Lake Leman wooes me with its crystal face, The mirror, where the stars and mountains view The stillness of their aspect in each trace Its clear depth yields of their far height and hue. There is too much of man here, to look through, With a fit mind, the might which I behold; But soon in me shall loneliness renew Thoughts hid, but not less cherished than of old, E'er mingling with the herd had penned me in their fold. Clear, plăcid Leman! thy contrasted lake With the wide world I've dwelt in is a thing Torn ocean's roar; but thy soft murmuring That I with stern delights should e'er have been so moved. It is the hush of night; and all between Thy margin and the mountains, dusk, yet clear, Save darkened Jura, whose capped heights appear There breathes a living fragrance from the shore, His life an infancy, and sings his fill; Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven, Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state, And claim a kindred with you; for ye are A beauty and a mystery, and create In us such love and reverence from afar, That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star. All heaven and earth are still,-though not in sleep, Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, Of That which is of all Creator and Defence. The sky is changed! and such a change! Oh Night, Of a dark eye in woman! Far along, From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, And this is in the night:-Most glorious night! Sky, mountains, river, winds, lake, lightnings! ye, Things that have made me watchful:-the far roll Of what in me is sleepless, if I rest. But where, of ye, O tempests! is the goal? Are ye like those within the human breast? Or do ye find, at length, like eagles, some high nest? The morn is up again, the dewy morn, With breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom, Laughing the clouds away, with playful scorn, And living as if earth contained no tomb,And glowing into day: we may resume The march of our existence and thus I, Still on thy shores, fair Leman! may find room And food for meditation, nor pass by Much that may give us pause, if pondered fittingly. LESSON CLXXXIV. The fat Actor and the Rustic.-NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE Of an unbounded stomach, Shakspeare says, He would have owned that Wolsey's bulk ideal Which is, moreover, all alive and real. This player, when the peace enabled shoals To visit every clime between the poles, Must not, in this proceeding, be mistaken; In this most laudable employ He found himself at Lille one afternoon, And catch a peep at the ascending moon, With sight of streams, and trees, and snowy fleeces, When we are pleasantly employed time flies:- Until the moon began to shine; On which he gazed a while, and then Pulled out his watch, and cried-" Păst nine! He couldn't gallop, trot, or canter, (Those who had seen him would confess it) he Eyeing his watch, and now his forehead mopping, "Tell me," he pǎnted in a thawing state, 'Dost think I can get in, friend, at the gate ?" LESSON CLXXXV. Speech of Catiline before the Roman Senate, in reply to the charges of Cicero.-CROLY'S Catiline. CONSCRIPT Fathers! I do not rise to waste the night in words; my answer: Wrongs me not half so much as he who shuts *Immediately. The gates of honor on me,-turning out The Roman from his birthright; and for what?— To fling your offices to every slave; (-Looking round him.) And having wound their loathsome track to the top Come, consecrated lictors! from your thrones; (To the Senate.) Fling down your sceptres :-take the rod and axe, LESSON CLXXXVI. The Battle Hymn of the Berlin Landsturm.*-KÖENER FATHER of earth and heaven! I call thy name! One deeper prayer, 'twas that no cloud might lower God! thou art merciful.-The wintry storm, The cloud that pours the thunder from its womb, The lightnings, glancing through the midnight gloom, As splendors of the autumnal evening star, God! thou art mighty!-At thy footstool bound, Nor in the million worlds that blaze beneath, Is one that can withstand thy wrath's hot breath. The Landsturm (German) is the military force of the country as diatinguished from the regular standing army:-the whole mass of the undisciplined militia, called out in some sudden exigency of the state. |