And I thought how sweet it were to dwell Beside that dashing stream, Watching the white foam where it fell, And vanished like a dream: To list as its murmurs flew along In all their thrilling harmony, And mingled in sweet symphony, With the wood-bird’s gushing song. · · · · · The autumn winds swept through that wood, With a sad and mournful sound; Decay was in its solitude, And dead leaves spread the ground:— And I sighed, and cast a sorrowing look, As I passed that spot again; For Winter had thrown his icy chain Across that gushing brook. _March 1st, 1836._ H. STORY AND SENTIMENT, OR, CONVERSATIONS WITH A MAN OF TASTE AND IMAGINATION. No. 2. A WORD WITH THE READER. ‘Ho! how he prates of himself—listen!’ _Dryden’s Bride._ READER,— If I was so fortunate as to please thee with my former offering—how shall I, as I resume my labors of this month, so weave from the store-house of my fancy such another vision, as shall make thee extend the hand of amity, and give me a second approving smile. To scribble for another, when you know not his taste—to attempt to bring out such a ‘conceit,’ as shall catch his kindness, and hurry him along with you into good humor, has ever, since the earliest essays in story writing, been accounted a delicate business. And why? because what pleases you, fair lady, pleases not my fellow student; and what pleases you, fellow student, pleases not somebody else; so a man finds himself like the bundle of oats betwixt—no, no! (Apollo forgive me!) I mean like the ass betwixt two bundles, &c. Washington Irving (Heaven bless him! and pardon _me_ for whipping his name into my thoughtless lucubrations) has somewhere—finding himself in a similar predicament—made this remark; ‘if the reader find, here and there, something to please him, let him rest assured that it was written expressly for intelligent readers like himself; but should he find any thing to dislike, let him tolerate it, as one of those articles which the author has been obliged to write for readers of a less refined taste.’ Allow me to say the same.