a chaos of stones, an endless avalanche' of rocks-rocks of somber gray, streaked with flame-color and white opaquethe petrified3 waves of a granite flood: not one drop of wa ter in the deep interstices of this bed, calcined by the burning sun of Syria; not a blade of grass, a stalk, or creeping plant, either in the torrent or in the cracked and abrupt declivities on each side of the abyss. 4. It was an ocean of stones, a cataract of rocks, to which the diversity of their forms, the variety of their positions, tho singularity of their appearances, the play of light and shade on their sides and surfaces, seemed to impart motion and fluidity. 5. We followed this valley of lamentations for two hours, with no other variation in the scene than that arising from the circuitous route which the torrent itself took among the mountains, or by the manner, more or less striking, with which the rocks were grouped in their foaming stony bed. 6. This valley will never be effaced from my imagination. This country must have been the primitive land, the land of tragic poesy and human lamentations; the pathetic and lofty strain of prophecies is felt here in its wild, pathetic, and lofty nature. All the images of Biblical poetry are engraved in imposing characters on the furrowed surface of Lebanon and its gilded summits, its valleys, through which the streams peacefully flow-valleys mute and lifeless. 7. The divine spirit, the superhuman inspiration, which has passed over the souls and the harps of the poetic nation, to whom God spake by symbols and images, thus struck more forcibly the eyes of bards devoted to God from their infancy, and nourished them with a sustenance more invigorating than that on which we feed; we, the wasted and aged heirs of the harp of antiquity, who have only before our eyes nature, mild, beautiful, and cultivated-nature civilized but wither ed, as we are ourselves, EXERCISE XX. 1 AM-PHI-THE-A-TER, (from AMPHI, about, and THEATER, a place for seeing,) was an edifice enclosing a space entirely encompassed by rows of seats rising one behind the other. It was oval in shape, and designed for the exhibition of public shows of gladiators and wild beasts. 2. Co-LOS'-SAL, (from Colossus, an enormous ancient statue at Rhodes,} denotes any thing of enormous or vast dimensions. 3. PE'-TRA, (literally, a rock or stone,) a celebrated ancient city in the north of Arabia. Its ruins still exist. RUINS OF COPAN AND PALENQUE. JOHN L. STEPHENS. 1. We returned to the base of the pyramidal structure, and ascended by regular stone steps, in some places forced apart by bushes and saplings, and in others thrown down by the growth of large trees, while some remained entire. In parts they were ornamented with sculptured figures and rows of death's heads. Climbing over the ruined top, we reached a terrace overgrown with trees, and, crossing it, descended by stone steps into an area so covered with trees, that at first we could not make out its form, but which, on clearing the way with the machete, we ascertained to be a square, and with steps on all the sides almost as perfect as those of the Roman amphitheater. 2. The steps were ornamented with sculpture, and on the south side, about half way up, forced out of its place by roots, was a collossal' head, evidently a portrait. We ascended these steps, and reached a broad terrace a hundred feet high, overlooking the river, and supported by the wall which we had seen from the opposite bank. The whole terrace was covered with trees, and, even at this hight from the ground, were two gigantic Ceibas, or wild cotton trees of India, above twenty feet in circumference, extending their half-naked roots fifty or a hundred feet around, binding down the ruins, and shading them with their wide-spreading branches. 3. We sat down on the very edge of the wall, and strove in vain to penetrate the mystery by which we were surrounded. Who were the people that built this city? In the ruined cities of Egypt, even in the long-lost Petra', the stranger knows the story of the people whose vestiges are around him. America, say historians, was peopled by savages; but savages never reared these structures, savages never carved these stones. We asked the Indians who made them, and their dull answer was, "Quien sabe ?"-" Who knows?" 4. There were no associations connected with the place; none of those stirring recollections which hallow Rome, Athens, and "The world's great mistress on the Egyptian plain ;" but architecture, sculpture, and painting, all the arts which embellish life, had flourished in this overgrown forest; orators, warriors, and statesmen, beauty, ambition, and glory, had lived and passed away, and none knew that such things had been, or could tell of their past existence. Books, the records of knowledge, are silent on this theme. 5. The city was desolate. It lay before us like a shattered bark in the midst of the ocean, her masts gone, her name ef faced, her crew perished, and none to tell whence she came, to whom she belonged, how long on her voyage, or what caused her destruction; her lost people to be traced only by some fancied resemblance in the construction of the vessel, and, perhaps, never to be known at all. The place where we sat, was it a citadel from which an unknown people had sounded the trumpet of war? or a temple for the worship of the God of peace? or did the inhabitants worship the idols made with their own hands, and offer sacrifices on the stones before thèm? 6. All was mystery, dark, impenetrable mystery-and every circumstance increased it. In Egypt, the colossal 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 inpressed 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. 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 Tall poplar trees their shadows throw; 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,- 3. By day its voice is low and light; And seems to say at each chamber-door,- Néver-forever!" 4. Through days of sorrow and of mirth, Through days of death and days of birth, |