The oil-well's little blaze
Gleams red and grand against the mountain's dark:
Yon star, seen through illimitable haze,
Is dwindled to a spark.

Far greater to my eye
The swimming lights of yonder fishing-boat
Than worlds that burn in night's immensity--
So huge, but so remote.

Ah, I have loved a star
That beckoned sweetly from its distant throne,
Forgetting nearer orbs that fairer are,
And shine for me alone.

Better the small and near
Than the grand distant with its mocking beams--
Better the lovelight in thine eyes, my dear,
Than all ambition's dreams.

CHARLES QUIET.

THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF 1878 IN VENEZUELA.

On Friday evening, the 12th of April, 1878, we were collected, as usual,
in our drawing-room in Caracas, and were in the act of welcoming an old
friend who had just returned from Europe, when there came suddenly a
crash, a reverberation--a something as utterly impossible to convey the
impression of as to describe the movement which followed, or rather
accompanied, it, so confused, strange and unnatural was the entire
sensation. It was like the rush of many waters, the explosion of
cannon--like anything the imagination can conceive; and at the same time
the earth appeared to leap beneath our feet, then swayed to and fro with
an oscillating motion: the panes of glass rattled in the windows, the
beams of the flooring above creaked ominously; lamps, chandeliers and
girandoles vibrated and trembled like animated creatures. The great
bells of the cathedral suddenly rang out a spontaneous peal of alarm
with a sonorous, awe-inspiring clang, while the clock in the tower
struck the ill-timed hour with a solemn, unearthly reverberation.

This was but the work of a few seconds: a few more and Caracas would
have been a heap of ruins, as in the earthquake of 1812. But even in
these short moments we had time, horror-stricken and pallid with terror
as we were, to cry out, "An earthquake! an earthquake!"--to seize upon
our European friend, who did not seem to realize the danger, to drag him
from the chair which he was just about to take, I pushing him before me,
while my sister pulled him by the arm down the long drawing-room into
the corridor which surrounds the central court, while still the earth
rocked beneath our feet and everything around us trembled with the
vibration.

By this time the city was