Crosses himself, and sighs, alas!
With sorrowful voice to all who pass,
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

3. By day its voice is low and light;
But in the silent dead of night,
Distinct as a passing footstep's fall,
It echoes along the vacant hall,
Along the ceiling, along the floor,
And seems to say, at each chamber-door,
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

4. Through days of sorrow and of mirth,
Through days of death and days of birth,
Through every swift vicissitude

Of changeful time, unchanged it stood,
And as if, like God, it all things saw,
It calmly repeats those words of awe:-
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

5. In that mansion used to be

Free-hearted hospitality;

His great fires up the chimney roar'd,
The stranger feasted at his board;
But, like the skeleton at the feast,
That warning time-piece never ceased :-

6. There groups of merry children play'd;
There youths and maidens, dreaming, stray'd;
Oh, precious hours! Oh, golden prime,
And affluence of love and time!

Even as a miser counts his gold,

Those hours the ancient time-piece told :

"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

7. From that chamber, clothed in white,

The bride came forth on her wedding night;
There, in that silent room below,

The dead lay in its shroud of snow;
And in the hush that follow'd the prayer
Was heard the old clock on the stair:-
:-

"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

8. All are scatter'd now and fled:
Some are married; some are dead;
And when I ask, with throbs of pain,
"Ah! when shall they all meet again,
As in the days long since gone by?"
The ancient time-piece makes reply,-
"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

9. Never here, forever there,

Where all parting, pain, and care,
And death, and time, shall disappear!
Forever there, but never here!

The horologe of eternity

Sayeth this incessantly:

"Forever-never!

Never-forever!"

LESSON CXXVII.

ADDISON'S HYMNS.

W. M. THACKERAY.

1. WHEN Addison looks from the world whose weaknesses he describes so benevolently, up to the heaven which shines over us all, I can hardly fancy a human face lighted up with a more serene rapture: a human intellect thrilling with a purer love and adoration than Joseph Addison's.

2. It seems to me his verses shine like the stars. They

shine out of a great deep calm. When he turns to heaven, a Sabbath comes over that man's mind; and his face lights up from it with a glory of thanks and prayer. His sense of religion stirs through his whole being.

3. In the fields, in the town; looking at the birds in the trees; at the children in the streets; in the morning or in the moonlight; over his books in his own room; in a happy party at a country merry-making or a town assembly, goodwill and peace to God's creatures, and love and awe of Him who made them, fill his pure heart and shine from his kind face.

4. If Swift's life was the most wretched, I think Addison's was one of the most enviable. A life prosperous and beautiful- —a calm death—an immense fame and affection afterwards for his happy and spotless name.

LESSON CXXVIII.

INDEPENDENCE BELL, July 4, 1776.

1. THERE was a tumult in the city,
In the quaint old Quaker town,
And the streets were rife with people
Pacing restless up and down-

People gathering at the corners,
Where they whispered each to each,
And the sweat stood on their temples
With the earnestness of speech.

2. As the bleak Atlantic currents

Lash the wild Newfoundland shore,
So they beat against the State House,
So they surged against the door;
And the mingling of their voices
Made a harmony profound,
Till the quiet street of Chestnut
Was all turbulent with sound.

3. "Will they do it?"

"Who is speaking?"

"Dare they do it?"

"What's the news?"

66 What of Adams?" What of Sherman ?" "Oh, God grant they won't refuse!"

"Let me nearer !"

"Make some way there!"
"I'm stifling!" "Stifle, then!
When a nation's life's at hazard,

We've no time to think of men!"

4. So they surged against the State House,
While all solemnly inside

Sat the "Continental Congress,"
Truth and reason for their guide.
O'er a simple scroll debating,
Which, though simple it might be,
Yet should shake the cliffs of England
With the thunders of the free.

5. Far aloft in that high steeple
Sat the bellman, old and gray;
He was weary of the tyrant
And his iron-sceptered sway.
So he sat with one hand ready
On the clapper of the bell,

When his eye could catch the signal,
The long-expected news, to tell.

6. See! See! The dense crowd quivers
Through all its lengthy line,
As the boy beside the portal
Hastens forth to give the sign!
With his little hands uplifted,
Breezes dallying with his hair,
Hark! with deep, clear intonation
Breaks his young voice on the air:

7. Hushed the people's swelling murmur,
Whilst the boy cries joyously;

Ring!" he shouts, "Ring! grandpapa,
Ring! oh, ring for Liberty!"

Quickly, at the given signal,
The old bellman lifts his hand,
Forth he sends the good news, making
Iron music through the land.

8. How they shouted! What rejoicing!
How the old bell shook the air,
Till the clang of freedom ruffled
The calmly gliding Delaware!
How the bonfires and the torches
Lighted up the night's repose,

And from the flames, like fabled Phoenix,
Our glorious liberty arose !

9. That old State House bell is silent,
Hushed is now its clamorous tongue;
But the spirit it awaken'd
Still is living-ever young;

And when we greet the smiling sunlight
On the fourth of each July,

We will ne'er forget the bellman
Who, betwixt the earth and sky,
Rung out, loudly, "Independence;"
Which, please God, shall never die!

LESSON CXXIX.

THE GLADIATOR.

1. STIILNESS reigned in the vast amphitheater; and from the countress thousands that thronged the spacious enclosure, not a breath was heard. Every tongue was mute with suspense, and every eye strained with anxiety towards the fatal portal, where the gladiator was momentarily expected to enter. At length the trumpet sounded, and they led him forth into the broad arena. There was no mark of fear upon his manly countenance, as with majestic step and fearless eye he entered. He stood there like another Apollo, firm and un