them, and, in a single word or two, expressed their joy at this perfect reconcilement. The brothers themselves walked away from the church-yard, arm in arm with the minister to the manse. On the following Sabbath, they were seen sitting with their families in the same pew, and it was observed that they read together off the same Bible, when the minister gave out the text, and that they sang together, taking hold of the same psâlm-book. The same psâlm was sung (given out at their own request), of which one verse had been repeated at their father's grave; a larger sum than usual was, on that Sabbath, found in the plate for the poor, for Love and Charity are sisters. And ever after, both during the peace and the troubles of this life, the hearts of the brothers were as one, and in nothing were they divided. LESSON LXXXVI. Lines written in a Highland Glen. -J. WILSON. To whom belongs this valley fair, Silent as infant at the breast Save a still sound that speaks of rest, The heavens appear to love this vale; By that blue arch, this beauteous earth, O! that this lovely vale were mine My years would gently glide; Hope would rejoice in endless dreams, There would unto my soul be given, And thoughts would come of mystic mood, And did I ask to whom belonged She spreads her glories o'er the earth, Yea! long as Nature's humblest child Earth's fairest scenes are all his own, LESSON LXXXVII. The Young Herdsman. WORDSWORTH. FROM early childhood, even, as hath been said, From his sixth year, he had been sent abroad, In summer, to tend herds: such was his task Thenceforward till the latter day of youth. O, then, what soul was his, when, on the tops Of the high mountains, he beheld the sun Rise and bathe the world in light! He looked up Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth, And ocean's liquid mass beneath him lay, In gladness and deep joy. The clouds were touched, Unutterable love. Sound needed none, Thought was not; in enjoyment it expired. A Herdsman, on the lonely mountain tops, And greatness still revolving; - infinite! Seemed infinite; and there his spirit shaped Low thoughts had there no place; yet was his heart Oft as he called those ecstasies to mind, And whence they flowed;-and from them he acquired LESSON LXXXVIII. The Shipwreck.-J. WILSON. HER giant form O'er wrathful surge, through blackening storm, Mid the deep darkness, white as snow! Many ports will exult at the gleam of her mast! -Hush! hush! thou vain dreamer! this hour is her last. Five hundred souls, in one instant of dread, Are hurried o'er the deck; And fast the miserable ship Becomes a lifeless wreck. Her keel hath struck on a hidden rock, Her planks are torn asunder, And down come her masts with a reeling shock, And a hideous crash like thunder. Her sails are draggled in the brine And her pendant, that kissed the fair moonshine, Her beauteous sides, whose rainbow hues And flung a warm and sunny flush To sleep amid colors as bright as their own. And sights of home with sighs disturbed And his wife by turns she wept and smiled As she looked on the father of her child Returned to her heart at last. - He wakes at the vessel's sudden roll, |