, Gellia patrem; Si quis adest, jussae prosiliunt lacrymae. Non dolet hic, quisquis laudari, Gellia, quaerit; Ille dolet vere qui sine teste dolet.