along the bank, and listen to its low, placid voice, as to the voice of one who is dear and loving. I remember those large dipping willows. I remember the stone bridge; and this is Dorlcote Mill. I must stand a minute or two here on the bridge and look at it, tho the clouds are threatening, and it is far on in the afternoon. Even in this leafless time of departing February it is pleasant to look at it-perhaps the chill, damp season adds a charm to the trimly-kept, comfortable dwelling-house, as old as the elms and chestnuts that shelter it from the northern blast.

"The Mill on the Floss."

GEORGE ELIOT.

5. It is not mere poetry to talk of the "voices of summer. It is the daytime of the year, and its myriad influences are audibly at work. Even by night you may lay your ear to the ground and hear that faintest of murmurs, the sound of growing things. I used to think, when I was a child, that it was fairy music. If you have been used to early rising you have not forgotten how the stillness of the night seems increased by the timid note of the first bird. It is the only time when I would lay a finger on the lip of nature, the deep hush is so very solemn. By and by, however, the birds are all up, and the peculiar holiness of the hour declines, lowing of the cattle blending in with the capricious warble of a thousand of God's happy creatures, and the stir of industry coming on the air like the undertones of a choir, and the voice of man, heard in the distance over all, like a singer among instruments, giving them meaning and language. "Unwritten Music." N. P. WILLIS.

NINTH LESSON

PART 1. DRILL

1. Physical Culture. Raise both hands above the head, the thumbs locked. Bring the arms straight down, without bending the knees, endeavoring to touch the toes with the finger tips. Breathe deeply.

2. Deep Breathing. Inhale deeply through the nostrils. Hold the breath a few moments with an effort as if lifting a heavy weight. The muscles of the waist and abdomen should be firm and elastic. Exhale slowly through the nostrils.

3. Voice Exercise.-Pronounce each of the following words in a clear, explosive tone, without raising the natural pitch of the voice. Practise moderately at first, and use abdominal breathing throughout. Ready! Quick! March! Halt! Fire! Burst! Rush! Hold! Ugh! Zounds! Bah! For shame! Enough!

4. Articulation. The following elements are to be repeated distinctly and rapidly, as a tongue exercise:

PART 2. EXPRESSION

DELIBERATENESS

Avoid the common fault of reading rapidly and of skimming passages. Remember that deliberateness invariably makes a good impression, because it is associated with depth of thought and feeling. Deliberateness does not mean dwelling unduly upon words, but arises from judicious pausing. The time spent upon a single word-called quantity-may be lengthened if the thought requires it, but deliberateness applies to the style in which you read an entire passage. In your reading you should understand the relation of one thought to another. Unless you make what you read your intellectual possession you read in vain. To memorize without assimilation is one way to produce mental weakness. Deliberate on what you read, and you will read slowly.

EXAMPLES FOR PRACTISE

1. Columbus was a man of great and inventive genius. The operations of his mind were energetic, but irregular; bursting forth, at times, with that irresistible force which characterizes intellect of such an order. His ambition was lofty and noble, inspiring him with high thoughts and an anxiety to distinguish himself by great achievements. He aimed at dignity and wealth in the same elevated spirit with which he sought renown; they were to rise from the territories he should discover, and be commensurate in importance.

"Character of Columbus."

WASHINGTON IRVING.

2. Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my com

mandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding.

"Proverbs 4:1-7."

THE BIBLE.

3. Wise, of a wisdom far beyond our shallow depth, was that old precept, "Watch thy tongue; out of it are the issues of Life!" Man is properly an incarnated word: the word that he speaks is the man himself. Were eyes put into our head, that we might see, or that we might fancy, and plausibly pretend, we had seen? Was the tongue suspended there, that it might tell truly what we had seen, and make man the soul's brother of man; or only that it might utter vain sounds, jargon, soul-confusing, and so divide man, as by enchanting walls of darkness, from union with man? Thou who wearest that cunning, heaven-made organ, a Tongue, think well of this. Speak not, I passionately entreat thee, till thy thought have silently matured itself, till thou have other than mad and mad-making noises to emit: hold thy tongue till some meaning lie behind, to set it wagging.

"Speech and Silence."

THOMAS CARLYLE.

4. Ye that mourn, let gladness mingle with your tears. He was your son; but now he is the nation's. He made your household bright; now his example inspires a thousand households. Dear to his brothers and sisters, he is now brother to every generous youth in the land.

Before, he was narrowed, appropriated, shut up to you. Now he is augmented, set free, and given to all. He has died from the family that he might live to the nation. Not one name shall be forgotten or neglected: and it shall by-and-by be confest, as of an ancient hero, that he did more for his country by his death than by his whole life.

Every mountain and hill shall have its treasured name; every river shall keep some solemn title; every valley and every lake shall cherish its honored register; and till the mountains are worn out, and the rivers forget to flow, till the clouds are weary

of replenishing springs, and the springs forget to gush, and the rills to sing, shall their names be kept fresh with reverent honors which are inscribed upon the book of National Remembrance!

"The Honored Dead."

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

5. I call upon those whom I address to stand up for the nobility of labor. It is Heaven's great ordinance for human improvement. Let not that great ordinance be broken down. What do I say? It is broken down; and it has been broken down for ages. Let it then be built up again; here, if anywhere, on these shores of a new world-of a new civilization. But how, I may be asked, is it broken down? Do not men toil? it may be said. They do indeed toil; but they too generally do it because they must. Many submit to it as in some sort a degrading necessity; and they desire nothing so much on earth as escape from it. They fulfil the great law of labor in the letter, but break it in the spirit; fulfil it with the muscle, but break it with the mind. To some field of labor, mental or manual, every idler should fasten, as a chosen and coveted theater of improvement. But so is he not impelled to do, under the teachings of our imperfect civilization. On the contrary, he sits down, folds his hands, and blesses himself in his idleness. This way of thinking is the heritage of the absurd and unjust feudal system under which serfs labored, and gentlemen spent their lives in fighting and feasting. It is time that this opprobrium of toil were done away. Ashamed to toil, art thou? Ashamed of thy dingy workshop and dusty labor-field; of thy hard hand scarred with service more honorable than that of war; of thy soiled and weather-stained garments, on which Mother Nature has embroidered, 'midst sun and rain, 'midst fire and steam, her own heraldic honors? Ashamed of those tokens and titles, and envious of the flaunting robes of imbecile idleness and vanity? It is treason to Nature; it is impiety to Heaven; it is breaking Heaven's great ordinance. Toil, I repeat-toil, either of the brain, of the heart, or of the hand, is the only true manhood, the only true nobility.

"The Nobility of Labor."

ORVILLE DEWEY.