skeletons of gigantic temples stand in the unwatered sands in all the nakedness of desolation; here, an immense forest shrouded the ruins, hiding them from sight, hightening the impression and moral effect, and giving an intensity and almost wildness to the interest.

7. Here were the remains of a cultivated, polished, and peculiar people, who had passed through all the stages incident to the rise and fall of nations; reached their golden age, and perished, entirely unknown. The links which connected them with the human family were severed and lost, and these were the only memorials of their footsteps upon earth. We lived in the ruined palace of their kings; we went up to their desolate temples and fallen altars; and, wherever we moved, we saw the evidences of their taste, their skill in àrts, their wealth, and power.

8. In the midst of desolation and ruin, we looked back to the past, cleared away the gloomy forest, and fancied every building perfect, with its terraces and pyramids, its sculptured and painted ornaments, grand, lofty, and imposing, and overlooking an immense inhabited plain; we called back into life the strange people who gazed at us in sadness from the walls; pictured them in fanciful costumes and adorned with plumes of feathers, ascending the terraces of the palace, and the steps leading to the temples, and often we imagined a scene of unique and gorgeous beauty and magnificence.

9. In the romance of the world's history, nothing ever impressed me more forcibly than the spectacle of this once great and lovely city, overturned, desolate, and lost; discov ered by accident, overgrown with trees for miles around, and without even a name to distinguish it. Apart from every thing else, it was a mourning witness to the world's mutations.

QUESTIONS.-1. What rule for the rising inflection on war, and the falling inflection on peace, hands, and them, 5th paragraph? 2. What rule for the rising inflection on wealth, 7th paragraph.

EXERCISE XXI.

1. HOR'-O-LOGE (HORO, hour, and LOGE, that which tells or notes,) is from two Greek words signifying, together, that which tells the hour; that is, a sun-dial; a clock; a timepiece.

THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIRS.

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

1. Somewhat back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country-seat.
Across its antique portico

Tall poplar trees their shadows throw;
And from its station in the hall,
An ancient timepiece says to áll,-
(sl.) "Forever-nèver!
Néver-forever!"

2. Half-way up the stairs it stands,

And points and beckons with its hands

From its case of massive oak,

Like a monk, who, under his cloak,

Crosses himself, and sighs, alas!

With sorrowful voice to all who páss,—
(sl.) "Forever-nèver!
Néver-forever!"

3. By day its voice is low and light;
But, in the silent dead of night,
Distinct as a passing footstep's fall,
It echoes along the vacant hall,
Along the ceiling, along the floor,
And seems to say at each chamber-door,-
(sl.) "Forever-nèver!

Néver-forèver !"

4. Through days of sorrow and of mirth,

Through days of death and days of birth,

Through every swift vicissitude

Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood,
And as if, like God, it all things saw,

It calmly repeats those words of awe,-
(sl.) "Forever-nèver!

Néver-forever!"

5. In that mansion used to be

Free-hearted Hospitality;

His great fires up the chimney roared;
The stranger feasted at his board;

But, like the skeleton at the feast,
That warning timepiece never ceased,-
(sl.) "Forever—nèver!

Néver forever!"

6. There groups of merry children played, There youths and maidens dreaming strayed; O precious hours! O golden prìme,

And affluence of love and time!

Even as a miser counts his gold,

Those hours the ancient timepiece told,—
(sl.) "Forever-nèver!

Néver-forever!"

7. From that chamber, clothed in white, (") The bride came forth on her wedding night; There, in that silent room below,

(pl.) The dead lay in his shroud of snow;

And in the hush that followed the prayer,
Was heard the old clock on the stáir,-
(sl.) "Forever-nèver!

Néver-forèver !"

8. All are scattered now and fled,

Some are married, some are dead;

And when I ask, with throbs of pain,
(pl.) “Ah! when shall they all meet again?”
As in the days long since gone by,

The ancient timepiece makes reply',-
"Forever-nèver!

(sl.)

Néver-forever!"

9. Never here, forever there,

Where all parting, pain, and care,
And death, and time shall disappear,-
Forever there, but never here!
The horologe1 of Eternity
Sayeth this incessantly,—

(sl.) "Forever-nèver!
Néver-forèver !"

QUESTIONS.-1. How, according to the notation marks, should the words forever-never be read? See page 40. 2. How should the 4th lines of the 7th and 8th stanzas be read? 3. Why the falling inflection on hours, prime, and time, 6th stanza? See Rule VIII., page 31 4. On what principle are the words here and there emphatic, 9th stanza? See note VII., page 22.

EXERCISE XXII.

FORGIVE AND FORGET.

M. FARQUHAR TUPPER.

1. When streams of unkindness as bitter as gall,
Bubble up from the heart to the tongue,
And Meekness is writhing in torment and thrall,
By the hand of Ingratitude wrung,-

In the heat of injustice, unwept and unfair,
While the anguish is festering yet,

None, none but an angel, or God, can declare,
"I now can forgive and forget."

2. But, if the had spirit is chased from the heart,
And the lips are in penitence steeped,

With the wrong so repented, the wrath will depart,
Though scorn on injustice were heaped;
For the best compensation is paid for all ill,
When the cheek with contrition is wet,
And every one feels it is possible still,
At once to forgive and forget.

3. To forgét? It is hard for a man with a mind,
However his heart may forgive,

To blot out all perils and dangers behind,
And but for the future to live:

Then how shall it be? for at every turn
Recollection the spirit will fret,

And the ashes of injury smoulder and burn.
Though we strive to forgive and forget.

4. O, heàrken! my tongue shall the riddle unseal,
And mind shall be partner with heart,

While thee to thyself I bid conscience reveal,
And show thee how evil thou art.

Remember thy follies, thy sins, and thy crimes,
How vast is that infinite debt!

Yet Mercy hath seven by seventy times
Been swift to forgive and forget!

5. Brood not on insults or injuries old,
For thou art injurious too;

Count not their sum, till the total is told,
For thou art unkind and untrue;

And, if all thy harms are forgotten, forgiven,
Now mercy with justice is met,

O, who would not gladly take lessons of Heaven,
Nor learn to forgive and forget?