And in fragrance dream the blossoms Pure and taintless as before— But heart-flowers have been gathered That shall blossom nevermore. Lowly westward walketh Dian, On her watches with the night, And the hours far have stolen To the gateways of the light. But, ah! wo is thee, Leora, Though hopeless, hoping on, Till Aurora up the Orient, Rosy-fingered, leads the dawn. But less wo is thee, Leora, By thy lattice weary worn— More’s the wo for thee, Estella, When thou wakest at the morn. * * * * * SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS. BY THOMAS MILNER, M. A. A series of curious and interesting phenomena, involving the apparent elevation and approach of distant objects, the production of aerial images of terrestrial forms, of double images, their inversion, and distortion into an endless variety of grotesque shapes, together with the deceptive aspect given to the desert-landscape, are comprehended in the class of optical illusions. Different varieties of this singular visual effect constitute the _mirage_ of the French, the _fata morgana_ of the Italians, the _looming_ of our seamen, and the _glamur_ of the Highlanders. It is not peculiar to any particular country, though more common in some than others, and most frequently observed near the margin of lakes and rivers, by the sea-shore, in mountain districts and on level plains. These phantoms are perfectly explicable upon optical principles, and though influenced by local combinations, they are mainly referable to one common cause, the refractive and reflective properties of the atmosphere, and inequalities of refraction arising from the intermixture of strata of air of different temperatures and densities. But such appearances in former times were really converted by the imagination of the vulgar into supernatural realities; and hence many of the goblin stories with which the world has been rife, not yet banished from the discipline to which childhood is subject,— “As when a shepherd of the Hebrid Isles Placed far amid the melancholy main, (Whether it be lone fancy him beguiles, Or that aerial beings sometimes deign To stand, embodied, to our senses plain) Sees on the naked hill, or valley low, The whilst in ocean Phœbus dips his wain, A vast assembly moving to and fro, Then all at once in air dissolves the wondrous show.”