to recede, and he soon found himself reduced
to the necessity of resting all his hopes for the gratification of his
favorite fancies and prejudices upon the anticipated course through life
of another generation, whose future being happily so distant, promised him
a long period of hope.

THE FRATRICIDE'S DEATH.

A RHAPSODY.

The following effort of a wild and maddened imagination, rioting
in its own unreal world, is by the 'AMERICAN OPIUM-EATER,' whose
remarkable history was given in the KNICKERBOCKER for July, 1842.
The MS. is stained in several places with the powerful drug, to
the abuse of which the writer was so irresistibly addicted. The
subjoined remarks precede the poem: 'This extravaganza is worthy
of preservation only as 'a psychological curiosity,' like
COLERIDGE's 'Kubla Khan,' which was composed under similar
circumstances; if that indeed can be called composition, in which
all the images rose up before the writer as THINGS, with a
parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any
sensation or consciousness of effort. On awaking, he appeared to
have a distinct recollection of the whole: taking his pen, ink and
paper, he instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here
preserved. The state of corporeal sleep but intellectual activity,
during the continuance of which the phenomenon above described
occurred, was caused by a very large dose of opium, and came upon
me while reading the 'Confession of a Fratricide,' published by
the priest who attended him in his last moments. I should warn the
reader that the fratricide, like the author, could not be said to
possess the 'mens sana in corpore sano,' both having been
deranged.'

ED. KNICKERBOCKER.

The universe shook as the monarch passed
On the way to his northern throne;
His robe of snow around him he cast,
He rode on the wings of the roaring blast,
And beneath him dark clouds were blown.

His furrow'd and hoary brow was wreathed
With a crown of diamond frost;
Even space was chill'd wherever he breathed,
And the last faint smiles which summer bequeathed,
Ere she left the world, were lost.

The leaves which wan Autumn's breath had seared
Stern Winter swept away;
Dark and dreary all earth appeared--
The very beams of the bright sun feared
To