ON MAN'S DEPENDANCE ON HIS CREATOR.

Through all the various shifting scenes
Of life's mistaken ill or good,
The hand of God conducts, unseen,
The beautiful vicissitude.

He portions with paternal care,
Howe'er unjustly we complain,
To each his necessary share
Of joy and sorrow, health and pain.

Trust we to youth, or friends, or power,
Fix we our foot on fortune's ball;
When most secure, the coming hour,
If he sees fit, can blast them all.

When lowest sunk with grief or shame,
Gorged with affliction's deepest cup,
Lost to relations, friends, or fame,
His powerful hand can raise thee up.

Before his throne the poor, opprest
With slanderous rage, acquitted stand;
He guides the exile to his rest,
And country, in a foreign land.

His powerful consolations cheer,
His smiles erect the afflicted head;
His hand can wipe away the tear
That secret wets the widow'd bed.

All things on earth, and all in heaven,
On his eternal will depend;
And all for greater good were given,
Would man pursue th' appointed end.

This be my care. To all beside,
Indifferent let my wishes be;
Passions be calm, and dumb be pride,
And fix'd my soul, my God, on thee.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE RURAL MAGAZINE.

My leisure hours are mostly employed in holding a sort of literary chit-chat with some favourite author or editor; but I am never more agreeably entertained than at your Evening Fire-side, by the various topics there introduced and discussed. The Essayist remarks the pride, extravagance, and vices, which at present prevail, and teaches us that these are unworthy of rational beings, and that their opposites, humility, prudence, and virtue, with the exercise of charity and forbearance, can alone ensure us felicity. The Agriculturist descants on the improvement of the soil, the rearing of flocks and herds, and the enviable pleasures of rural occupations. The Mechanic sets forth the superior advantages of some new invention; while the man of science communicates the result of ingenious experiments in the particular branches of knowledge which have engaged his attention. And last, though not less a favourite than the rest, is the Bard, whose title to poetic inspiration is not unfrequently evinced by his giving

——"to airy nothing
"A local habitation and a name."

While thus highly amused and instructed myself, I am unable, being of humble capacity, to contribute in return to the edification of others, unless by occasionally communicating what I may chance to glean in the course of some of my literary peregrinations. As this may not be unacceptable, I send you, as a token of my good will, and desire for the prosperity of your interesting Miscellany, a scrap of American poesy, which, though published a few years since in some of the public journals, it is believed will be new to many of your readers. The writer is a young lady of Virginia, by the name of HENNING, who thus modestly speaks of a production, which, it must be admitted, is alike creditable to herself, her sex and country:—"The subject which I have selected, has already employed the talents of an eminent poet, (Akenside,) and as he has gathered in the rich harvest which it presented to the sickle of his genius, I must, like Ruth of old, be content to collect the scattered ears, not however expecting the same result to my employment as that which attended my fair-famed predecessor."—Your friend,