the plain of Nimroud; as far as the eye could reach, it was studded with the white pavilions of the Hytas and the black tents of the Arabs. Picketed around them were innumerable horses in gay trappings, struggling to release themselves from the bonds which restrained them from ranging over the green pastures.

2. Flowers of every hue enameled the meadows; not thinly scattered over the grass, as in northern climes, but in such thick and gathering clusters, that the whole plain seemed a patchwork of many colors. The dogs, as they returned from hunting, issued from the long grass dyed red, yellow, or blue, according to the flowers through which they had last forced their way.

3. When I returned in the evening, after the labor of the day, I often sat at the door of my tent, and, giving myself up to the full enjoyment of that calm and repose which are im parted to the senses by such scenes as these, I gazed listlessly on the varied groups before me. As the sun went down behind the low hills which separate the river from the desert-even their rocky sides had struggled to emulate the verdant clothing of the plain-its receding rays were gradually with drawn, like a transparent vail of light, from the landscape.

4. Over the pure, cloudless sky was the glow of the last light. The great mound threw its dark shadow far across the plain. In the distance, and beyond the Zab, another venerable ruin rose indistinctly into the evening mist. Still more distant, and still more indistinct, was a solitary hill overlooking the ancient city of Arbela.* The Kurdish mountains, whose snowy summits cherished the dying sunbeams, yet struggled with the twilight.

*

5. It was one of those calm and pleasant evenings which, in spring, make a paradise of the desert. The breeze, bland and perfumed by the odor of the flowers, came calmly over

* A small place in Eastern Assyria, renowned for a decisive battle fought in its neighborhood, by Alexander the Great, against Darius, the king of Persia.

the plain. Countless camels and sheep wandered to the tents, and the melancholy call of the herdsmen rose above the bleating of the flocks. Girls hurried over the green sward to seek their fathers' cattle, or crouched down to milk those which had returned alone to their well-remembered folds.

6. Some were coming from the river, bearing the replen ished pitcher on their heads or shoulders; others, no less graceful in their form, and erect in their carriage, were carrying the heavy load of long grass, which they had cut in the meadows. Sometimes a party of horsemen might have been seen in the distance crossing the plain, the tufts of ostrich feathers which topped their long spears, showing darkly against the evening sky. They would ride up to my tent, and give me the usual salutations: "Peace be with you, O Bey," or "Allah Aienak,-God help you !"

EXERCISE CIV.

LA FAYETTE.

CHARLES SPRAGUE.

1. While we bring our offerings to the mighty of our own land, shall we not remember the chivalrous spirits of other shores, who shared with them the hour of weakness and woe? Pile to the clouds the majestic column of glory; let the lips of those who can speak well hallow each spot, where the bones of your bold repose; but forget not those who with your bold, went out to battle.

2. Among these men of noble daring, there was ɔNE, a young and gallant stranger, who left the blushing vine-hills of his delightful France. The people whom he came to succor were not his people; he knew them only in the melancholy story of their wrorgs. He was no mercenary adventurer, striving for the spoil of the vanquished; the palace acknowledged him for its lord, and the valley yielded him its

increase. He was no nameless man, staking life for repu tation; he ranked among nobles, and looked unawed upon kings.

3. He was no friendless outcast, seeking for a grave to hide a broken heart; he was girdled by the companions of his childhood; his kinsmen were about him; his wife was before him. Yet from all these loved ones he turned away. Like a lofty tree that shakes down its green glories, to battle with the winter's storm, he flung aside the trappings of place and pride to crusade for Freedom, in Freedom's holy land. He càme; but not in the day of successful rebéllion; not when the new-risen sun of independence had burst the cloud of time, and careered to its place in the heavens.

4. He came when darkness curtained the hills, and the tempest was abroad in its anger; when the plow stood still in the field of promise, and briers cumbered the garden of beauty; when fathers were dying, and mothers were weeping over them; when the wife was binding up the gashed bosom of her husband, and the maiden was wiping the deathdamp from the brow of her lover. He came when the brave began to fear the power of man, and the pious to doubt the favor of God. It was then that this ONE joined the ranks of a revolted people.

