Hush, wild surmise!-'tis vain -'tis vain! O'er some old bones that rot below: No other record can we trace Of fame or fortune, rank or race. Then what is life, when thus we see A moral lesson gloweth here; Putt'st thou in aught of earth thy trust? 'Tis doomed that dust shall mix with dust. What doth it matter, then, if thus, Without a stone, without a name, To impotently herald us, We float not on the breath of fame, But, like the dewdrop from the flower, Pass, after glittering for an hour, Since soul decays not? Freed from earth, And earthly coils, it bursts away : Receiving a celestial birth, And spurning off its bonds of clay, It soars, and seeks another sphere, And blooms through Heaven's eternal year, Do good; shun evil; live not thou Nor Error's siren voice allow To draw thy steps from truth aside; Look to thy journey's end-the grave! And trust in Him whose arm can save. LESSON XIV. EXERCISES IN ARTICULATION. 0:- move, prove, do, who, two, ooze, lose, brute, fruit; — loser, mover, proving, moving; - improve, behove, canoe, imbrue. Thanatopsis.* W. C. BRYANT. To him who, in the love of Nature, holds Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, To Nature's teachings, while, from all around- In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim * View of Death. Thine individual being, shalt thou go And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain Shalt thou retire alone; nor couldst thou wish That make the meadows green; and, poured round all, Old ocean's gray and melancholy waste, Are but the solemn decorations all Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun, So shalt thou rest; and what if thou shalt fall Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch LESSON XV. EXERCISES IN ARTICULATION. si-oil, boil, soil, broil, choice, voice, noise, boy, joy, toy alloy, employ, embroil, appoint. Autumn. N. E. MAGAZINE. UPON a leaf-strewn walk, I wander on amid the sparkling dews; Where Autumn hangs, upon each frost-gemmed stalk Her gold and purple hues; Where the tall fox-gloves shake Their loose bells to the wind, and each sweet flower Bows down its perfumed blossoms, to partake The influence of the hour; Where the cloud shadows pass With noiseless speed by lonely lake and rill, Where the clear stream steals on To find each downward-gazing flower has gone, I number it in days, Since last I roamed through this secluded dell, – Where flowers and wild-birds dwell. While, gemmed with pearl-drops bright, "And blessed them, unaware." How changed each sylvan scene! Where is the warbling bird? the sun's clear ray? That canopied my way? Where is the balmy breeze That fanned so late my brow? the sweet south-west, That, whispering music to the listening trees, My raptured spirit blessed? |