MISCELLANEOUS.

THE SHELI..>
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AN HISTORICAL APOLOGuEs

 "The world was made for man." said he.

 1T will tell you an apologue," answered the teachers

 1. In a beautiful bay of the celebrated island Atlantis, large shell of the delicate white, and tho most rounded form, the relicstroM some previous world, lay on the smooth and elastic sand. 1t was left for long period undisturbed and unaltered ; sometimes kissed by the extreme bubbles of the pillows, and often trembling so me- lodiously in the wind as to have furnished to tho early gods tho first hint of musical in- strNment, and to have been the first proto- type of the sounding conches which acc companied with their deep notes the feasts on Olympus and tho Indian triumphs of Bacchus.

 9 The moist dust gradually accumulated within it, and the germ of a sea-weed fell upon the soil, and grew until fair and Aourishing plant, with long dark leaves, overhung tho white edge of tho thin and moonlike vase. For many years tho ocean herb retained it's quiet existence, imbibed the night dew of the heavens, rejoiced in the fresh breezes from the seN and lived in tranquil safety through every change of shower and sunshine. At length a storm arose which rolled the waters on the shore. The shell was overwhelmed, tho plant washed out of it, and the light vessel swept | into the cleft of the rocks.

 8. Alter some days of calm and warmth, | bird dropped into 1t a seed d,which sprout- cd, and became an orange-tree. Its leaves were SO thick and green, that they would have supplied graceful chaplet for a wood nymph, ,and she might have delighted to place in her bosom tho pearly and fra. grant blossoms which hung amid the tuft of verdure. The seasons with their va- riety, and the starry influences of gentle nights, nurtured the shrub, and tho pure flowers were changed into gorgeous fruits, which gleamed through tho foliage like the glimpses of "a gilded statue in some desert- cd temple through the ropes and coronals of creepcrs which have overgrown it. The orange.tree had gladdened many spring. times with its sweetness and it's splendor, when it faded and died and the birds of the air piped lamentation over the shrub, amid the living beauty of which they had so often nestled.

 (. In after years. when nothing remain- cd of the orange bat slight and dreamy odour around the shell, and the last light grains of the dust wherein it grew had been borne away by the eddying breezes, a butterfly. as red and glittering us the planet Mars, came on its crimson wings to the dim and spiral cell. It fiuttered round the ivory entrance, poised itself upon it for moment, & waved it's silken sails. Then, after darting and circling, like winged mote of the sunbeam, through the deep woods and over the sea, it returned tO per- ish. While it sank into its quiet and beau- tifGl retreat, it seemed 10th to leave world which to it had been fairy domain but the necessity of its nature was upon it, and it closed the gay leaflets which had sus- tained its flight, and resigned itself to death.

 5. It was followed by troop of bees, which took possession of the shell, and, after their daily excursions over meadow and bloomy bank, returned to its smooth and unduated chambers with the materials of their combs, and with large stores of luxurious honey. The tiny echoes of their abode resounded with the constant hum of labor and happiness, and it was soon as .brimming us wine cup at nuptiaI feast, with the rich and perfumed treasures of the insects, arranged and sealed in the ex net compartments which filled the interior of their slvery palace. But bird attack cd and destroyed their commonwealth. and again tho shell was loft empty.

 6. A humming-bird, all emerald, ruby, and sapphire, then discovered the lonely nook, and folded there It's jewelled wings. It soon found a mate, aud together they lived a nowery life. Flo who had seen