Literature.

" How quick is love in spying needs , How prompt when known in needful deeds ; Nor knows it impropriety , Love hath of rule indemnity . " Love needs no leave—she soon begins ( Oh , memory ne'er quits count of sins !) With tears to wash her Master ' s feet—Act in ivhich care and worship meet .

" She wipes them with her hair , then breaks A box of spikenard , from it takes , Unsparingly anointing o ' er Those feet hereafter to be tore . " 0 lowly act ! 0 mighty deed ! Of bliss in thousand hearts the seed ; Knew Simon not that a pure love ,

Lifts souls the guiltiest past above ? " Thought Judas of that holy maid , When haunted with guilt ' s maddening shade ? How different then had been his sense Of deeds that bless the soul's expense . " Meek Maiden of Jerusalem Thy deeds become a

diadem—A sinner poor , weak , low in tears , Through one pure deed survives all years . " Kings great in arms , Queens of renown , Have passed whose names have scarce come down ; While one small deed of heavenly love , Shines high all time and change above . " How cold ! how piercing cold the life

, Where no thought burns amidst its strife , Of sacred love , of help , of care , To bless a spirit anywhere . " Suspect that wisdom which imparts No fervid feeling to cold hearts , Which , like the stars which shine o'er snow , Ne ' er makes a frozen nature flow .

" One hour at wisdom ' s feet to sit , As Mary sat with heart as fit ; With the same sense of sins forgiven , AVere worth but less than thrones of heaven . " The last , and perhaps the best , on our list is a volume of intrinsic merit written by John Harris , the Cornish Miner , whose poems of The Land ' s End , Keyance Gove , and Lays

from the Mine have already become known to the public . The present book , The Mountain Prophet , the Mme , ancl other Poems , is in advance ofthe writer ' s earlier efforts , and will well repay perusal . Take the following description of y work in the mine as a specimen : — " Meanwhile the mine extended and grew rich , And every month the workmen multiplied ;

The water gushed from countless cracks unseen , Ran down the levels' side , and bubbled up Within the adit , keeping the bold men Prom sinking far beneath it , till the wheel AVas laid aside , and in its place arose A small steam-engine newly wonderful ; And wonderful the ease with which it wrought , Draining the mine as strangely as a spell . After the shaft was sixty feet in depth ,

Ends were extended eastward , westward far ; Then winzes sunk for air from level to level ; And so it ever was and ever is . And as they sunk from rugged stair to stair , The troubled entrails of the rifled world Changed hard as marble . Drills were introduced , And mallets rang where picks had clink'd before . Then holes were blasted in a dangerous way ,

By rushes thrushed into the powder-charge Through a small hole made by a copper wire , Igniting it as sudden as a thought ; Ere the poor wretch could say one word of prayer , Destroying limbs and often life itself . Then quills were used . Still very dangerous they , And more expensive . Turn we from the fields , Aud ladder after ladder quick descend

, Until we reach a labourer ' s working-place . It is the hour of morning : on a plank A father and his elder son sit down , A boy with fourteen Aprils on his lace , With thought of home and brothers in his mind , And sunny slopes and lawns of laughing flowers , Denied him here , denied the lad so soon .

Literature.

A flask of water dangles to a nail , And here a can of powder ; candles there , A pair of scissors and a bunch of quilis . Their dinners lie beside them , and beyond Are drills and hammers and long iron bars . Ere they begin to labour , child and sire Kneel down among the rocks , and that dark cave

Is visited by angels , whose bright wings Ploat through the darkness to the voice of prayer . Aloud the Father intercedes with Heaven Por blessings on the labour of their hands , And blessings on his darling ones at home , That He would spare them , if it were His will , To meet at eve around the supper board . But if they fell and died among the rocks

, He pray'd that they might dwell in heaven , and sit Down at the marriage supper of the Lamb . And then he wrestled for his comrade-boy ; Aud in his earnestness he seemed to grasp The arm of the Most High , and so prevail'd That heaven kiss'd earth and dropped into the mine . Could you have peer'd into that youngling ' s face , Hidden in both his handsyou would have seen

, Great shining tear-drops roll down on the stones . That boy grew up to bear the cross of Christ . " There is faith , hope , and healthful feeling in the above ; and whilst Cornwall can boast of such a man aniongst her labouring population , we are sure that good must result to the community at large . John Harris ' s poetry deserves to be widely read and circulated .

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

At a general meeting of the Royal Academy of Arts , on the 29 th ult ., Paul Falconer Poole , Esq ., was elected an Academician , in the room ofthe late A . E . Clialon , Esq ; and Messrs . Richard Ansdell Thomas Paed , Edward M . Barry , and the Baron Marochetti were elected Associates . Professor Morris is lecturing every Thursday evening , on Geology , at University College , London .

Dr . Hoffman , _ F . _ S . fi ' ., is to commence a series of twenty-four lectures on Organic Chemistry , on the 11 th inst ., at the Government School of Mines , Jermyn , Street , London . Mr . Charles Hursthouse , a New Zealand colonist , has a work in the press entitled Few Zealand ,- the Britain of the South . A new novel entitled The Cravens of Beech THTall , 'hy Mrs . Francis

Guise , is on the eve of publication . Professor Owen , superintendent of the natural history department of the British Museum , is commencing a series of lectures on Possil Reptilia , at the Museum of Practical Geology , Jermyn-street , London . Mr . Theodore Martin ' s translation of the Odes of Horace has

already reached a second edition . Tlle Exhibition of Industrial Pine Art at Edinburgh is expected to be opened in November . Her Majesty and the Prince Consort have kindly promised to lend to it various works of art from the royal collections . The interesting geological subject of the alleged discovery of flint implements in the drift is to be discussed at a joint meeting of

the Ethnological Society and the Arcli-cological Association on Tuesday , the 19 th inst . We are glad to learn that Sir Benjamin Brodie , who underwent the operation for cataract on the 21 st ult ., is progressing very favourably towards recovery . A fire occurred at Blenheim Palace , AVoodstoek , on Tuesday

morning last , by which the whole of the pictures in the Titian room were destroyed . The loss of these pictures will be much regretted by the admirers of this celebrated master . They were a present from Victor Amadeus , King of Sardinia , to John , Duke of Marlborough , and remained unhung and hidden from the public view till the visit of Sir J . Reynolds to Blenheim in 1788 , who was so forcibly struck with their beauty and value , that he recommended their being placed in the room they occupied .