artillery; and before this new foe, in the midst of this battle of the elements, the awe-struck army stood powerless and affrighted.

4. When night descended again on the city, it presented a spectacle, the like of which was never seen before, and which baffles all description ; — the streets of fire, the heavens a canopy of fire, and the entire body of the city a mass of fire, fed by a hurricane that whirled the blazing fragments in a constant stream through the air.

5. Incessant explosions, from the blowing up of stores of oil, and tar, and spirits, shook the very foundations of the city, and sent volumes of smoke rolling furiously toward the sky. Huge sheets of canvas, on fire, came floating, like messengers of death, through the flames; the towers and domes of the churches and palaces, glowed with red hot heat over the wild sea below, then tottering a moment on their bases, were hurled by the tempest into the common ruin.

6. Thousands of wretches, before unseen, were driven by the heat from the cellars and hovels, and streamed in an incessant throng through the streets. Children were seen carrying their parents, the strong the weak, while thousands more were staggering under loads of plunder, they had snatched from the flames.

7. This, too, would frequently take fire in the falling shower, and the miserable creatures would be compelled to drop it and flee for their lives. Oh, it was a scene of woe and fear indescribable! A mighty and close packed city of houses, and churches, and palaces, wrapt from limit to limit in flames, which are fed by a whirling hurricane, is a sight this world will seldom see.

8. But this was all within the city. To Napoleon, without, the spectacle was still more sublime and terrific. When

NOTE. -a Moscow, when burned in 1812, was about the same size as at the pres ent time. It was 20 miles in circumference, and contained about 350,000 inhabi

tants.

the flames had overcome all obstacles, and had wrapped everything in their red mantle, that great city looked like a sea of fire, swept by a tempest that drove it into vast billows.

9. Huge domes and towers, throwing off sparks like blazing firebrands, now towered above these waves, and now disappeared in their maddening flow, as they rushed and broke high over their tops, and scattered their spray of fire against the clouds.

10. The heavens themselves seemed to have caught the conflagration, and the angry masses that swept it, rolled over a bosom of fire. Columns of flame would rise and sink along the surface of the sea, and huge volumes of black smoke suddenly shoot into the air, as if volcanoes were working below.

11. The black form of the Kremlin alone towered above the chaos, now wrapped in flame and smoke, and again emerged into view, standing amid the scene of desolation and terror, like virtue in the midst of a burning world, enveloped but unscathed by the devouring elements.

12. Napoleon stood and gazed upon this scene in silent awe. Though nearly three miles distant, the windows and walls of his apartment were so hot, that he could scarcely bear his hand against them.

13. Said he, years afterward, "It was the spectacle of a sea and billows of fire, a sky and clouds of flame; mountains of red rolling flame, like immense waves of the sea, alternately bursting forth, and elevating themselves to skies of fire, and then sinking into the ocean of flame below. Oh! it was the most grand, the most sublime, the most terrific sight the world ever beheld."

QUESTIONS. 1. What did Mortier do after Napoleon left the Kremlin? 4. What was the appearance of the city when night descended? 6. Who were seen streaming through the streets? 7. What was the size of Moscow when burned? 11. How did the Kremlin appear amidst the conflagration? 13. What did Napoleo say of the city some years afterwards?

LESSON LXIV.

Spell and Define.

1. Rainbow, an arc.of a circle of various | 4. Do-main', dominion, empire.

colors.

5. Leaflets, little leaves.

1. Al'tar, a table on which sacrifices were 6. Tablet, a small table.

offered.

2. Tre-men'dous, dreadful, terrible.

2. A-bash'ed, confused with shame. 3. Bil'lows, swollen waves.

[order.

4. Arch-an'gel, an angel of the highest 4. Di'a-mond, a precious stone.

6. Prof-a-na'tion, a violation of things sacred.

7. De-lir'i-ous, light-headed.

7. Ves'ti-bule, the porch, or entrance of a house.

7. Rapture, extreme joy or pleasure.

ERRORS.1. For'rerd for forehead; 2. tre-men'jus for tre-men'dous; 2. hem for hymn; 4. artch-an'gel's for arch-an'gel's; 4. Je-hov'yah's for Je-ho'vah's, 6. scace for scarce; 7. wile for while.

