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EXERCISE LXVII.

WHEN IS THE TIME TO DIE?

1 I asked a glad and happy child,

AMANDA M. EDMON

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?"

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(") "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.

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!"

4. 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.

"Ta k not to me of death," he cried 9
"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 !"

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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,

"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 amiast 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 nc 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

tive, a due subordination is observed; some transactions are prominent, others retire.

7. But the scale on which he represents them, is increased or diminished, not according to the dignity of the persons concerned in them, but according to the degree in which they elucidate the condition of society and the nature of man. He shows us the court, the camp, and the senate. But he shows us also the nation.

8. He considers no anecdote, no peculiarity of manner, no familiar saying, as too insignificant for his notice, which is not too insignificant to illustrate the operation of laws, of religion, and of education, and to mark the progress of the human mind. Men will not merely be described, but will be made intimately known to us. The changes of manners will be indicated, not merely by a few general phrases, or a few extracts from statistical documents, but by appropriate images presented in every line.

EXERCISE LXIX.

ITALIAN SCENERY.

ALISON.

1. The Italian lakes partake, in some measure, in the general features which have been mentioned as belonging to the valleys on the southern side of the Alps; but they are characterized, also, by some circumstances which are peculiar to themselves. Their banks are almost everywhere formed of steep mountains, which sink at once into the lake without any meadows or level ground on the water side.

2. These mountains are generally of great hight, and of the most rugged forms; but they are clothed to the summit with luxuriant woods, except in those places where the steepness of the precipices precludes the growth of vegetation. The continued appearance of front and precipice which they exhibit, would lead to the belief that the banks of the lake

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are uninhabited, were it not for the multitude of villages, with which they are everywhere interspersed.

3. These villages are so numerous and extensive, that it may be doubted whether the population anywhere in Europe is denser than on the shores of the Italian lakes. No spec tacle in nature can be more beautiful than the aspect of these clusters of human habitations, all built of stone, and whitewashed in the neatest manner, with a simple spire rising in the center of each, to mark the number and devotion of the inhabitants, surrounded by luxuriant forests, and rising one above another to the highest parts of the mountains.

4. Frequently the village is concealed by the intervention of some rising ground, or the hight of the adjoining woods; but the church is always visible, and conveys the liveliest idea of the peace and happiness of the inhabitants. These rural temples are uniformly white, and their spires are of the simplest form; but it is difficult to convey to those who have not seen them, an idea of the exquisite addition which they form to the beauty of the scenery.

5. On a nearer approach, the situation of these villages, so profusely scattered over the mountains which surround the Italian lakes, is often interesting in the extreme. Placed on the summit of projecting rocks, or sheltered in the defile of secluded valleys, they exhibit every variety of aspect that can be imagined; but, wherever situated, they add to the interest, or enhance the picturesque effect of the scene.

6. The woods, by which they are surrounded, and which, from a distance, have the appearance of a continued forest, are, in reality, formed, for the most part, of the walnuts and sweet chestnuts which grow on the gardens that belong to the peasantry, and conceal, beneath their shade, vineyards, corn fields, and orchards. Each cottager has his little domain, which is cultivated by his own family; a single chestnut, and a few mulberry trees, with a small vineyard, constitute often the whole of their humble property.

7. On this little spot, however, they find wherewithal both

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