THE PANTHER.

THE panther leaped to the front of his lair,
And stood with a foot up, and snuffed the air;
He quivered his tongue from his panting mouth,
And looked with a yearning towards the south
For he scented afar in the coming breeze,
News of the gums and their blossoming trees;
And out of Armenia that same day,

He and his race come bounding away.

Over the mountains and down to the plains
Like Bacchus's panthers with wine in their veins,
They came where the woods wept odorous rains;
And there, with a quivering, every beast

Fell to his old Pamphylian feast.

The people who lived not far away,

Heard the roaring on that same day;

And they said, as they lay in their carpeted rooms,

The panthers are come, and are drinking the gums:
And some of them going with swords and spears,
To gather their share of the rich round tears,
The panther I spoke of followed them back

And dumbly they let him tread close in the track,
And lured him after them into the town;

And then they let the portcullis down

And took the panther, which happened to be

The largest was seen in all Pamphily.

By every one there was the panther admired,
So fine was his shape and so sleekly attired,
And such an air, both princely and swift,
He had, when giving a sudden lift

To his mighty paw, he'd turn at a sound,
And so stand panting and looking around,
As if he attended a monarch crowned.

And truly, they wondered the more to behold
About his neck a collar of gold,

On which was written, in characters broad,
"Arsaces the king to the Nysian God."

So they tied to the collar a golden chain,
Which made the panther a captive again,
And by degrees he grew fearful and still,

As if he had lost his lordly will.

But now came the spring, when free-born love

Calls up nature in forest and grove,

And makes each thing leap forth, and be
Loving, and lovely, and blithe as he.

The panther he felt the thrill of the air,

And he gave a leap up, like that at his lair

He felt the sharp sweetness more strengthen his

veins,

Ten times than ever the spicy rains,

And ere they're aware, he has burst his chains :

He has burst his chains, and ah, ha! he's gone,

And the links and the gazers are left alone,

And off to the mountains the panther's flown.

N

Now what made the panther a prisoner be?

Lo! 'twas the spices and luxury.

And what set that lordly panther free?

'Twas Love!-'twas Love !-'twas no one but he.*

* "What is said of that Taurus which is so called by us, extending beyond Armenia, (though this has been called in question), is now made apparent from the panthers, which I know have been taken in the spice-bearing part of Pamphylia; for they, delighting in odours, which they scent at a great distance, quit Armenia, and cross the mountains in search of the tears of the storax, at the time when the wind blows from that quarter, and the trees distil their gums. It is said a panther was once taken in Pamphylia, with a gold chain about its neck, on which was inscribed, in Armenian letters," Arsaces the king, to the Nysæan God." Arsaces was then king of Armenia, who is supposed to have given it its liberty on account of its magnitude, and in honour of Bacchus, who, amongst the Indians, is called Nysius, from Nysa, one of their towns: this, however, is an appellation which he hears among all the oriental nations. This panther became subject to man, and grew so tame, that it was patted and caressed by every one. But on the approach of spring, a season when panthers become susceptible of love, it felt the general passion, and rushed with fury into the mountains in quest of a mate, with the gold chain about its neck."-Life of Apollonius of Tyana, p. 68.

TO T. L. H.,

SIX YEARS OLD, DURING A SICKNESS.

SLEEP breathes at last from out thee,

My little, patient boy;

And balmy rest about thee
Smooths off the day's annoy.

I sit me down, and think

Of all thy winning ways;

Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink,

That I had less to praise.

Thy sidelong pillowed meekness,
Thy thanks to all that aid,

Thy heart, in pain and weakness,

Of fancied faults afraid;