NIAGARA FALLS.a

MRS. SIGOURNEY.

[The pupil may tell how this piece should be read. See Modulation, rule 2, page 73.

1. FLOW on, Niagara, in thy glorious robe
Of terror and of beauty! God hath set
His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud
Mantles around thy feet. And he doth give
The voice of thunder, power to speak of him
Eternally, bidding the lip of man

2.

Keep silence, and upon thy altar pour
Incense of awe-stricken praise.

And who can dare

To lift the insect trump of earthly hope,
O'er love, or sorrow, 'mid the peal sublime

Of thy tremendous hymn? E'en ocean shrinks
Back from thy brotherhood, and his wild waves
Retire abashed.

NOTES.-a Niagara Falls (ni-ag'a-ra); a cataract between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, having a perpendicular fall of one hundred and sixty feet, and exceeding in grandeur every other cataract in the world. It is supposed, by geologists, to have receded about 8 miles from its original site, by the constant wearing of the waters. b A rainbow is frequently formed over the cataract, by the spray rising from the water, and separating the rays of the sun, in the same manner as a shower of rain.

For he doth sometimes seem
To sleep like a spent laborer, and recall
His weary billows from their vexing play,
And lull them in a cradle calm; but thou,
With everlasting, undecaying tide,

Dost rest not, night or day.

The morning stars,"

When first they sung o'er young creation's birth,
Heard thy deep anthem; and those wreaking fires
That wait the archangel's signal to dissolve
The solid earth, shall find Jehovah's name
Graven, as with a thousand diamond spears,
On thy unfathomed page. Each leafy bow,
That lifts itself within thy proud domain,
Doth gather greatness from thy living spray,
And tremble at the baptism.

Lo! yon birds

Do venture boldly near, bathing their wing
Amid thy foam and mist. T is meet for them
To touch thy garment's hem, or lightly stir
The leaflets of thy vapor wreath,
snowy
Who sport unharmed upon the fleecy cloud,
And listen silent at the gates of heaven,
Without reproof.

But as for us, it seems

Scarce lawful with our broken tones to speak
Familiarly of thee. Methinks, to tint
Thy glorious features with our pencil's point,
Or woo thee to the tablet of a song,

Were profanation.

NOTE.- — a See morning stars, Job xxxviii, 6, 7.

7.

Thou dost make the soul

A wandering witness of thy majesty;
And while it rushes with delirious joy

To tread thy vestibule, dost chain its steps,
And check its rapture, with the humbling view
Of its own nothingness, bidding it stand
In the dread presence of the Invisible,
As if to answer to its God through thee.

MOUNT WASHINGTON.a

. GRENVILLE MELLEN.

8. MOUNT of the clouds, on whose Olympian height
The tall rocks brighten in the ether air,
And spirits from the skies come down at night,
To chant immortal songs to Freedom there!
Thine is the rock of other regions, where
The world of life, which blooms so far below,
Sweeps a wide waste; -no gladdening scenes appear,
Save where, with silvery flash, the waters flow
Beneath the far-off mountain, distant, calm, and slow.

9. Mount of the clouds! when Winter round thee throws
The hoary mantle of the dying year,
Sublime amid the canopy of snows,

Thy towers in bright magnificence appear!
'Tis then we view thee with a chilling fear,
Till Summer robes thee in her tints of blue;
When, lo! in softened grandeur, far, yet clear,
Thy battlements stand clothed in heaven's own hue,
To swell, as Freedom's home, on man's unbounded view!

NOTES. -a Mount Washington; the highest peak of the White Mountains, situated in New Hampshire, being 6,234 feet, or 14 miles, high. b Olympian; pertaining to Olympus, a celebrated mountain in Macedonia.

QUESTIONS. What is said of Niagara Falls? 1. How is the rainbow formed over the cataract? What is Mount Washington? 8. What is meant by Olympian height 1