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And wheeled in triumph through the signs of heaven? O, star-eyed Science, hast thou wandered there,

To waft us home the message of despair?

Then bind the palm, thy sage's brow to suit,
Of blasted leaf, and death-distilling fruit!

4. Ah me! the laurelled wreath that Murder rears, Blood-nursed, and watered by the widow's tears, Seems not so foul, so tainted, and so dread,

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As waves the night-shade round the sceptic head.
What is the bigot's torch, the tyrant's chain?
I smile on death, if heaven-ward Hope remain!
But, if the warring winds of Nature's strife
Be all the faithless charter of my life,
If Chance awaked, inexorable power!
This frail and feverish being of an hour,
Doomed o'er the world's precarious scene to sweep,
Swift as the tempest travels on the deep,
To know Delight but by her parting smile,
And toil, and wish, and weep, a little while;
Then melt, ye elements, that formed in vain
This troubled pulse, and visionary' brain!
Fade, ye wild flowers, memorials of my doom!
And sink, ye stars, that light me to the tomb!

5. Truth, ever lovely, since the world began,
The foe of tyrants, and the friend of man,
How can thy words from balmy slumber start
Reposing Virtue, pillowed on the heart!
Yet, if thy voice the note of thunder rolled,
And that were true which Nature never told,
Let Wisdom smile not on her conquered field;
No rapture dawns, no treasure is revealed!
O, let her read, nor loudly, nor elate,
The doom that bars us from a better fate!

1 REFT

But, sad as angels for the good man's 'sin,
Weep to record, and blush to give it in!

Bereft; deprived.

2 SA'PI-ENT. Wise.

8 DEM'I-GŎD. A deified hero.

4 I-BE'RI-A'S PI'LOT. Columbus. Ibe-7 ria is an ancient name of Spain.

5 COPE. The concave of the sky; an arch or vault over head.

6 NIGHT'SHADE. A noxious plant.

VISION-A-Rỵ. Prone to see or capable of seeing visions; imaginative.

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[The Saco (sâ'cō) has its springs in New Hampshire, near the Notch of the White Mountains, and reaches the Atlantic after a winding course through the State of Maine. It receives the waters of many lakes and streams, passes over numerous falls, and is throughout remarkable for its clearness and beauty.]

1. FORTH from New Hampshire's granite steeps
Fair Saco rolls in chainless pride,

Rejoicing as it laughs and leaps

Down the gray mountain's rugged side:
The stern, rent crags, and tall, dark pines,
Watch that young pilgrim passing by,
While close above them frowns or shines,

The black, torn cloud, or deep-blue sky.

2. Soon, gathering strength, it swiftly takes
Through Bartlett's vales its tuneful way,
Or hides in Conway's fragrant brakes,
Retreating from the glare of day;
Now, full of vigorous life, it springs

From the strong mountain's circling arms,
And roams, in wide and lucid rings,

Among green Fryeburg's woods and farms.

3. Here, with low voice, it comes and calls
For tribute from some hermit lake;
And here it wildly foams and falls,
Bidding the forest echoes wake:

Now sweeping on, it runs its race,
By mound and mill, in playful glee;
Now welcomes with its pure embrace
The vestal' waves of Ossipee.

4. At last, with loud and solemn roar,
Spurning each rocky ledge and bar,
It sinks where, on the sounding shore,
The broad Atlantic heaves afar.
There, on old Ocean's faithful breast,
Its wealth of waves it proudly flings;
And there its weary waters rest,

Clear as they left their crystal springs.

5. Sweet stream! it were a fate divine,

Till this world's tasks and toils were done,
To go, like those bright floods of thine,
Refreshing all, enslaved by none;
To pass through scenes of calm and strife,
Singing like thee, with holy mirth,
And close in peace a varied life,
Unsullied by one stain of earth.

1 VES'TAL. Pure; stainless.

KNOWLEDGE and Wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men; Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge a rude, unprofitable mass,

The mere materials with which Wisdom builds, Till smoothed, and squared, and fitted to its place Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich! Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much, Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

L.-DAVID'S LAMENT FOR ABSALOM.

N. PARKER WILLIS.

[Nathaniel Parker Willis was born in Portland, Maine, January 20, 1807. He is a writer in both prose and verse. His style is airy and graceful, and his descriptive powers are of a high order. His poetry is flowing and musical, and marked by truth of sentiment and delicacy of feeling.]

1. ALAS, my noble boy! that thou shouldst die!
Thou, who wert made so beautifully fair!
That death should settle in thy glorious eye,
And leave his stillness in this clustering hair!
How could he mark thee for the silent tomb,
My proud boy Absalom!

2. Cold is thy brow, my son! and I am chill,
As to my bosom I have tried to press thee.
How was I wont to feel my pulses thrill,

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Like a rich harpstring, yearning to caress thee,
And hear thy sweet "My father!" from these dumb
And cold lips, Absalom!

3. But death is on thee. I shall hear the gush
Of music, and the voices of the young;
And life will pass me in the mantling2 blush,
And the dark tresses to the soft winds flung;
But thou no more, with thy sweet voice, shalt come
To meet me, Absalom!

4. And, O, when I am stricken, and my heart,

Like a bruised reed, is waiting to be broken,
How will its love for thee, as I depart,

Yearn for thine ear to drink its last deep token!
It were so sweet, amid death's gathering gloom,
To see thee, Absalom!

5. And now, farewell! "Tis hard to give thee up,
With death so like a gentle slumber on thee:
And thy dark sin!— O, I could drink the cup,

If from this woe its bitterness had won thee.
May God have called thee, like a wanderer, home,
My lost boy Absalom!

1 YEARN'ING. Strongly desiring. 2 MAN'TLING. Suffusing the face.

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[John Hughes, D. D., was born in the north of Ireland in 1798, came to this country in 1817, with his father, and died January 3, 1864. He was educated at the Catholic Theological Seminary of Mount St. Mary's, Emmetsburg, Maryland, ordained priest in 1825, became bishop in 1842, and archbishop of New York in 1850. He was a man of great energy of character and intellectual activity. He published several controversial works, and a number of pamphlets and lectures.]

1. THIS day I was gratified with what I had often desired to witness - the condition of the sea in a tempest. I had contemplated the ocean in all its other phases, and they are almost innumerable. At one time it is seen reposing in perfect stillness under the blue sky and bright sun. At another, slightly ruffled, and then its motion causes his rays to tremble and dance in broken fragments of silvery or golden light, and the sight is dazzled by following the track from whence his beams are reflected,while all besides seems to frown in the darkness of its ripple.

2. Again it may be seen somewhat more agitated and of a darker hue, under a clouded sky and a stronger and increasing wind. Then you see an occasional wave, rising a little above the rest, and crowning its summit with that crest of white, breaking from its top and tumbling over like liquid alabaster'. I had seen the ocean, too, by moon

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