face was touched with a mysterious“, triumphant brightness, which seemed like the dawning of heaven.

15. My uncle looked long and earnestly. He felt the beauty of what he gazed on; his heart was softened, but he had no words for his feelings. He left the room unconsciously, and sat in the front door. The morning was bright, the bells were ringing for church, the birds were singing merrily, and little Edward's pet squirrel was frolicking about the door. My uncle watched him as he ran up one tree and then down, and up another, and then over the fence, whisking his brush, and chattering just as if nothing was the matter. With a deep sigh uncle Abel broke forth: “How happy that creature is! Well, the Lord's will be done."

16. That day the dust was committed to dust, amid the lamentations of all who had known him. Years have passed since then, and all that is mortal of my uncle has long since been gathered to his fathers; but his just and upright spirit has entered the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Yes, the good man may have had opinions which the philosophical' scorn, and weaknesses at which the thoughtless smile; but death shall change him into all that is enlightened, wise, and refined; for he shall awake in “His likeness,” and “be satisfied.”

XXII. – THE CORAL GROVE.

J. G. PERCIVAL.

[James Gates Percival was born in Connecticut, in September, 1795, and died in May, 1856. He was a brilliant and imaginative poet, and also distinguished as a man of science.]

1.

DEEP in the wave is a coral' grove,
Where the purpłe mullet and goldfish rove,
Where the sea-flower spreads its leaves of blue,
That never are wet with the falling dew,
But in bright and changeful beauty shine,
Far down in the green and glassy brine.

2. The floor is of sand, like the mountain's drift',

And the pearl-shells spangle the flinty snow;
From coral rocks the sea-plants lift

Their boughs where the tides and billows flow.
The water is calm and still below,

For the winds and waves are absent there ;
And the sands are bright as the stars that glow

In the motionless fields of upper air.
There, with its waving blade of green,

The sea-flag streams through the silent water,
And the crimson leaf of the dulse? is seen

To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter.

3. There, with a light and easy motion,

The fan-coral sweeps through the clear, deep sea; And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean

*Are bending, like corn on the upland lea«:
And life, in rare and beautiful forms,

Is sporting amid those bowers of stone,
And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms
Has made the top of the wave his own.

4. And when the ship from his fury flies,

Where the myriad voices of ocean roar;
When the wind-god frowns in the murky skies,

And demons are waiting the wreck on the shore,
Then, far below, in the peaceful sea,

The purple mullet and goldfish rove,
And the waters murmur tranquilly

Through the bending twigs of the coral grove.

! CÕR'AL. A hard substance found in 1 siderable quantities on the coast

the ocean, supposed to be the re of Scotland. It adheres to the

mains of very small sea animals. rocks, in strips of ten or twelve 2 DRYFT. Any matter driven together inches long and about half an inch

by wind or water; earthy or rocky broad.
matter, carried by water from one 4 LĒA, Grass or sward land.
place to another.

5 MÝR'I-AD. Too numerous to be 3 DŮLSE. A species of seaweed, of a counted ; immensely numerous.

reddish brown color, found in con- 16 MÜR'ky. Dark; gloomy; cloudy.

XXIII. — SONG OF REBECCA, THE JEWESS.

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

[Sir Walter Scott, one of the most eminent names in English literature, was born in Edinburgh, August 15, 1771, and died September 21, 1832. Ile is the author of a great many works, comprising poems, novels, and miscellanies.

This poem is from his novel called “ Ivanhoe.”]

1. When Israel,* of the Lord beloved,

Out from the land of bondage came,
Her father's God before her moved,

An awful guide, in smoke and flame.
By day, along the astonished lands,

The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night, Arabia's crimsoned sands

Returned the fiery column’s glow.

* ISRAEL. Israel and Judah are terms used to designate the Jewish people.

2. There rose the choral' hymn of praise,

And trump and timbrel? answered keen;
And Zion's daughters poured their lays,

With Priest's and Warrior's voice between. No portents* now our foes amaze;

Forsaken Israel wanders lone!
Our fathers would not know Thy ways,

And Thou hast left them to their own.

3. But present still, though now unseen

When brightly shines the prosperous day, Be thoughts of THEE a cloudy screen

To tenper: the deceitful ray:
And, O! where stoops on Judah's path

In shade and storm the frequent night,
Be Thou long-suffering, slow to wrath,

A burning and a shining light!

4. Our harps we left by Babel's streams, *

The tyrant's jest, the Gentile’so scorn; No censer' round our altar beams,

And mute are timbrel, trump, and horn.
But Thou hast said, the blood of goat,

The flesh of rams I will not prize,
A contrite heart, a humble thought,

Are mine accepted sacrifice.

XXIV. - THE SOLDIER'S DREAM.

CAMPBELL.

[Thomas Campbell was born in Glasgow, July 27, 1777, and died in Boulogne (bô-lõn'), France, June 15, 1814. His first poem, " The Pleasures of Hope,” was published in 1799, and was universally read and admired. His 6 Gertrude of Wyoming” was published in 1809, and was received with equal favor. It contains passages of great descriptive beauty, and the concluding portions are full of pathos ; but the story moves languidly, and there is a want of truth in the costume, and of probability in the incidents. His genius is seen to greater advantage in his shorter poems, such as “ O'Connor's Child," " Lochiel's Warning,” “ Hohenlinden,” “ The Battle of the Baltic,” and “ Ye Mariners of England.” These are matchless poems, - with a ring and power that stir the blood, and at the same time a magic of expression which fastens the words forever to the memory.)

1. Our bugles' sang truce?; for the night cloud had lowered },

And the sentinel * stars set their watch in the sky, And thousands had sunk on the ground overpowered,

The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.

2. When reposing that night on my pallet of straw,

By the wolf-scaring fagot that guarded the slain, At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw,

And thrice, ere the morning, I dreamt it again. 3. Methought from the battle-field's dreadful array,

Far, far I had roamed on a desolate track; 'Twas autumn, and sunshine arose on the way

To the home of my fathers that welcomed me back.

.

4. I flew to the pleasant fields traversed so oft

In life's morning march, when my bosom was young; I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft,

And knew the sweet strain that the corn reapers sung.

5. Then pledged we the wine cup, and fondly I swore

From my home and my weeping friends never to part, My little ones kissed me a thousand times o'er,

And my wife sobbed aloud in her fulness of heart.