I think-Is the nightingale singing there yet? Are the roses still bright by the calm Bendemeér? 3. Nò; the roses soon withered that hung o'er the wave, 4. Thus memory draws from delight, ere it dies, An essence that breathes of it many a year; Thus bright to my soul, as 'twas then to my eyes, Is that bower on the banks of the calm Bendemeer! QUESTIONS.-1. What rule for the inflections, as marked in the 2d and 3d stanzas? 2. How many accented syllables are there in each line? 3. How many uuaccented syllables! EXERCISE XXXIII. ARACHNE AND MELISSA; OR, THE ART OF HAPPINESS. HARRIS. 1. Almost every object that attracts our notice, has its bright and its dark side. He who habituates himself to look at the displeasing side, will sour his disposition, and consequently impair his happiness; while he who constantly beholds it on the bright side, insensibly meliorates his tem per, and in consequence of it improves his own happiness, and the happiness of all about him. 2. Arachne and Melissa are two friends. They are both of them women in years, and alike in birth, fortune, educátion, and accomplishments. They were originally alike in temper too; but, by different management, are grown the reverse of each other. Arachne has accustomed herself to look only on the dark side of every object. If a new poem makes its appearance with a thousand brilliancies, and but one or two blemishes, she slightly skims over the passages that should give her pleasure, and dwells upon those only that fill her with dislike. If you show her a very excellent portrait, she looks at some part of the drapery, which has been neglected, or to a hand or finger which has been left unfinished. 3. Her garden is a very beautiful one, and kept with great neatness and elegancy; but if you take a walk with her in it, she talks to you of nothing but blights and storms,--of snails and caterpillars, and how impossible it is to keep it from the litter of falling leaves. If you sit down in one of her temples, to enjoy a delightful prospect, she observes to you that there is too much woód, or too little water; that the day is too súnny, or too gloomy; that it is súltry, or windy, and finishes with a long harangue upon the wretchedness of our climate. When you return with her to the company, in hope of a little cheerful conversation, she casts a gloom over all, by giving you the history of her own bad health, or of some melancholy accident that has befallen one of her daughter's children. Thus she insensibly sinks her own spirits, and the spirits of all around her, and at last discovers, she knows not why, that her friends are grave. 4. Melissa is the reverse of all this. By constantly habituating herself to look only on the bright side of objects, she preserves a perpetual cheerfulness in herself, which, by a kind of beppy contagion, she communicates to all about her. If any misfortune has befallen her, she considers it might have been worse, and is thankful to Providence for an escape. She rejoices in solitude, as it gives her an opportunity of knowing herself; and in society, because she can communicate the happiness she enjoys. 5. She opposes every man's virtues to his failings, and can find out something to cherish and applaud in the very worst of her acquaintances. She opens every book with a desire to be entertained or instructed, and, therefore, seldom fails of securing her object. Walk with her, though it be on a heath or a common, and she will discover numberless beauties, un observed before, in the hills, the dales, the brooms, brakes, and the variegated flowers of weeds and poppies. 6. She enjoys every change of weather and of season, as bringing with it something of health or convenience. In conversation, it is a rule with her never to start a subject that leads to anything gloomy or disagreeable. You, therefore, never hear her repeating her own grievances, or those of her neighbors, or, what is worst of all, their faults and imperfections. If anything of the latter kind be mentioned in her hearing, she has the address to turn it into entertainment, by changing tne most odious railing into a pleasant raillery. Thus Melissa, like the bee, gathers honey from every weed; while Arachne, like the spider, sucks poison from the fairest flowers. The consequence is, that of two tempers once very nearly allied, the one is ever sour and dissatisfied, the other, always gay and cheerful; the one sprea is a universal gloom, the other, a continual sunshine. 