9. But Pickwick, gentlemen, Pickwick, the ruthless destroyer of this domestic oasis in Goswell Street,-Pickwick, who has choked up the well, and thrown ashes on the sward,-Pickwick, who comes before you to-day with his heartless tomato sauce and warming-pans,-Pickwick still rears his head with unblushing effrontery, and gazes without a sigh on the ruin he has made. Damages, gentlemen,-heavy damages,-is the only punishment with which you can visit him; the only recompense you can award to my client. And for those damages she now appeals to an enlightened, a high-minded,. a right-feeling, a conscientious, a dispassionate, a sympathizing, a contemplative jury of her civilized countrymen.

LESSON CLXXXIV.

THE PUMPKIN.

J. G. WHITTIER.

1. OH! greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,
Like that which o'er Nineveh's prophet once grew,
While he waited to know that his warning was true,
And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in vain
For the rush of the whirlwind and red fire-rain.

2. On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden
Comes up with the fruit of the tangled vine laden;
And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold
Through orange-leaves shining the broad spheres of gold;
Yet with dearer delight from his home in the North,
On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth,
Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines,
And the sun of September melts down on his vines.

3. Ah! on Thanksgiving Day, when from East and from West,

From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest,

When the grey-haired New-Englander sees round his board

The old broken links of affection restored,

When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more, And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before, What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye? What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?

4. Oh!-fruit loved of boyhood!-the old days recalling, When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling,

When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within,

in tune,

Our chair a broad pumpkin-our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who traveled like steam,
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

5. Then thanks for thy present!-none sweeter or better E'er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!

Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o'er its baking than thine!
And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,
Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,
That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,
And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,
And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky
Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin Pie!

LESSON CLXXXV.

THE PRESENT AGE.

CHANNING.

1. THE Present Age. In these brief words what a world of thought is comprehended! What infinite movements! What joys and sorrows! What hope and despair! What faith and doubt! What silent grief and loud lament! What fierce conflicts and subtle schemes of policy! What private and public revolutions! In the period through which many of us have passed, what thrones have been shaken! What hearts have bled! What millions have been butchered by their fellow-creatures! What hopes of philanthropy have been blighted! And, at the same time, what magnificent enterprises have been achieved! What new provinces won to science and art! What rights and liberties secured to nations!

2. It is a privilege to have lived in an age so stirring, so pregnant, and so eventful! It is an age never to be forgotten. Its voice of warning and encouragement is never to die. Its impression on history is indelible. Amidst its events, the American Revolution, the first distinct, solemn assertion of the rights of men, and the French Revolution, that volcanic force which shook the earth to its center, are never to pass from men's minds. Over this age, the night will indeed gather more and more, as time rolls away; but in that night

two forms will appear,-Washington and Napoleon; the one a lurid meteor, the other a benign, serene, and undecaying

star.

3. Another American name will live in history,—your Franklin ; and the kite which brought lightning from heaven will be seen sailing in the clouds by remote posterity, when the city where he dwelt may be known only by its ruins. There is, however, something greater in the age than its greatest men: it is the appearance of a new power in the world,--the appearance of the multitude of men on that stage where as yet the few have acted their parts alone. This influence is to endure to the end of time.

4. What more of the present is to survive? Perhaps much of which we now take no note. The glory of an age is often hidden from itself. Perhaps some word has been spoken in our day, which we have not deigned to hear, but which is to grow clearer and louder through all ages. Perhaps some silent thinker among us is at work in his closet, whose name is to fill the earth. Perhaps there sleeps in his cradle some reformer who is to move the church and the world, who is to open a new era in history, who is to fire the human soul with new hope and new daring.

5. What else is to survive the age? That which the age has little thought of, but which is living in us all: I mean the soul, the immortal spirit. Of this all ages are the unfoldings; and it is greater than all. We must not feel, in the contemplation of the vast movements in our own and former times, as if ourselves were nothing. I repeat it, we are greater than all. We are to survive our age, to comprehend it, and to pronounce its sentence. As yet, however, we are compassed with darkness. The issues of our time, how obscure! The future, into which it opens, who of us can foresee? To the Father of all ages I commit this future with humble yet courageous and unfaltering hope.

LESSON CLXXXVI.

TUBAL CAIN.

CHARLES MACKAY.

1. OLD Tubal Cain was a man of might,
In the days when earth was young:
By the fierce red light of his furnace bright
The strokes of his hammer rung:

し

And he lifted high his brawny hand
On the iron glowing clear,

Till the sparks rush'd out in scarlet showers,
As he fashion'd the sword and spear.

And he sang, (f5 p3) “Hurrah for my handiwork!

Hurrah for the spear and the sword!

Hurrah for the hand that shall wield them well,

For he shall be king and lord!"

2. To Tubal Cain came many a one,

As he wrought by his roaring fire;

And each one pray'd for a strong steel blade,
As the crown of his desire:

And he made them weapons sharp and strong,
Till they shouted loud for glee,

And gave him gifts of pearl and gold,

And spoils of the forest free.

And they sang (fp) " Hurrah for Tubal Cain,
Who hath given us strength anew!

f5p Hurrah for the smith, hurrah for the fire
And hurrah for the metal true!"

3. But a sudden change came o'er his heart,
Ere the setting of the sun;

And Tubal Cain was filled with pain

For the evil he had done:

He saw that men, with rage

Made war upon their kind,

and hate,

That the land was red with the blood they shed,
In their lust for carnage blind.