LESSON CXXII.

THAT SILENT MOON.

1. That silent moon, that silent moon,
Careering now through cloudless sky,
O, who shall tell what varied scenes

Have passed beneath her placid eye,
Since first, to light this wayward earth,
She walked in tranquil beauty forth!

2. How oft has guilt's unhallowed hand,
And superstition's senseless rite,
And loud, licentious revelry

Profaned her pure and holy light:
Small sympathy is hers, I ween,
With sights like these, that virgin queen!

3. But dear to her, in summer eve,

By rippling wave, or tufted grove,
When hand in hand is purely clasped,
And heart meets heart in holy love,
To smile in quiet loneliness,

And hear each whispered vow, and bless.

4. Dispersed along the world's wide way,

When friends are far, and fond ones rove,
How powerful she to wake the thought,

And start the tear for those we love,
Who watch with us at night's pale noon,
And gaze upon that silent moon.

5. How powerful, too, to hearts that mourn,
The magic of that moonlight sky,

To bring again the vanished scenes,

6. And oft she looks, that silent moon, On lonely eyes that wake to weep

In dungeon dark, or sacred cell,

Or couch, whence pain has banished sleep:

O, softly beams her gentle eye

On those who mourn, and those who die!

7. But beam on whomsoe'er she will,

And fall where'er her splendors may,
There's pureness in her chastened light,
There's comfort in her tranquil ray :
What power is hers to soothe the heart ! —
What power the trembling tear to start!

8. The dewy morn let others love,

Or bask them in the noontide ray,
There's not an hour but has its charm,

From dawning light to dying day, –
But, O, be mine a fairer boon, —

That silent moon, that silent moon!

G. W. Doane.

LESSON CXXIII.

THE PRESS AND THE SWORD.

1. When Tamerlane had finished building his pyramid of seventy thousand human skulls, and was seen standing at the gate of Damascus, glittering in his steel, with his battleax on his shoulder, till his fierce hosts filed out to new victories and carnage, the pale looker-on might have fancied that Nature was in her death-throes; for havoc and despair had taken possession of the earth, and the sun of manhood seemed setting in a sea of blood.

2. Yet it might be on that very gala-day of Tamerlane that a little boy, whose history was more important than that of twenty Tamerlanes, was playing nine-pins in the streets of Mentz. The Khan, with his shaggy demons of the wilderness, "passed away like a whirlwind," to be forgotten forever; and that German artisan has wrought a benefit which is yet

*See Note on page 214.

immeasurably expanding itself, and will continue to expand itself, through all countries and all times.

*

3. What are the conquests and the expeditions of the whole corporation of captains, from Walter the Penniless to Napoleon Bonaparte, compared with those movable types of Faust? Truly it is a mortifying thing for your conqueror to reflect how perishable is the metal with which he hammers with such violence; how the kind earth will soon shroud up his bloody foot-prints; and all that he achieved and skillfully piled together will be but like his own canvas city of a camp, - this evening, loud with life, to-morrow all struck and vanished, "a few pits and heaps of straw."

4. For here, as always, it continues true, that the deepest force is the stillest; that, as in the fable, the mild shining of the sun shall silently accomplish what the fierce blustering of the tempest in vain essayed. Above all, it is ever to be kept in mind, that not by material but by moral power are men and their actions to be governed. How noiseless is thought! No rolling of drums, no tramp of squadrons, no tumult of innumerable baggage-wagons, attend its movements.

5. In what obscure and sequestered places may the head be meditating, which is one day to be crowned with more than imperial authority! For kings and emperors will be among its ministering servants; it will rule not over but in all heads, and with these solitary combinations of ideas, and with magic formulas, bend the world to its will. The time may come when Napoleon himself will be better known for his laws than his battles, and the victory of Waterloo may prove less momentous than the opening of the first Mechanics' Institute.

Carlyle.

*Walter the Penniless, a noted leader in the first Crusade, or expedition against the Turks, commenced in 1096. His army was destroyed before reaching the Holy Land.

↑ Faust, Johann, a rich citizen of Mayence, or Mentz, who was the chief promoter of the invention of printing. He died in 1460.

LESSON CXXIV.

USE THE PEN.

1. Use the pen! there 's magic in it, Never let it lag behind;

Write thy thought, the pen can win it

From the chaos of the mind.

Many a gem is lost forever

By the careless passer-by,

But the gems of thought should never
On the mental pathway lie.

2. Use the pen ! reck not that others
Take a higher flight than thine;
Many an ocean cave still smothers
Pearls of price beneath the brine:
But the diver finds the treasure,

And the gem to light is brought;
Thus thy mind's unbounded measure
May give up some pearl of thought.

3. Use the pen! the day's departed

When the sword alone held sway,
Wielded by the lion-hearted,

Strong in battle. Where are they?
All unknown the deeds of glory
Done of old by mighty men,
Save the few who live in story,
Chronicled by sages' pen.

4. Use the pen! but let it never

Slander write, with death-black ink;