difficult question, and making progress in it, every step accompanied with a sense of power, and every moment conscious of "the high endeavor or the glad success;" for the mind seizes only on that which keeps it employed, and is wound up to a certain pitch of pleasurable excitement by the necessity of its own nature.

EXERCISE LXV.

RAVAGES OF TIME.

1. Why sitt'st thou by that ruined håll, Thou aged carle so stern and grày?

Dost thou its former pride recáll,

Or ponder how it passed away?

WALTER SCOTT.

2. "Knowest thou not mé ?" the Deep Voice cried,
"So long enjoyed, so oft misúsed,
Alternate, in thy fickle príde,

Desired, neglected, and accúsed?

3. "Before my breath, like blazing fiax,
Man and his marvels pass away;
And changing empires wane and wáx,
Are founded, floúrish, and decày.

4. "Redeem mine hours-the space is brief,While in my glass the sand-grains shiver, And measureless thy joy or grief,

When Time and thou shall part forever!"

QUESTIONS.-1. What rules for the inflections as marked in the first and second stanzas? 2. Why the rising inflection on flourish, third stanza? See Rule VIL, page 31.

1.

2.

EXERCISE LXVI.

PASSING AWAY.

MISS JEWSBUI

I asked the stars in the pomp of night,
Gilding its blackness with crowns of light,
Bright with beauty, and girt with power,
Whether eternity were not their dower;
And dirge-like music stole from their spheres,
Bearing this message to mortal ears :-

We have no light that hath not been given;
We have no strength but shall soon be riven;
We have no power wherein man may trust;
Like him are we things of time and dust;
And the legend we blazon with beam and ray,
And the
song of our silence, is-'PASSING AWay.'

3. "We shall fade in our beauty, the fair and bright,
Like lamps that have served for a festal night;
We shall fall from our sphères, the old and strong,
Like rose-leaves swept by the breeze along;
Though worshiped as gods in the olden day,
We shall be like a vain dream—' Passing away.”

4.

From the stars of heaven, and the flowers of earth,
From the pageant of power, and the voice of my th,
From the mists of morn on the mountain's brow
From childhood's song, and affection's vow,—
From all, save that o'er which soul bears sway,
Breathes but one record-" PASSING AWAY."

5. "Passing away," sing the breeze and rill, As they sweep in their course by vale and hill; Through the varying scenes of each earthly clime "Tis the lesson of nature, the voice of time; And man at last, like his fathers gray, Writes in his own dust-" PASSING AWAY."

1.

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EXERCISE LXVII.

WHEN IS THE TIME TO DIE?

I asked a glad and happy child,

AMANDA M. EDMOND.

Whose hands were filled with flowers,
Whose silvery laugh rang free and wild

Among the vine-wreathed bowers.
I cross'd her sunny path, and cried,

"When is the time to die?"

"Not yet! not yet!" the child replied,
And swiftly bounded by.

2. I asked a maiden, back she flung
The tresses of her hair;

3.

4.

A whisper'd name was on her tongue,
Whose memory hover'd there.
A flush pass'd o'er her lily brow,
I caught her spirit's sigh;

"Not now," she cried, "O no, not now!
Youth is no time to die."

I asked a mother, as she pressed
Her first-born in her arms,
As gently, on her tender breast,

She hush'd her babe's alarms.
In quiv'ring tones her answer came,
Her eyes were dim with tears,
"My boy his mother's life must claim,
For many, many years!"

I questioned one in manhood's prime,
Of proud and fearless air,

His brow was furrow'd not by time,

Or dimmed by woe and care.

In angry accents he replied,—
And gleam'd with scorn his eye,

5.

"Talk not to me of death," he cried;
"For only age should die."

I questioned Age; for him, the tomb
Had long been all prepared,

But death, who withers youth and bloom,
This man of years had spared.
Once more his nature's dying fire

Flash'd high, as thus he cried, (f) "Life, only life is my desire !"

(>)

6.

Then gasped, and groaned, and died.

I asked a Christian," Answer thou
When is the hour of death?"
A holy calm was on his brow,
And peaceful was his breath;
And sweetly o'er his features stole
A smile, a light divine;

He spake the language of his soul,—

66

My Master's time is mine!"

QUESTIONS.-1. On what principle are me and age emphatic, 4th stanza? See Note VII., page 22. 2. What kind of emphasis on life, 5th verse?

EXERCISE LXVIII.

HISTORICAL READING.

MACAULAY.

1. The effect of historial reading is analogous, in many respects, to that produced by foreign travel. The student, like the tourist, is transported into a new state of society. He sees new fashions. He hears new modes of expression. His mind is enlarged by contemplating the wide diversities of laws, of morals, and of manners. But men may travel far, and return with minds as contracted, as if they had never stirred from their own market-town.

2. In the same manner, men may know the dates of many battles, and the genealogies of many royal houses, and yet be no wiser. Most people look at past times as princes look at foreign countries. More than one illustrious stranger has landed on our island amidst the shouts of a mob, has dined with the king, has hunted with the master of the stag-hounds, has seen the Guards reviewed, and a knight of the garter installed; has cantered along Regent street; has visited St. Paul's, and noted down its dimensions, and has then departed, thinking that he has seen England.

3. He has, in fact, seen a few public buildings, public men, and public ceremonies. But of the vast and complex system of society, of the fine shades of national character, of the practical operation of government and laws, he knows nothing. He who would understand these things rightly, must not confine his observations to palaces and solemn days.

4. He must see ordinary men as they appear in their ordinary business, and in their ordinary pleasures. He must mingle in the crowds of the exchange and the coffee-house. He must obtain admittance to the convivial table and the domestic hearth. He must bear with vulgar expressions. He must not shrink from exploring even the retreats of misery.

5. He who wishes to understand the condition of mankind in former ages, must proceed on the same principle. If he attends only to public transactions, to wars, congresses, and debates, his studies will be as unprofitable as the travels of those imperial, royal, and serene sovereigns, who form their judgment of our island from having gone in state to a few fine sights, and from having held formal conferences with a few great officers.

6. The perfect historian is he, in whose work the character and spirit of an age are exhibited in miniature. He relates no. fact, he attributes no expression to his characters, which is not authenticated by sufficient testimony. But, by judicious selection, rejection, and arrangement, he gives to truth those attractions which have been usurped by fiction. In his narra