Apart, upon a throne of living fire The Fiend was seated; in his eye there shone The look that dared Omnipotence; the light Of sateless vengeance, and sublime despair.-- He sat amid a burning world, and saw Tormented myriads, whose blaspheming shrieks Were mingled with the howl of hidden floods, And Acherontine groans; of all the host, The only dauntless he. As o'er the wild He glanced, the pride of agony endured Awoke, and writhed through all his giant frame, That redden'd, and dilated, like a sun! Till moved by some remember'd bliss, or joy Of paradisal hours, or to supply The cravings of infernal wrath,--he bade The roar of Hell be hush'd,--and silence was! He called the cursed,--and they flash'd from cave And wild--from dungeon and from den they came, And stood an unimaginable mass Of spirits, agonized with burning pangs: In silence stood they, while the Demon gazed On all, and communed with departed Time, From whence his vengeance such a harvest reap'd. BEAUTIFUL INFLUENCES. Who hath not felt the magic of a voice,-- Its spirit haunt him in romantic hours? Who hath not heard from Melody's own lips Sounds that become a music to his mind?-- Music is heaven! and in the festive dome, When throbs the lyre, as if instinct with life, And some sweet mouth is full of song,--how soon A rapture flows from eye to eye, from heart To heart--while floating from the past, the forms We love are recreated, and the smile That lights the cheek is mirror'd on the heart! So beautiful the influence of sound, There is a sweetness in the homely chime Of village bells: I love to hear them roll Upon the breeze; like voices from the dead, They seem to hail us from a viewless world. [2] We know a reverend vicar who once took the trouble to count all the quotations from Scripture, which occurred in a charity sermon he had just printed: and his great satisfaction at the conclusion was, that his was indeed "a scriptural sermon." * * * * * PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. We know it to be a fact, that a Jew, an artist of reputation, who had conceived a great confidence in a Christian engaged in the promotion of the conversion of the Israelites, revealed to him, that both he and his brother had been Christians from their childhood from having been bred up amongst Christians, but were too indignant at the treatment which they and their brethren met with at Christian hands, to profess Christianity; and he earnestly pleaded, as essential to their being induced to receive the gospel, that those who participate in the attempt should approach them with a language of decided affection for Israel.--_Q. Rev._ * * * * * ABSENTEES