Imatges de pàgina
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LESSON V.-RAIN UPON THE ROOF.

[The following beautiful lines require great tenderness and delicacy of expression in the reading, to be in harmony with the tender and subdued feeling which the scene represented is so well calculated to produce.]

1. WHEN the humid storm-clouds gather
Over all the starry spheres',
And the melancholy darkness
Gently weeps in rainy tears',
'Tis a joy to press the pillow
Of a cottage-chamber bed',
And to listen to the patter

Of the soft rain over head.

2. Every tinkle on the shingles'
Has an echo in the heart',
And a thousand lively fancies'
Into busy being start';

And a thousand recollections

Weave their bright hues into woof,

As I listen to the patter

Of the rain upon the roof.

3. There, in fancy, comes my mother,
As she used to, years agone,
To survey the infant sleepers,

Ere she left them till the dawn.
I can see her bending o'er me,
As I listen to the strain
Which is played upon the shingles
By the patter of the rain.

4. Then my little seraph sister',

With her wings and waving hair',
And her bright-eyed cherub brother',
A serene, angelic pair',

Glide around my wakeful pillow,
With their praise or mild reproof',
As I listen to the murmur

Of the soft rain on the roof.

5. There is naught in art's bravuras1

That can work with such a spell,
In the spirit's pure, deep fountains,
Whence the holy passions swell,
As that melody of nature',

That subdued, subduing strain',
Which is played upon the shingles'
By the patter of the rain'.

Anonymous.

1 BRÄ-VO-RA, a spirited, brilliant song or air, for the display of execution.

LESSON VI.-GOOD ADVICE.

1. A CERTAIN khan of Tartary, traveling with his nobles, was met by a dervis, who cried, with a loud voice, "Whoever will give me a hundred pieces of gold, I will give him a piece of advice." The khan ordered the sum to be given to him, upon which the dervis said, "Begin nothing of which thou hast not well considered the end." The courtiers, hearing this plain sentence, smiled, and said, with a sneer, "The dervis is well paid for his maxim." But the khan was so well pleased with the answer, that he ordered it to be written in golden letters in several parts of his palace, and engraved on all his plate.

2. Not long after, the khan's surgeon was bribed to kill him with a poisoned lancet, at the time he bled him. One day, when the khan's arm was bound, and the fatal lancet in the hand of the surgeon, the latter read on the basin, "Begin nothing of which thou hast not well considered the end." He immediately started, and let the lancet fall out of his hand. The khan, observing his confusion, inquired the reason; the surgeon fell prostrate, confessed the whole affair, and was pardoned; but the conspirators were put to death. The khan, turning to his courtiers, who had heard the advice with disdain, told them that the counsel could not be too highly valued which had saved a khan's life.

LESSON VII.-TRUE KNOWLEDGE.

What is true knowledge'? Is it with keen eye
Of lucre's sons to thread the mazy way'?
Is it of civic rights, and royal sway,
And wealth political, the depths to try?
Is it to delve the earth, or soar the sky';

To mix, and analyze, and mete, and weigh
Her elements, and all her powers descry'?
These things', who will may know' them, if to know
Breed not vain-glory': but o'er all to scan
God, in his works and word shown forth below-
Creation's wonders, and Redemption's plan,
Whence came we, what to do, and whither go-

This is true' knowledge, and the "whole of man."
BISHOP MANT.

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1.

LESSON I.-THE STUDY OF BOTANY.

Lo! when the buds expand, the leaves are green,
Then the first opening of the flower is seen;
Then come the humid breath and rosy smile,
That with their sweets the willing sense beguile;

But as we look, and love, and taste, and praise,

And the fruit grows, the charming flower decays;
Till all is gathered, and the wintry blast

Mourns o'er the place of love and pleasure past.-CRABBL

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2. The changes described by the poet are indeed full of interest and beauty, from the time when "the buds expand," and "the leaves are green," till the once bright foliage falls brown and withered before "the wintry blast.' There are few, perhaps, who are totally insensible to these changes in their general manifestations; but few, too few, have their minds awakened to the succession of beautiful and varied forms which year by year adorn our fields and woods-nay, even our hedges and ditches; too few of those who have ample opportunity and leisure know, even by sight, much less by name, our commonest wild flowers; and yet there is not one of these, from the humblest weed that grows, that will not yield abundant scope for study-that does not exhibit perfection and beauty of structure that tell of its Divine Creator.

