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nature, be reserved for high and eminent occasions; yet that system is essentially defective which leaves no room for their production. They are important, both from their immediate advantage and their remoter influence. They often save, and always illustrate, the age and nation in which they appear. They raise the standard of morals; they arrest the progress of degeneracy; they diffuse a lustre over the path of life. Monuments of the greatness of the human soul, they present to the world the august image of Virtue in her sublimest form, from which streams of light and glory issue to remote times and ages; while their commemoration, by the pen of historians and poets, awakens in distant bosoms the sparks of kindred excellence.

LESSON XXXV.

Uses of Poetry.-U. S. L. GAZEtte.

SCIENCE arranges, with the aid of demonstrative reason, what things the senses discover, and makes herself acquainted with the various existences in the visible universe, and learns how they are connected together; and here her work ends, and must end. It is then that Poetry calls upon the imagination to tell whence that sun gets his floods of light to bathe the world in beauty, and whence that warmth comes to awaken the universal life around us, and what hand sowed the burning stars in the abyss, and rolled around them countless earths;—and it is for her that the tempest lets loose the wind, and heaves up the ocean with instructive sublimity; and the sunlight touches the green hills and gilds the evening clouds with beauty that has a voice; the busy insects and breathing flowerets, the singing brooks, and the sweet music of the summer wind upon its living harps, all, all speak to her, with utterance most distinct, with lessons most momentous. Poetry is not fiction,

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nor foreign from the realities of life, nor barren of strong motives and high hopes. Most true it is, that she is but the record of the imagination; but it is no less true, that the imagination helps strongly to produce, and to support, all those truths which dignify our sensual existence. Man was made to begin his being upon earth, and to bend for a while to its labors, and to bear its sorrows, and help his brethren to toil and to endure; and, therefore, his sensual nature and faculties-to take cognizance of existing things, and to reason about them-were given to him. But, even while on earth, he was to look beyond it: time was to be connected with eternity, that it might be well spent; and imagination was given him to bear away his thoughts from scenes where the shadows of sin and death are resting, to a world where there is no darkness.

LESSON XXXVI.

The Teaching of Jesus.-BowRING.

How sweetly flowed the gospel's sound,
From lips of gentleness and grace,
When listening thousands gathered round,
And joy and reverence filled the place!

From heaven he came of heaven he spoke—
To heaven he led his followers' way;
Dark clouds of gloomy night he broke,
Unveiling an immortal day.

Come, wanderers, to my Father's home;
"Come, all ye weary ones, and rest!”
Yes, sacred Teacher, we will come—
Obey thee, love thee, and be blest!

Decay, then, tenements of dust!
Pillars of earthly pride, decay!
A nobler mansion waits the just,
And Jesus has prepared the way.

LESSON XXXVII.

Centennial Hymn.-PIERPONT.

[Sung in the Old South Meeting-house, Boston, on the Centennial Birthday of WASHINGTON.]

To Thee, beneath whose eye

Each circling century

Obedient rolls,

Our nation, in its prime,
Looked with a faith sublime,

And trusted, in "the time
That tried men's souls".

When, from this gate of heaven,*
People and priest were driven
By fire and sword,

And where thy saints had prayed,
The harnessed war-horse neighed,
And horsemen's trumpets brayed
In harsh accord.

Nor was our fathers' trust,

Thou Mighty One and Just,

Then put to shame :

*The Old South church was taken possession of by the British, while they held Boston, and converted into barracks for the cavalry, the pews being cut up for fuel, or used in constructing stalls for the horses.

"Up to the hills" for light
Looked they in peril's night,

And, from yon guardian height,*
Deliverance came.

There, like an angel form,
Sent down to still a storm,

Stood WASHINGTON !

Clouds broke and rolled away;

Foes fled in pale dismay;

Wreathed were his brows with bay,

When war was done.

God of our sires and sons,
Let other Washingtons

Our country bless;

And, like the brave and wise

Of by-gone centuries,

Show that true greatness lies
In righteousness.

LESSON XXXVIII.

Frost.-MISS HANNAH F. GOULD.

THE Frost looked forth, one still, clear night,
And he said, "Now I shall be out of sight;
So through the valley and over the height,
In silence I'll take my way;

I will not go on like that blustering train,
The wind and the snow, the hail and the rain,
Who make so much bustle and noise in vain—
But I'll be as busy as they!"

* From his position on "Dorchester Heights," that overlook the town, General Washington succeeded in compelling the British forces to evacuate Boston.

Then he went to the mountain, and powdered its crest ;
He climbed up the trees, and their boughs he dressed
With diamonds and pearls; and over the breast
Of the quivering lake he spread

A coat of mail, that it need not fear
The downward point of many a spear,
That he hung on its margin, far and near,
Where a rock could rear its head.

He went to the windows of those who slept,
And over each pane like a fairy crept.
Wherever he breathed, wherever he stepped,
By the light of the moon, were seen

Most beautiful things. There were flowers and trees,
There were bevies of birds, and swarms of bees,
There were cities, thrones, temples and towers, and these
All pictured in silver sheen!

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But he did one thing that was hardly fair:
He went to the cupboard, and finding there
That all had forgotten for him to prepare,
Now, just to set them a thinking,
I will bite this basket of fruit," said he ;
"This bloated pitcher I will burst in three;
And the glass of water they've left for me

Shall tchick,' to tell them I'm drinking!"

LESSON XXXIX.

Funeral in a new Colony.-MRS. SIGOURNEY.

AROUND the forest-skirted plain

A few rude cabins spread,
And from their doors a humble train

Came forth with drooping head.

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