MUSIC IN A ROOM OF SICKNESS.

BY MRS. HEMANS.

BRING music! stir the brooding air
With an ethereal breath!

Bring sounds, my struggling soul to bear
Up from the couch of death!

A voice, a flute, a dreamy lay,
Such as the southern breeze
Might waft, at golden fall of day,
Over the blue transparent seas!

O, no, not such! that lingering spell
Would bind me back to life,

When my wean'd heart hath said farewell,
And passed the gates of strife.

Let not a sigh of human love
Blend with the song its tone!
Let no disturbing echo move
One that must die alone;

But pour a solemn breathing strain,
Fill'd with the soul of prayer;
Let a life's conflict, fear, and pain,
And trembling hope, be there!

Deeper, yet deeper, in my thought
Lies more prevailing sound;

A harmony intensely fraught
With pleading more profound;

A passion unto music given,~
A sweet, yet piercing cry;

A breaking heart's appeal to heaven,-
A bright faith's victory.

Deeper! O, may no richer power

Be in those notes enshrined 1

Can all which crowds on earth's last hour, No fuller language find?

Away! and hush the feeble song,
And let the chord be still'd!

Far in another land ere long,

My dream shall be fulfill'd.

In vain my soul its life would pour
On the faint music here,

The voices of the spirit-shore

Even now are in my ear.

ART.

BY CHARLES SPRAGUE.

When from the sacred garden driven,
Man fled before his Maker's wrath,
An angel left her place in heaven,

And cross'd the wanderer's sunless path. "T was Art! sweet Art! new radiance broke, Where her light foot flew o'er the ground; And thus with seraph voice she spoke, "The curse a blessing shall be found.'

She led him through the trackless wild,
Where noontide sunbeams never blazed:-
The thistle shrunk-the harvest smiled,
And nature gladdened as she gazed.
Earth's thousand tribes of living things,
At Art's command to him are given,
The village grows, the city springs,
And point their spires of faith to heaven.

He rends the oak-and bids it ride,

To guard the shores its beauty graced; He smites the rock-upheaved in pride, See towers of strength, and domes of taste. Earth's teeming caves their wealth reveal, Fire bears his banner on the wave, He bids the mortal poison heal,

And leaps triumphant o'er the grave.

He plucks the pearls that stud the deep,
Admiring Beauty's lap to fill:
He breaks the stubborn marble's sleep,
And mocks his own Creator's skill.
With thoughts that swell his glowing soul,
He bids the ore illume the page,
And proudly scorning time's control,
Commerces with an unborn age.

In fields of air he writes his name,
And treads the chamber of the sky;
He reads the stars, and grasps the flame,
That quivers round the Throne on high.
In war renowned, in peace sublime,

He moves in greatness and in grace;
His power subduing space and time,
Links realm to realm, and race to race.

If every ones internal care,
Were written on his brow
How many would our pity share,
Who raises our envy now.

THE city of Benares stands on the left bank of the Ganges, at a part where the river forms a fine sweeping curve of nearly four miles in length. The bank on which the city is situated is the concave side of the river, and is considerably higher than the opposing shore; so that if the town is viewed from a position in the upper part of it, from the breadth of the Ganges at this place, and the lowness of the opposite side, it has the appearance of standing on the margin of a beautifully formed bay.

Benares stands on a spot held peculiarly sacred by the Hindoos, and it has long been considered as the head quarters of brahminical learning.

The edifice, with the high minarets so conspicuous in the annexed sketch, was built by the Mohammedan emperor, Aurungzebe, it is said with the intention of humbling the pride of the Hindoos, as not only possessing a very elevated station in the city, but being also erected on the site of a Hindoo temple, removed on purpose to make room for the Mussulman mosque.

The immense flight of steps called the Ghauts of Benares, form a great ornament to the river face of the city. Various Christian missionaries are now laboring in this city.