“L——,” he faintly articulated, after a pause, during which he wept—yes, wept for the first and _last_ time, “I feel that I am dying—thank God! for his mercy; forgive, my friend, the weakness of these tears—they are of contrition—of—of penitence.” Exhausted by this effort, he sank into my arms. “L——,” continued he, reviving, and raising his voice—“do you not see her—there L——, there she is, she’s beckoning to me—she looks the same as on that bridal night—she smiles, too, upon me—and look, L——, look, she forgives me—I come! we were sundered once, but now they cannot disunite us.” A struggle ensued, but it was short; a moment more, and he was _dead_. The flickering flame of the taper had gone out; the moonlight rested upon the pale features of the corpse; and the soul of the Defaulter had sped to its eternal reckoning. March, 1841. * * * * * COMPARISONS. BY CHARLES WEST THOMSON. A leaf upon the stream, When the brook is rushing by In its glorious summer dream,— Such am I.— A feather in the air, When the autumn breeze is high, Driven here and driven there,— Such am I.— A wild flower in the glade, Where the quiet Zephyrs sigh, Most happy in the shade.— Such am I.— As the aspen among trees, Where the sleeping waters lie, Stirred by every passing breeze,— Such am I.— But the leaf will find a shore, The feather cease to fly, And both be seen no more,— So will I.— The flower soon will fade, And the aspen’s leaves be dry, Both forgotten in the glade,— So am I.— March, 1841. * * * * * THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. BY EDGAR A. POE. It is not improbable that a few farther steps in phrenological science will lead to a belief in the existence, if not to the actual discovery and location of an organ of _analysis_. If this power (which may be described, although not defined, as the capacity for resolving thought into its elements) be not, in fact, an essential portion of what late philosophers term ideality, then there are indeed many, good reasons for supposing it a primitive faculty. That it may be a constituent of ideality is here suggested in opposition to the vulgar dictum (founded, however, upon the assumptions of grave authority,) that the calculating and discriminating powers (causality and comparison) are at variance with the imaginative—that the three, in short, can hardly coexist. But, although thus opposed to received opinion, the idea will not appear ill-founded when we observe that the processes of invention or creation are strictly akin with the processes of resolution—the former being nearly, if not absolutely, the latter conversed.