While each man, through thy height'ning steam,
Does like a smoking Etna seem,
And all about us does express
(Fancy and wit in richest dress)
A Sicilian fruitfulness.

Or for greener damsels meant;
Thou art the only manly scent.

Stinking'st of the stinking kind, Filth of the mouth and fog of the mind, Africa, that brags her foison, Breeds no such prodigious poison, Henbane, nightshade, both together, Hemlock, aconite

Nay, rather,
Plant divine, of rarest virtue;
Blisters on the tongue would hurt you.
'Twas but in a sort I blamed thee;
None e'er prospered who defamed thee;
Irony all, and feigned abuse,

Such as perplexed lovers use
At a need, when, in despair
To paint forth their fairest fair,
Or in part but to express
That exceeding comeliness.
Which their fancies doth so strike,
They borrow language of dislike;
And, instead of Dearest Miss,
Jewel, Honey, Sweetheart, Bliss,
And those forms of old admiring,
Call her Cockatrice and Siren,
Basilisk, and all that's evil,
Witch, Hyena, Mermaid, Devil,
Ethiop, Wench, and Blackamoor,
Monkey, Ape, and twenty more;
Friendly Trait'ress, Loving Foe, —
Not that she is truly so,
But no other way they know
A contentment to express,
Borders so upon excess,
That they do not rightly wot
Whether it be pain or not.

Or as men, constrained to part
With what's nearest to their heart,
While their sorrow's at the height,
Lose discrimination quite,
And their hasty wrath let fall,
To appease their frantic gall,
On the darling thing whatever
Whence they feel it death to sever,

Though it be, as they, perforce,
Guiltless of the sad divorce.

For I must (nor let it grieve thee, Friendliest of plants, that I must) leave thee. For thy sake, TOBACCO, I Would do anything but die, And but seek to extend my days Long enough to sing thy praise. But, as she who once hath been A king's consort is a queen Ever. after, nor will bate Any title of her state, Though a widow or divorced, So I, from thy converse forced, The old name and style retain, A right Katherine of Spain; And a seat, too, 'mongst the joys Of the blest Tobacco Boys; Where, though I, by sour physician, Am debarred the full fruition Of thy favors, I may catch Some collateral sweets, and snatch Sidelong odors, that give life Like glances from a neighbor's wife; And still live in the byplaces And the suburbs of thy graces, And in thy borders take delight, An unconquered Canaanite.

HUGUES FÉLICITÉ ROBERT DE LAMENNAIS.

HUGUES FÉLICITÉ ROBERT DE LAMENNAIS, a French ecclesiastic, polemical, and political writer, born at St. Malo, June 19, 1782; died at Paris, Feb. 27, 1854. He was ordained priest in 1817. The same year appeared the first volume of his "Essay upon Indifference in the Matter of Religion" (4 vols. 1807-1820), a work of profound learning and of strict orthodoxy. He developed his views further in "Religion Considered in its Relation to the Civil and Political Order" (1825), and "Progress of the Revolution and of the War against the Church" (1829). By degrees he became the critic of Church policy, and his journal L'Avenir (The Future) was condemned by the Pope. Lamennais bowed to Rome's decree; but after a year was published his "Words of a Believer" (1834), in which he repudiates all authority of popes and bishops. The little volume is written in archaic style, imitating the language of the Hebrew sacred books; it had an enormous circulation among the masses of the people in every country of Europe. It was followed by "The Book of the People" (1837), and "The Past and Future of the People" (1842), in the same tone. He wrote also: "Sketch of a Philosophy" (3 vols., 1841); " Religion"; and translated the Gospels, accompanying the text with notes.

OF THE NATURE, EFFECT AND IMPORT OF RELIGION
IN THE SOUL.

(From "Essay on Indifference in Religion.")

GOD is indeed the sovereign of mankind: therefore atheism which, by rejecting God, separates man from infinite truth and from all truth, is but the absolute lack of all good, or the sovereign ill.

Deism, which admits God without knowing him, for it rejects Jesus Christ, the Mediator, by whom alone we may know God; deism, which misconstruing the necessary bonds uniting man to God and to other men, establishes arbitrary bonds or fails to establish any; deism, which offers the mind mere probabilities without certainty; deism, pure opinion, leaves man