7. There is nothing more worthy of our attention, than this art of happiness. In conversation, as well as life, happiness very often depends upon the slightest incidents. The taking notice of the badness of the weather, a north-east wind, the approach of winter, or any trifling circumstance of the disa greeable kind, will insensibly rob a whole company of its good humor, and fling every member of it into the vapors. If, therefore, we would be happy in ourselves, and are desirous of communicating that happiness to all about us, these trifling matters of conversation ought carefully to be attend. ed to. 8. The brightness of the sky, the lengthening of the day the increasing verdure of the spring, the arrival of any little piece of good news, or whatever carries with it the most distant glimpse of joy, will frequently be the parent of a social and happy conversation. Good manners exact from us this regard to our company. The clown may repine at the sun shine that ripens the harvest, because his turnips are burnt up by it; but the man of refinement will extract pleasure from the thunder-storm to which he is exposed, by remarking on the plenty and refreshment which may be expected from the succeeding shower. 9. Thus does politeness, as well as good sense, direct us to look at every object on the bright side, and, by thus acting, we cherish and improve both. By this practice it is, that Melissa has become the wisest and best of women living, and by this practice, may every person arrive at that agreeable. ness of temper, of which the natural and never-failing fruit is happiness. QUESTIONS.-1. On what principle are the words bright and dark, emphatic, 1st paragraph? Note VII., page 22. 2. On what principie are the inflections marked in the 3d paragraph? Rule IV., page 3. What rule for the inflections as marked in the 2d paragraph} Rule VII., page 31. 29. EXERCISE XXXIV. 1. THE WILDERNESS OF JUDEA was the wild and inhospitable region lying eastward of Jerusalem, in the direction of the river Jordan and the Dead Sea. 2. VIR'-GIL, whose full name was Publius Virgilius Maro, was a celebrated Latin poet, born about seventy years before Christ. His most famous work is an epic poem, called the Æneid, from the hero Eneas, whose wanderings and final settlement in Italy, after the fall of ancient Troy, it commemorates. 3 ATH-ENS, the celebrated capital of Attica, in ancient Greece, was founded, according to the common account, by Cecrops, B. C. 1550. 4. THE Æ'-GE -AN is that part of the Mediterranean Sea situated between Greece and Asia Minor. It is now called the Archipelago. 5. EUS'-TACE, or EUS-TA'-THI-US, a learned critic, who wrote com mentaries upon the works of Homer and other ancient writers He was born at Constantinople, and flourished in the twelfth century. His commentary upon Homer is said to be an inexhaustible mine of ancient erudition. NATURE TO THE EYE OF A CHRISTIAN. ALISON. 1. Whatever leads our minds habitually to the Author of the Universe; whatever mingles the voice of nature with the revelation of the gospel; whatever teaches us to see, in all the changes of the world, the varied goodness of Him, in whom "we live, and move, and have our being," brings us nearer to the spirit of the Savior of mankind. But, it is not only as encouraging a sincere devotion, that these reflections are favorable to Christianity: there is something, moreover, peculiarly allied to its spirit in such observations of external nature. 2. When our Savior prepared himself for his temptation, his agony, and death, he retired to the wilderness of Judea1 to inhale, we may venture to believe, a holier spirit amidst its solitary scenes, and to approach to a nearer communion with his Father, amidst the sublimest of his works. It is with similar feelings, and to worship the same Father, that the Christian is permitted to enter the temple of nature; and, by the spirit of his religion, there is a language infused into the objects which she presents, unknown to the worshiper of former times. 3. To all, indeed, the same objects appear-the same sun shines the same heavens are open; but to the Christian alone it is permitted to know the Author of these things; to see His spirit move in the breeze and blossom in the spring," and to read, in the changes which occur in the mate rial world, the varied expression of eternal love. It is from the influence of Christianity, accordingly, that the key has been given to the signs of nature. It was only when the Spirit of God moved on the face of the deep, that order and beauty were seen in the world. 4. It is, accordingly, peculiarly well worthy of observation, that the beauty of nature, as felt in modern times, seems to have been almost unknown to the writers of antiquity. They described occasionally the scenes in which they dwelt; but, |