The purple light sleeps on the hills, The shadowed valleys sleep between, Down through the shadows slide the rills, The drooping hazels o'er them lean. The clouds lie sleeping in the sky-- The crimson beds of sleeping airs; The broad sun shuts his lazy eye On all the long day's weary cares. The far, low meadows sleep in light, The river sleeps, a molten tide; I dream reclined, with half-shut sight-- My dog sleeps, couching at my side. The branches droop above my head, The motes sleep in the slanting beam, Yon hawk sails through the sunset red-- Adieu thought, sailing through a dream! And here upon this bank I lie, Beneath the drooping, airless leaves, And watch the long, low sunset die, On silent, dreamy summer eves. The slant light creeps the boughs among, And drops upon the sleeping sod-- SHE lies below, in slumber long, ASLEEP till the great morn of GOD! DR. FOX'S PRESCRIPTION. 'None but bigots will in vain Adore a heaven they cannot gain.'--SHERIDAN. There is a story, familiar to most people of extensive reading, and quite frequently alluded to, of a fox that, after endeavoring in vain to possess himself of some luscious grapes which grew beyond his reach, walked composedly away, solemnly assuring himself and Mr AEsop, who overheard him, that as yet the grapes were unripe. The story, or any allusion to it, seldom fails to excite a smile. I, too, laugh when I hear it; but not so much at Reynard's inconsistency as at his wit. The faculty of discovering grave defects in that which we have failed to obtain is one for which we cannot be too thankful. It is a source of infinite comfort in this comfortless world--a principle which enables both parties in every contest to be victorious--an important article in the great law of compensation. It is as old as the human race. The great fabulist no more invented it than Lord Bacon invented inductive reasoning. Like that philosopher, he simply enunciated a principle which had been unconsciously recognized and constantly used ever since the machinery of the human mind was first set in motion. I have no doubt that when Adam found himself outside of Eden he wondered how he could have been contented to remain so long in that little garden, assorting pinks and training honeysuckles, when here lay a vast farm, well watered and fertile, needing only to be cleared, fenced, and cultivated to yield a handsome income. It is well that pride should sometimes have a fall. But you and I, dear reader, have often seen envious people gloating over that fall in any but a Christian spirit. At such times have we not rejoiced at any circumstance which could break the force of the fall and disappoint the gratification of such malicious hopes? And what has accomplished that object so often and so effectually as Reynard's great principle?