3. Nothing, perhaps, astonishes an individual more, when commencing the search for and study of our uncultivated plants, than to find, even in the most commonplace walk, what an immense variety of different kinds-species, as they are called botanically-he has, day by day, trodden under foot, without an idea of their existence. Interest succeeds astonishment; he finds a new source of pleasure opened to him, and one which gives not only pure and healthy thoughts to the mind, but health to the body, by affording inducements to exercise, and adding to the latter that excitement which gives it a tenfold value.

4. Few pursuits in which the mind can engage are purer, or have more tendency to afford innocent and happy thoughts, than the study of flowers generally; and though it may be some advantage to possess gardens and conservatories1 well stocked with the gorgeous natives of other climates, the mere contemplation of these can never bring half the pleasurable excitement which the search after the wild plants of our own country affords to the zealous collector and student. The former are the privileges of the rich, the latter are open to the poorest in the land

"A blessing given

E'en to the poorest little one

That wanders 'neath the vault of heaven."

1 CON-SERV ́-A-TO-EY, a green-house for exotic (foreign) plants.

LESSON II.-CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS.

"The Almighty Maker has, throughout,
Discriminated each from each, by strokes
And touches of his hand, with so much art
Diversified, that two were never found
Twins at all points."

1. CLASSIFICATION in botany is the process by which plants are distributed into divisions, classes, genera or families, species, and varieties. Dictionaries are so arranged that a person can easily find any word in the language; and in a manner somewhat similar he can find a description of any known plant in a botanical dictionary or flora. The number of dif ferent kinds or species of plants is about one hundred thousand, and it is a very important matter to arrange them in the most convenient manner for reference.

2. It will occur to the reader that plants should be classified by their resemblances; and it may seem to be an easy task thus to arrange them; but those who have attempted it have

encountered many difficulties. Plants that at first sight appear very much alike will often be found to differ widely; and those which seem unlike will have many things that agree.

3. A humming-bird, flitting from flower to flower, seems to resemble the butterfly of variegated wing; but the naturalist considers the humming-bird more like an elephant than a butterfly. He will call the bird and elephant vertebrate animals, and will show a striking resemblance between the skeleton of the tiny wing of the one and the huge leg of the other. 4. As a scientific arrangement of plants requires an intimate acquaintance with the form, structure, and properties of a hundred thousand species, we can well understand why a correct classification was impossible in the infancy of the science. Some early writers attempted to arrange plants according to the alphabetical order of their names; others took for their guide the structure of their roots; another class only regarded the form of the leaves; while others considered the time of flowering, the place of growth, or medicinal properties. Two hundred years ago the poet Cowley published an arrangement of plants founded on their size and appearance. Herbs, flowers, and trees were his divisions; which Hugh Miller has said was like Buffon's division of animals into wild and tame.

5. Many methods of classification have been proposed within the last two centuries, but they have gradually given place to the artificial system of Linnæus, and the natural method of Jussieu. The former divided the vegetable world into twenty-four CLASSES, by characteristics depending on the number, position, length, or union of the stamens; and these classes he then subdivided into ORDERS, founded mostly on peculiarities of the pistils. A synopsis of the twenty-one classes in which American botanists have arranged plants on the Linnæan method, is here given.* As the "Natural Method," however, is the one now most approved by botanists, we have adopted that arrangement in our treatment of the subject.

6. The naming and classifying of plants was the delightful task of Eve in Paradise, according to Milton, who represents her as saying,

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SYNOPSIS OF THE ARTIFICIAL OR LINNEAN SYSTEM.

As the 11th, 18th, and 23d classes of Linnæus comprise but few genera found in the United States, and those variable in their characters, most American botanists have distributed them among the other classes, an arrangement which we have adopted in this synopsis, and in our references to the Linnæan system. See next page.

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