day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. The beasts of the field honor him, and all creatures that he hath made glorify him. But man must study the book open before him; and the more he studies it, the more audible to him will be the general voice to his spiritual ear, and he will clearly perceive, that every created thing glorifies God in its place, by fulfilling his will, and the great purpose of his providence; but that he himself alone can give a tongue to every creature, and pronounce for all a general doxology. EXERCISE XCVI. THE MODERN NAVIGATOR. EDWARD EVERETT, 1. You behold a majestic vessel, bounding over the billows, from the other side of the globe; easily fashioned to float, in safety, over the boundless sea; to spread out her broad wings, and catch the midnight breeze, guided by a single drowsy sailor at the helm, with two or three companions reclining listlessly on the deck, gazing into the depths of the starry heavens. The commander of this vessel, not surpassing thousands of his brethren in intelligence and skill, knows how, by pointing his glass at the heavens, and taking an observation of the stars, and turning over the leaves of his "Practical Navigator," and making a few figures on his slate, to tell the spot which his vessel has reached on the trackless sea; and he can, also, tell by means of a steel spring and a few brass wheels, put together in the shape of a chronometer. 2. The glass, with which he brings the heavens down to the earth, and by which he measures the twenty-one thousand six hundredth part of their circuit, is made of a quantity of flint, sand, and alkali,-coarse opaque substances, which he has melted together into the beautiful medium which excludes the air and the rain, and admits the light; by means of which he can count the orders of animated nature in a dew-drop, and measure the depth of the valleys in the moon. He has, running up and down his main-mast, an iron chain, fabricated at home, by a wonderful succession of mechanical contrivances, out of a rock brought from the deep caverns of the earth, and which has the power of conducting the lightning harmlessly down the sides of the vessel into the deep. 3. He does not creep timidly along, from headland to headland, nor guide his course across a narrow sea by the north star; but he launches bravely on the pathless and bottomless deep, and carries about with him, in a box, a faithful little pilot, who watches when the eye of man droops with fatigue, a small and patient steersman, whom darkness does not blind, nor the storm drive from his post, and who points from the other side of the globe-through the convex earth— to the steady pole. 4. If he falls in with a pirate, he does not wait to repel him hand to hand; but he puts into a mighty engine a handful of dark powder, into which he has condensed an immense quantity of elastic air, and which, when touched by a spark of fire, will instantly expand into its original volume, and drive an artificial thunderbolt before it against the distant enemy. 5. When he meets another similar vessel on the sea, homeward-bound from a like excursion to his own, he makes a few black marks on a piece of paper, and sends it home, a distance of ten thousand miles, and thereby speaks to his employer, to his family, and his friends, as distinctly and signifi cantly, as if they were seated by his side. 6. At the cost of half the labor, with which the savage procures himself the skin of a wild beast to cover his nakedness, this child of civilized life has provided himself with the most substantial, curious, and convenient clothing,―textures and tissues of wool, cotton, linen, and silk,-the contributions of the four quarters of the globe, and of every kingdom of nature. 7. To fill a vacant hour, or dispel a gathering cloud from his spirits, he has curious instruments of music, which speak another language of new and strange significance to his heart, which makes his veins thrill and his eyes overflow with tears, without the utterance of a word, and, with one sweet succession of harmonious sounds, sends his heart back, over the waste of waters, to the distant home, where his wife and his children are gathered around the fireside, trembling at the thought, that the storm which beats upon the windows may, perhaps, overtake their beloved voyager on the distant seas. 8. And in his cabin he has a library of volumes,—the strange production of a machine of almost magical powers,which, as he turns over their leaves, enable him to converse with the great and good of every clime and age, and which even repeat to him, in audible notes, the laws of his God and the promises of his Savior, and point out to him that happy land which he hopes to reach when his flag is struck, and his sails are furled, and the voyage of life is over.~ MRS. HEMANS. EXERCISE XCVII. XIMENA AND ELMINA. Ximena. For me, my part is done! Elmina. My child! what dream Is on thy soul? Even now thine aspect wears Ximena. Death's! Elmina. Awày! Thine eye hath starry clearness, and thy cheek Doth glow beneath it with a richer hue Ximena. It well may be! There are far deeper and far warmer hues Than those which draw their coloring from the founts Of youth, or health, or hope. Why should not He, whose touch dissolves our chain, Put on His robes of beauty, when He comes For whose sweet waters we have pined with thirst, Elmina. Can I bear on with life When thou art gone? Thy voice, thy step, thy smile, Passed from my path! Alas, even now thine eye Is changed-thy cheek is fading! Ximena. Aye, the clouds Of the dim hour are gathering o'er my sight. Oh, weep thou not, save with a gentle sorrow! I Elmina. Must it be? Art thou, indeed, to leave me? Ximena (exultingly). Be thou glad! say, rejoice above thy favored child! Joy, for the soldier when his field is fought, Joy, for the peasant when his vintage task Is closed at eve! But, most of all, for her [She dies. DIRGE. (p.) Calm on the bosom of thy God, E'en while with ours thy footsteps trod, His seal was on thy brow. Dust, to its narrow house beneath! Soul, to its place on high! They that have seen thy look in death, QUESTIONS.-1. Why the rising inflection on child, secord stanza! See Note I., page 30. 2. Why the falling inflection on away, fourth stanza! See Rule VIII., page 31. |