And silver and gold, as in Solomon’s reign, Were plenty as stones by the wayside again, And bright did the spire and the roof with them glow, While diadems shone on the tall mountain brow. I gazed on the scene with unearthly delight, And thought, while its radiance enraptured my sight. Of that city, which one did in visions behold, Whose gates were of pearl, and its streets paved with gold. Again I looked forth, while the sunlight yet shone, But the scene of enchantment I sought for was gone! The sun, which had gilded each shrub with its ray, Was melting the landscape of glory away! Thus my hopes have dissolved, which once glistened so bright In the sun of youth’s morn, to my fanciful sight; Their brilliancy passed off in tears,—oh! how soon! As the sleet-jewels melt in the sunbeams of noon. * * * * * THE DEFAULTER. BY JOHN T. MAULL. Ou trouverez vous un homme sans défauts? _Télémaque._ In the beautiful season of youth, when life is just budding forth in all the dewy freshness of ardent hope; when the heart is buoyant, and the energies alive, and panting after objects around which to shed the virtuous influence of their association, oh! then it is that we feel, like the harp that is delicately attuned, the full force of every impression:—of what moment, therefore, are those early connections and restraints which are voluntarily assumed to fit us for our companionship with the world, or in other words to form the character by which we are to be known and appreciated among our fellow men; but that character when formed, like the vestal fire of the ancients, demands the constant vigilance of our noblest faculties to keep alive and perpetuate.