With pallid check, dishevelled hair, and wildly gleaming eyes, Once more before the banquetters, a fearful phantom flies! Once more at Herod’s feet it falls, and cold with nameless dread The wondering monarch bends to hear. A voice, as from the dead, From those pale lips, shrieks madly forth,—“Thy promise, king, I claim, And if the grant be foulest guilt,—not mine,—not mine the blame! Quick, quick recall that reckless vow, or strike thy dagger here, Ere yet this voice demand a gift that chills my soul with fear! Heaven’s curse upon the fatal grace that idly charmed thine eyes! Oh! better had I ne’er been born than be the sacrifice! The word I speak will blanch thy cheek, if human heart be thine, It was a fiend in human form that murmured it to mine. To die for _me_! a thoughtless child! for _me_ must blood be shed! Bend low,—lest angels hear me ask!—oh! God!—the Baptist’s head!” * * * * * THE LIGHTNING OF THE WATERS. BY DR. REYNELL COATES. There are few phenomena observable on the ocean, more striking than the phosphorescence of the water, when seen in high perfection. It has forcibly attracted the attention of poets and philosophers in all ages, and many and curious have been the speculations of those who have endeavored to explain the brilliant apparition. In later times, however, the progress of natural science has dissipated the mystery to a considerable extent, destroying a portion of its romantic interest, without, thereby, diminishing its exquisite beauty. We are well informed, at present, that all the brilliant pyrotechny of Neptune is the effect of animal secretion, not differing essentially in cause from that which ornaments our groves and meadows, when the glow-worms of Europe, the fire-flies of North America, or the fulgoure of the Indies are lighting their fairy love-lanterns beneath the cool, green leaves, or filling the air with their mimic meteors. To those who are not familiar with microscopic researches, it may seem almost impossible that animal life can be multiplied to such excess in the transparent waters, where not a mote is visible by daylight, as to give rise to the broad and bright illumination of the sea, so frequently observed within the lower latitudes; and many, for this reason, have attributed these night-fires of the deep to the impurity and occasional fermentation of the ocean,—a cause which they esteem more nearly commensurate with the magnificence of the result. Such theorists regard this phosphorescence as similar to that so constantly produced by putrifying fish and decaying wood.