its noble church he was a chorister, and his feelings of veneration
for the whole establishment, dedicated to the highest of Christian
virtues, will never be effaced." Would that every heart beamed with so
amiable a sense of gratitude. Reverting to the ancient purposes of the
foundation it is to be feared they are not realized with the poet's
prediction: that

Lasting charity's more ample sway,
Nor bound by time, nor subject to decay,
In happy triumph shall for ever live.--PRIOR.

* * * * *



THE NATURALIST.

* * * * *


THE PEARL IN THE OYSTER.


Cowper eloquently says

There is glory in the grass, and splendour in the flower;

and the imagery might have been extended to the irridescent pearl
within the rudely-formed shell of the oyster. Poets have feigned that
pearls are