W.

* * * * *

SONNET.

(For the Mirror.)

  Say what repays the gamester’s nightly toil,
    Can hell itself more hideous woes impart? 
  Can glitt’ring heaps of ill-begotten spoil,
    Appease the cravings of his callous heart? 
  For this alone he severs every tie,
    For this he marks unmov’d the orphan’s tear,
  E’en nature’s charms, a smile from beauty’s eye
    No longer can his blasted prospects cheer. 
  But now prevails the dice’s rattling sound,
    The loud blaspheming oath, and cry of woe,
  From tables set with spectre forms around,
    Hurrying with frantic haste, th’ expected throw! 
  Than this no greater foe to man remains
    This is the mightiest triumph Satan gains!

E.L.

* * * * *

ORIGINAL TRANSLATIONS.

(For the Mirror.)

Horace.—­Ode xxx.—­B. 1.

TO VENUS.

He invokes her to be present at Glycera’s private sacrifice

  Venus! leave thy loved isle,
  And on Glycera’s altar smile;
  Breathing perfumes hail the day,
  Haste thee, Venus! haste away.

  Bring with thee the am’rous boy;
  The loose-rob’d Graces crown our joy! 
  Youth swell thy train, who owes to thee
  Her charms, and winged Mercury!

ODE xxvi.—­B. 3.

TO THE SAME.

He renounces Love.

  Not without renown was I,
  In the ranks of gallantry. 
  Now, when Love no more will call,
  To battle; on this sacred wall,
  Venus, where her statue stands,
  To hang my arms, and lute commands;
  Here the bright torch to hang, and bars,
  Which wag’d so oft loud midnight wars.

  But, O blessed Cyprian queen! 
  Blest in Memphian bow’rs serene,
  Raise high the lash, and Chloe’s be,
  All e’er proud Chloe dealt to me!

W.P.

* * * * *

Arcana of Science.

* * * * *

Smoke of Lamps.

A recent number of Gill’s “Technical Repository,” contains a simple mode of consuming the smoke that ascends from the turner of an argand lamp.  It consists of a thin concave of copper, fixed by three wires, at about an inch above the chimney-glass of the lamp, yet capable of being taken off at pleasure.  The gaseous carbonaceous matter which occasionally escapes from the top of lamps, is thus arrested beneath the concave cap, and subsequently consumed by the heat of the flame, instead of passing off into the room, in the form of smoke or smut on the ceiling and walls.

[The “Technical Repository,” may have the credit of introducing this contrivance to the British public; but it is somewhat curious that it had not been previously adopted, since scores of lamps thus provided, are to be seen in the cafes and restaurateurs of Paris. Apropos, the French oil burns equal in brightness to our best gas, and as we are informed, this purity is obtained by filtration through charcoal.—­ED.]