5. Freedom's little phalanx bade him a grateful welcome. With them he courted the battle's rage; with theirs, his arm was lifted; with theirs, his blood was shed. Long and doubt ful was the conflict. At length, kind Heaven smiled on the good cause, and the beaten invaders fled. The profane were driven from the temple of Liberty, and at her pure shrine the pilgrim warrior, with his adored Coinmander, knelt and worshiped. Leaving there his offering, the incense of an ancorrupted spirit, he, at length, rose, and crowned, with benedictions, turned his happy feet toward his long-deserted home.

6. After nearly fifty years, that ONE has come again. Can mortal tongue tell, can mortal heart feel the sublimity of that

coming? Exulting millions rejoice in it; (ƒ.) and their loud, long, transporting shout, like the mingling of many winds, rolls on, undying, to freedom's farthest mountains. A con gregated nation comes around him. Old men bless him, and children reverence him. The lovely come out to look upon him; the learned deck their halls to greet him; the rulers of the land rise up to do him homage.

7. How his full heart labors! He views the rusting tro phies of departed days; he treads the high places where his brethren molder; he bends before the tomb of his FATHER ;* his words are tears, the speech of sad remembrance. But he looks round upon a ransomed land and a joyous race; he beholds the blessings those trophies secured, for which those brethren died, for which that FATHER lived; and again his words are tears, the eloquence of gratitude and joy.

8. Spread forth creation like a map; bid earth's dead multitude revive; and of all the pageant splendors that ever glit tered to the sun, when looked his burning eye on a sight like this? Of all the myriads that have come and gone, what cherished minion ever ruled an hour like this? Many have struck the redeeming blow for their own freedom; but who, like this man, has bared his bosom in the cause of strangers? Others have lived in the love of their own people; but who, Like this man, has drank his sweetest cup of welcome with another? Matchless Chief! of glory's immortal tablets, there is one for him, for him alone! Oblivion shall never shroud its splendor; the everlasting flame of liberty shall guard it, that the generations of men may repeat the name recorded there, the beloved name of LA FAYETTE.

QUESTIONS.-1. On what principle are own and other, emphatic, first paragraph? See Note VII., page 22. Why the rising inflection on rebellion and heaven, thi'd paragraph? See Note L, page 29.

* Washington.

EXERCISE CV.

BINGEN ON THE RHINE.

MRS. NORTON.

I.

A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,

There was lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of woman's tears;
But a comrade stood beside him, while his life-blood ebbed away,
And bent, with pitying glances, to hear what he might say
The dying soldier faltered, as he took that comrade's hand,
And he said: "I never more shall see my own, my native land;
Take a message, and a token, to some distant friends of mine,
For I was born at Bingen,-at Bingen on the Rhine.

II.

"Tell my brothers and companions, when they meet and crowd around,
To hear my mournful story, in the pleasant vineyard ground,
That we fought the battle bravely,—and when the day was done,
Full many a corse lay ghastly pale, beneath the setting sun.
And midst the dead and dying, were some grown old in wars,—
The death-wound on their gallant breasts, the last of many scars;
But some were young,-and suddenly beheld life's morn decline,—
And one had come from Bingen,-fair Bingen on the Rhine!

III.

"Tell my mother that her other sons shall comfort her old age, And I was aye a truant bird, that thought his home a cage: For my father was a soldier, and, even as a child,

My heart leaped forth to hear him tell of struggles fierce and wild; And when he died, and left us to divide his scanty hoard,

I let them take whate'er they would-but kept my father's sword; And with boyish love I hung it where the bright light used to shine, On the cottage-wall at Bingen,-calm Bingen on the Rhine!

IV.

"Tell my sister not to weep for me, and sob with drooping head,
When the troops are marching home again, with glad and gallant tread
But to look upon them proudly, with a calm and steadfast eye,
For her brother was a soldier, too, and not afraid to die.
And, if a comrade seek her love, I ask her in my name

To listen to him kindly, without regret or shame;

And to hang the old sword in its place, (my father's sword and mine,) For the honor of old Bingen,-dear Bingen on the Rhine!