As nearer still the mighty Being drew,
  Trembling they stood, and knew not what to do;
  When lo! the Genius breath’d these solemn strains,
  Soft as the breeze that cools Saboea’s plains:—­
  “Children of dust! approach, fly not your friend,
  I leave the heavens above, my aid to lend;
  Water you seek, and water I bestow,
  But ere you ask, this useful lesson know:—­
  Whate’er the body for its use enjoys,
  Excess no less than scarcity destroys;
  Demand no more than what your wants require,
  Let Hamet tell me first his heart’s desire.”

  “O, Being, great, beneficent and kind,
  Pardon the fear that overspreads my mind;
  On me, great God, a little brook bestow,
  That winter rains may never overflow,
  And when the summer droughts commence their reign,
  Stretch forth thy hand and let the brook remain.”

  “’Tis yours,” with accents mild the Genius cried,
  Streams, as he speaks, o’er all the meadows glide,
  A fresher green the fragrant shrubs display,
  And every leaf in trembling cheers the day;
  Slaking their raging thirst, the flocks are seen,
  And new-born herbage clothes the earth in green. 
  “This trifling wish befits a little soul,
  Let the great Ganges o’er my meadows roll!”

  Thus Raschid spoke, and thus the God replies,
  Rage, as he spoke, rode sparkling in his eyes:—­
  “Insatiate man, this boundless wish recall
  Ere ruin whelm yourself, your flocks and all;
  See you these sheaves?—­Now mark this dreadful sword,
  Those are the wise man’s—­this the fool’s reward.”

  In vain he spoke; and hark, what meets the ear,
  The raging flood is now approaching near;
  Onward it rolls, o’erwhelming Raschid’s plains,
  All things it sweeps, and not a tree remains,
  His flocks, his herds, the mighty stream o’erpours,
  Himself (rash man) a crocodile devours.

    [1] See Rambler, No. 38.

* * * * *

A FRAGMENT.

  On a fork of lightning which sped through heaven,
    He rode to space’s naught,
  And with the flash of a star which his flight had riven,
    (The which in his hand of light he caught)
    He writ with that flash his burning thought,
  On the roll of darkness space had given.

* * * * *

USEFUL DOMESTIC HINTS.

SHAVINGS.

(For the Mirror.)

Disposed as we are to give the Scotch full credit for superior domestic economy, a practice which we had frequently an opportunity of observing, some five or six years since in Edinburgh, astonished us, we confess, not a little; and which, had we heard of, not beheld, we should rather have been inclined to attribute to our thoughtless Hibernian neighbours.