sonable man, stay in town.

TO AN EVENING CLOUD.

BY A YOUNG LADY.

Thou beautiful cloud, a glorious hue is thine!
I cannot think, as thy bright dyes appear
To my enraptured gaze, that thou wert born
Of Evening's exhalations: more sublime,
Light-giver! is thy birth-place, than of earth.
Wert thou not formed to herald in the day,
And clothe a world in thy unborrowed light?
Or art thou but a harbinger of rains
To budding May?--or in thy subtle screen
Nursest the lightnings that affright the world?
Or wert thou born of th' thin aerial mist
That shades the sea, or shrouds the mountain's brow?
Whate'er thou art, I gaze on thee with joy.

Spread thy wings o'er the empyrean, and away
Fleetly athwart the untravelled wilds of space,
To where the Sun-light sheds his earliest beams,
And blaze the stars, that vision vainly scans
In distant regions of the universe!
Tell me, Air-wanderer! in what burning zone
Thou wilt appear, when from the azure vault
Of our high heaven thy majesty shall fade;
Tell me, winged Vapor! where hath been thy home
Through the unchangeable serene of noon?
Whate'er thy garniture, where'er thy course,
Would I could follow thee in thy far flight,
When the south wind of eve is low and soft,
And my thought rises to the mighty source
Of all sublimity! O fleeting cloud,
Would I were with thee in the solemn night!

B.

LITERARY NOTICES.

HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO, with a Preliminary View of the
Ancient Mexican Civilization, and the Life of the Conqueror,
HERNANDO CORTES. By WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT. In three volumes. New-York:
HARPER AND BROTHERS.

We have awaited the appearance of these very elegant volumes with deep and
anxious interest. The ability, industry and taste which the author
displayed in his 'History of Ferdinand and Isabella,' which won for him a
noble reputation in the most cultivated states of Europe, still more
endeared his name to his own countrymen, and led them to look, with the
highest hope and the most pleasant anticipations, to the future efforts of
his elegant and fascinating pen. We have for some time known that he was
assiduously engaged in collecting materials, and preparing from them a
history of the famous Conquest of Mexico; an event which, although of a
very splendid and romantic character, was still but vaguely known, e