drift that is piled over and around its outlet. It turns the obstacle into its own form and character, and as it makes its way, increases its stream. And should it be arrested in its

course by a chilling season, it suffers delay, not loss, and waits only for a change in the wind to awaken again and roll onwards."

12. "When the young eagle, with exulting eye,
Has learned to dare the splendor of the sky,
And leave the Alps beneath him in his course,
To bathe his crest in morn's empyreal source,
Will his free wing, from that majestic height,
Descend to follow some wild meteor's light,
Which far below, with evanescent fire,
Shines to delude, and dazzles to expire?

"No! still through clouds he wins his upward way, And proudly claims his heritage of day!

-And shall the spirit, on whose ardent gaze
The day-spring from on high hath poured its blaze,
Turn from that pure effulgence, to the beam
Of earth-born light, that sheds a treacherous gleam,
Luring the wanderer from the star of faith,
To the deep valley of the shades of death?
What bright exchange, what treasure shall be given,
For the high birth-right of its hope in heaven?
If lost the gem which empires could not buy,
What yet remains ?-a dark eternity!

"Is earth still Eden!--might a seraph guest,
Still, 'midst its chosen bowers delighted rest?
Is all so cloudless and so calm below,
We seek no fairer scenes than life can show?
That the cold sceptic in his pride elate,
Rejects the promise of a brighter state,
And leaves the rock, no tempest shall displace,
To rear his dwelling on the quicksand's base?"

LESSON LIV.

ALLEGORY.

1. "My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. He fenced it, gathered out the stones thereof, planted it with the choicest vines, built a town in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein: he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now to go; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard; I will cut up the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned, nor digged, but there shall come up briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plants."

2. "Did I but purpose to embark with thee

3.

On the smooth surface of a summer's sea,
While gentle zephyrs play in prosperous gales,
And fortune's favor fills the swelling gales;
But would forsake the ship and make the shore
When the winds whistle and the tempests roar ;
No, Henry, no."

“In vain,

Without fair culture's kind parental aid,
Without enlivening suns and genial showers,
And shelter from the blast,-in vain we hope
The tender plant should raise its blooming head,
Or yield the harvest promised in the spring;
Nor yet will every soil with equal stores
Repay the tiller's labor, or attend
His will obsequious, whether to produce
The olive or the laurel."

LESSON LV.

COMPARISON OR SIMILE.

1. "Pleasant are the words of the song, and lovely are the tales of other times. They are like the dew of the morning on the hill of roses, when the sun is faint on its side, and the lake is settled and blue in the vale."

2. "She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm in the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy,

She sat, like patience on a monument,

Smiling at grief."

3. "And hence one master passion in the breast, Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.”

4. "The most accomplished way of using books at present, is to serve them as some do lords--learn their titles, and then brag of their acquaintance."

5. "They heard and were abashed, and up they sprung Upon the wing; as when men wont to watch

On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake."

6. "Life is always like a stream. Whatever character it may assume. Grief murmurs, anger roars, impatience frets; but happiness, like a calm river, flows on in quiet sunlight, without an eddy or a fall to mark the rushing of time towards eternity."

7. "But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is sped;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white-then melts forever;
Or like the borealis' race,

That flit ere you can point their place;

Or like the rainbow's lovely form,
Evanishing amid the storm."

8. "As the stern grandeur of the gothic tower
Awes not so deeply in its morning hour,
As when the shades of time serenely fall
On every broken arch and ivied wall;
The tender images we love to trace
Steal from each year a melancholy grace!
And as the sparks of social love expand;
As the heart opens in a foreign land,

And with a brother's warmth, a brother's smile,
The stranger greets each native of his isle;
So scenes of life when present and confest,
Stamp but their bolder features on the breast;
Yet not an image when remotely viewed,
However trivial and however rude,

But wins the heart and wakes the social sigh,
With every claim of close affinity."

9. "It was a glorious day in autumn. The sky of unsullied blue glowed like a sapphire. The universal air was filled with stillness. Not a breeze whispered-not a bird flapped its wing. It was the triumph of repose-when the undying energies of man slumbered for a moment-when even the conflict of his passions was suspended. Beautiful, melancholy autumn! whose ruddy ripeness whispers of decay; whose richest tints mingle with the "sere and yellow leaf," as if the lusty year had toiled through youth and manhood for wealth which overflows, just when waning life indicates that the power of enjoyment is passing away."

10. "The study of the history of most other nations, fills the mind with sentiments not unlike those which the American traveler feels on entering the venerable and lofty cathedral of some proud old city of Europe. Its solemn grandeur, its vastness, its obscurity, strikes awe to his heart. From the richly painted windows, filled with sacred emblems and strange antique forms, a dim religious light falls around. A thousand recollections of romance and poetry, and legendary story, come thronging in upon him. He is surrounded by the tombs of the mighty dead, rich with the labors of ancient art and emblazoned with the pomp of heraldry.

"What names does he read upon them? Those of princes and nobles who are now remembered only for their vices; and of sovereigns, at whose death no tears were shed, and whose memories live not an hour in the affections of their people."

11. "Her early youth passed away in sorrow: she grew up in tears, a stranger to the amusements of youth and its more delightful schemes and imaginations. She was not however unhappy; she attributed, indeed, no merit to herself for her virtues, but for that reason were they more her reward. The peace which passeth all understanding, disclosed itself in all her looks and movements. It lay on her countenance, like a steady unshadowed moonlight; and her voice, which was naturally at once sweet and subtle, came from her, like the fine flute tones of a masterly performer, which, still floating at some uncertain distance, seem to be created by the player rather than to proceed from the instrument. If you had listened to it in one of those brief sabbaths of the soul, when the activity and discursiveness of the thoughts are suspended, and the mind quietly eddies round, instead of flowing onward-(as at late evening in the spring I have seen a bat wheel in silent circles round and round a fruit-tree in full blossom, in the midst of which, as within a close tent of the purest white, an unseen nightingale was piping its sweetest notes)—in such a mood you might have half-fancied, half-felt, that her voice had a separate being of its own-that it was a living something, whose mode of existence was for the ear only; so deep was her resignation, so entirely had it become the unconscious habit of her nature, and in all she did or said, so perfectly were both her movements and her utterance without effort and without the appearance of effort."

LESSON LVI.

EXAGGERATION OR HYPERBOLE.

1. "A lover may bestride the Gossamer,
That idles in the wanton summer air,
And yet not fall-so light is vanity."