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An eloquent divine of our country, and an earnest but judicious lover of wit, too, once described to us somehow thus, the effect produced on the appearance of a beloved portion of his congregation by this gothic light: --

"The lady of one of the families of my congregation was beautiful in her natural state.

"'Her hair was like the links of gowd,
Her teeth were like the ivory,
Her cheek, were lilies dipped in wine.'

"But as I looked on her from the pulpit of my new church, she had become gothicized. Her whole countenance appeared, as if she was suffering from a severe attack of jaundice; her dear boy, next to her in the pew, seemed frightfully sick from scarlet fever; and her loving husband, at the head of the pew, had the appearance of being most gloriously blue; and all this from the 'dim religious light.'"

And, by the way, what did that old poet mean by those words? We have, sometimes, suspected that "dim religious light," meant the dim light of religion, or the light of a dim religion. Such a metathesis would be perfectly proper in the times to which he alludes. But for our part, we go for light. Darkness is the abode of Error. In Spencer's solemn words --

"Light she hateth as the deadly bale,
Aye wont in desert darkness to remain,
Where none might plain her see, nor she see any plain."

Especially do we hold it to be in perfect taste to fill with a blaze of material light, that place in which the everlasting Gospel shines.

Graham's Magazine. -- The February number is already on our 'Table.' It is now, as it always has been, the dulce decus et praesidium of America genius: for it has been an honor for an author to communicate with his readers through such a medium, and the vastness of its circulation ensures to such authors a substantial remuneration.

We have space at present for only gratefully acknowledging the following;

Our Country, a richly filled and beautifully printed weekly.

The Lantern, giving excellent light.

Dickens' Household Words.

Missionary Herald, of which we have use for more than one copy.