guilt! There society would have alleviated the torment of despair, and the rage of fire could not have excluded the comfort of light. Or, if I had been condemned to reside in a comet, that would return but once in a thousand years to the regions of light and life, the hope of these periods, however distant, would cheer me in the dread interval of cold and darkness, and the vicissitudes would divide eternity into time.' 12. "While this thought passed over my mind, I lost sight of the remotest star, and the last glimmering of light was quenched in utter darkness. The agonies of despair every moment increased, as every moment augmented my distance from the last habitable world. I reflected with intolerable anguish, that, when ten thousand thousand years had carried me beyond the reach of all but that Power who fills infinitude, I should still look forward into an immense abyss of darkness, through which I should still drive without succor and without society, farther and farther still, forever and forever. 13. "I then stretched out my hands toward the regions of existence, with an emotion that awakened me. Thus have I been taught to estimate society, like every other blessing, by its loss. My heart is warmed to liberality; and I am zealous to communicate the happiness which I feel to those, from whom it is derived; for the society of one wretch, whom, in the pride of prosperity, I would have spurned from my door, would, in the dreadful solitude to which I was condemned, have been more highly prized than the gold of Africa, or the gems of Golconda." 14. At this reflection upon his dream, Carazan became suddenly silent, and looked upward in ecstasy of gratitude and devotion. The multitude were struck at, once with the precept and example; and the caliph, to whom the event was related, that he might be liberal beyond the power of gold, commanded it to be recorded for the benefit of posterity. EXERCISE CXII. GEHAZI'S PUNISHMENT. BIBLE, (2 KINGS, CHAP. V.) 1. Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was, also, a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. 2. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress: Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying: Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. 3. And the king of Syria said: Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying: Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold I have therewith sent Naaman, my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. 4. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said: Am I God, to kill, and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. 5. And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard, that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying: Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. 6. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying: Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. 7. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said: Be hold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. 8. And his servants came near and spake unto him, and said: My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 9. And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him; and he said: Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; now, therefore, I pray thee take a blessing of thy servant. But he said: As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused. 10. And Naaman said: Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that, when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon; when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him: Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way. 11. But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said: Behold, my master hath spared Naaman, this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after Naaman. 12. And, when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from his chariot to meet him, and said: Is all well? And he said: All is well. My master hath sent me, saying: Behold, even now, there be come to me from Mount Ephraim, two young men of the sons of the prophets; give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of 'garments. 13. And Naaman said: Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him. And, when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master. 14. And Elisha said unto him: Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said: Thy servant went no whither. And he said unto him: Went not my heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive-yards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and men-servants and maidservants? The leprosy, therefore, of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed forever. And he went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow. EXERCISE CXIII. THANATOPSIS.* WILLIAM C. BRYANT. 1. To him who in the love of Nature holds * 'THAN AT OP' SIS (from THANAT, death, and orsis, a view), or a view of death. 2. 3. 4. Into his darker musings, with a mild And healing sympathy, that steals away When thoughts Of the last bitter hour come, like a blight, Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, To Nature's teachings, while from all around- In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again, And, lost each human trace, surrendering up Thine individual being, shalt thou go To mix forever with the elements,— To be a brother to the insensible rock, And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold. Yet not to thine eternal resting-place Shalt thou retire alone-nor couldst thou wish Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down With patriarchs of the infant world—with kings, The powerful of the earth—the wise, the good, Fair forms, and hoary seers, of ages past, |