But more than these, I love the restless sea, The kingly element!—Its dark blue waves Were ever like some gentle friends to me! For oft, in dreams, I’ve wandered through its caves Like some pale spirit of the dead, now free; I’ve seen the bright, but tombless “place of graves,” Where Ocean gathers all his dead to sleep, The pale and shadowy sleep, which Death’s phantasms keep! “I have a passion” for all lovely features That deck fair nature’s ever glowing face; Rocks, hills and waves to me seem glorious creatures, Endowed with life, and majesty, and grace! They are to us as everlasting teachers, In whose revealings, truths divine we trace; They bid us raise, when sad, our tearful eyes, And seek perfection only ’mid the blissful skies. * * * * * THE BACHELOR’S EXPERIMENT. BY MRS. EMMA C. EMBURY. There are some persons in the world who seem born to evil fortune; they grow up under the shadow of care, and misfortune dogs their footsteps like a sleuth-hound eager for his prey. Reversing the old fable of King Midas, every thing they touch becomes valueless. Their best efforts are rewarded with disappointment,—their life is a perpetual struggle,—troubles come not in a host which might be confronted at once, but in slow and sure succession, one evil being overcome only to make room for another, until at length the energies of the worn spirit are all exhausted, and patient endurance is the only trace which still remains of the high capabilities with which it was originally gifted. But there are others who are decidedly born to good luck. (Poor Power! how do we check the career of laughter with a sigh, when some passing word recalls the inimitable skill with which he ruled the chords of mirth!) There are people to whom success is a sort of natural inheritance,—who never put forth a finger to beckon fortune onwards, and yet find her following in their track, dropping her golden favours in their way, and smoothing with obsequious care the asperities in their path of life. Such an one was the hero of the following sketch.