And have those retributive Hours passed o'er, with leaden flight? On Athens breaks a brighter day? Dawns there a purer light? Rejoice! The "Star of Bethlehem" leads on a perfect day, And fades the Crescent from the skies, lost in its brighter ray. The altar 'To the unknown God,' the Temple to the Hours, 'The Prophets' crescent-mounted Mosques, fail from her cypress bowers; The Tissue from the Cross shall fall, by error wreathed so fair, Fall--and the shrinking drapery's folds reveal a Saviour there. _Then, Greece_, shall smile propitiously, the bright, the favoring Hours-- Then praise shall rise, as sweet as breath from Tempe's vale of Flowers; Rise, from that heart of love--of woe--of poesy profound-- The heart of Greece!--her sons are free--the noble mind unbound. ELIZA. _Maine_. READINGS WITH MY PENCIL. NO. I. "Legere sine calamo est dormire."--_Quintilian_. 1. "I am resolved, by the grace of God, always to make my heart and tongue go together: so as never to speak with the one what I do not think with the other."--_Bishop Beveridge_. There is a fine philosophy in the above excellent determination of the pious and learned bishop: it is but a paraphrase of the homely maxim, "Honesty is the best policy." But the most striking idea conveyed by it is its negative character: the resolution being, not to speak all that the heart thinketh, but never to speak what it thinketh not. 2. "I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him. You have no business with consequences: you are to tell the truth."--_Dr. Johnson_. Boswell says that the Doctor said this to him. I do not doubt it. It is nothing new. _St. Paul_ said it before Dr. Johnson. "What then? Shall we do evil that good may come? God forbid!" Now, a lie of this kind would be venial, where other lies, told upon occasions of less magnitude and importance, would be unpardonable. And the Doctor's idea seems to be very well explained in the next passage. 3. "All truth is not of equal importance; but if little violations be allowed, all violations will, in time, be thought little."--_Dr. Johnson_. So much for Truth; which, according to Herodotus, was one of the three lessons inculcated by the ancient Persians upon their children. 4. "The Four Elements are the Four Volumes in which all Nature's works are written."--_Jeremy Taylor_.