that Almighty Father, who is ever quick to catch the faintest breath of pious supplication, and to bestow the blessings and loves of His kindly heart. I was now at the base of St. Bernard! I looked up with a sort of reverential emotion to its summit, and discovered the monastic tower lifted up in spectral, yet friendly grandeur, as if it overlooked with benison the lands below. There it had stood for many a day and year, the guide of the wanderer, the friend of the friendless, the shelter of the storm-driven, and the repose of the dying. I paused, and looked up, until the tones of the bell had ceased, and until the last echo, rolling around the hills, had saluted my raptured ear. And then with the serene admiration of a heart subdued to pious affection, and ardent yearnings, I commenced the ascent to a point of the mount, which would overlook the scene, and from whence I could command a far view of the surrounding country, and there sit me down to indulge those thoughts that the time and place might call up, and which never again would bless me, because never again would I have the opportunity of visiting these scenes.

Ascending, every stone seemed sacred, and every tuft of moss seemed to be hallowed, and I stepped as lightly as I could, avoiding to step insecurely, until I came to a point where the heavens could be seen on one side to the horizon, resting over a landscape of the most picturesque beauty and varied sheen. This spot was called "The Traveller's Rest;" and here I paused and sat me down to gaze and think, assured that I should return a wiser and a better man. It was now almost as light as day, and the moon, full orbed, looked

down upon Alpine summits, and Alpine meadows, and Alpine ravines with a softly brilliant light, that invested the vision with all the elements of a fairy spectacle. Imagination here might easily be so excited and enwrapped, as to people the atmosphere and mountain summits, and forest crowns and ravines, with elfin forms and fairy presences.

The breezes played with friendliness and grace around, ladened with perfume, kissed off from flower and verdure, reposing in their winding paths. The heavens were filled with stars, that kindly and holily beamed, and the air was burdened with the melody of rustling leaves, rolling stones, falling from the rocks into the depths below, and running waters murmuring up their strains monotonous, which were made lively and pleasing by their commingling with the varied cadences around and above.

It was indeed a lovely night; and my spirit drank into the loveliness which surrounded me, and abandoning myself to the inspirations that possessed me, I became lost in the intensity of thought, subdued by the scenery presented to view, and the pious associations which gathered around the place.

I could not tell my contemplations. They were those communings of the soul with itself, which withdraw us, as it were, from the commotions and distractions of ordinary life, and reveal unto us our more exalted nature, and talk to us of our more blissful destiny. I enjoyed inner raptures. I was blest with a peaceful flow of soul bearing on its stream, that gushed up from hidden fountains, the offsprings of hope and love. The influence of these contemplations was hallow

ing, and my heart prepared to turn away from t in the midst of which they had been inspired, w that they would still linger with me, when the s selves were only to be known to me in the rec the past. The bell again pealed forth its solen I turned away, not sadly, yet wishing for a clo and a longer communion. I found my way cottage; and passed the remainder of that bea in refreshing slumber, full of dreams awakened dents of the evening. Refreshed with sleep, our the following morning, after substantially reme hospitable inmates of the cottage, pursued its Italy-the classic ground of ages.

Life's scenes have been greatly varied since many have been the anxieties of spirit and the of life, but from my memory has never been beautiful scenery and associations of Great St. moonlight.

The Advent Angels.

JUDEA'S valleys slept beneath the light

Of soft and kindly stars; and all her hills
Seemed undulations of a peaceful breast.

The shepherds' forms were, through the misty light,
Discerned reclining near their slumbering flocks.
The stillness of the scene was undisturbed,

Save by the murmur of the distant sea,

Or breath of zephyr stealing down the hill
To kiss the sleeping flowerets in the vale.

On such a night, eyes of a holier strength,—
Piercing the world,—by mortal eyes unseen,——
Would have beheld the chariots of the sky,
Flaming with splendour,―halting on the verge
Of Heaven; their steeds instinct with ardent life,
Answering with pauses meek, the angelic will.
No sound of wheels re-echoed through the vault,
As when upon the storm the Almighty walks,
And stirs the all-shaking thunder with His tread;
But silently and slow the coursers came,
Until, upon the outmost circle, vast,

Of earth they paused, with grace and beauty crowned.

Awhile they paused, and inward looked, whe The earth in silence swung, upheld by streng Omnipotent, whose source no mind can know And as they looked, they of their great, Sublimest mission talked, which was, to tell The race of human kind the birth of One,Who, like that race in form, should bear with The Almighty Spirit, Essence, Power, and L And whose mysterious coming throbbed with Designs to save a guilty, dying world.

From this high point,-their vision ranging fa With angel-clearness they remoter worlds Beheld, unstained with guilt, and blest with To these they gave small heed; for they had Before observed them shining richly bright, Reflecting wide the loving light of God.

Their converse ended; and their plumage fai
Trembled with rapture heretofore unknown
E'en to a spirit pure; and their full forms
Were blazoned with a richer glory, than
Was wont to halo those who bathed in seas
Of Heavenly light. They opened wide their
And down the sky there came a seraph-band
On wing-majestic, and with harps of song,
Near to the hills of Bethlehem they came,
And poised themselves in air, on wings full sp
And downward, half-inclining, looked with lo