6. "That question is not difficult to be answered, sir I came from my cradle, and I am now going straight forward to my grave. With these two stages of my life I am well acquainted. In a word, I am endeavoring to soften my fate; but I must have something very engaging, for my dog and destiny remain faithful to me; and my shadow also, but like a false friend, only when the sun shines.

7. "You shake your head, sir, as if you mean to say I have made choice of bad company. I thought so at first, but there is nothing so bad as not to be useful sometimes. My destiny has made me humble, and taught me what I did not before know, that one cannot unhinge the world. My dog has taught me there is still love and fidelity in it, and—you cannot imagine what fine things one can talk with, and respecting, one's shadow!"

8. " Respecting one's shadow? that I do not understand." "You shall hear, sir at sunrise, when I am walking behind my long towering shadow, what conversation I hold with it on philosophical subjects.

9. "Look," say I, "dear shadow, art thou not like a youth, when the sun of life is rising the earth seems too small; just when I lift a leg, thou liftest another, as if thou wouldst step over ten acres at once; and yet when thou puttest down thy leg, thy step is scarcely a span long.

10. "So fares it with youth. He seems as if he would destroy or create a world; and yet, in the end, he does none of those things which might have been expected from his discourse. Let the sun now rise higher, and thou wilt become smaller as the youth boasts less, the older he grows.

11. "Thus I compare, you see, the morning, noon, and evening shadow, with a hundred things; and the longer we walk together, the better we get acquainted. At present I can forego many things which I formerly considered indispensable

necessaries.

12. "The shadow is my watch and my servant. It is only a pity, that a man cannot exist in his shadow, as his shadow does in him." 66 Well, and what do you say in the evening to your shadow ?"

13. "A man's shadow then is a very serious thing-the best moralist. When the shadow runs before one, still becoming longer and less visible, as if already hiding its head in the darkness of eternity, while behind one is the setting sun, and before one a rising star-the shalow then seems to say, thou art on the brink of eternity,-thy sun is going down, but lose

not courage; like me, thou wilt become always greater; and before thee is already suspended a better star-the first ray of eternity beyond the grave."

14. With these words the man became serious, and the Major also. Both looked at each other in silence. "Come," said the Major, "you must go with me, countryman." He took the stranger by the hand, and conducted him to his house.

LESSON II.

The Honest Moravian.-THOMPSON'S COLLECTION. 1. DURING the last war in Germany, a captain of cavalry was out on a foraging* party. On perceiving a cottage in the midst of a solitary valley, he went up and knocked at the door. Out came one of the Moravians, or United Brethren, with a beard† silvered by age.

2. "Father," says the officer, "show me a field where I can set my troopers a foraging." "Presently," replied the Moravian. The good old man walked before, and conducted them out of the valley.

3. After a quarter of an hour's march, they found a fine field of barley. "There is the very thing we want," says the captain. "Have patience for a few minutes," replied his guide; "and you shall be satisfied.”

4. They went on, and at the distance of about a quarter of a league farther, they arrived at another field of barley. The troop immediately dismounted, cut down the grain, trussed it up and remounted.

5. The officer, upon this, says to his conductor, "Father, you have given yourself and us unnecessary trouble: the first field was much better than this." "Very true, sir," replied the good old man,

"but it was not mine."

LESSON III.

The Dervis.‡-SPECTATOR.

1. A DERVIS travelling through Tartary, having arrived at the town of Balk, went into the king's palace by mistake, as thinking it to be a public inn, or caravansary. Having looked For-a-ging, collecting food for horses. Dervis, a Turkish Priest.

*

+ Pronounced Beerd.
A country in Asia.

about him for some time, he entered into a long gallery, where he laid down his wallet,* and spread his carpet, in order to repose himself upon it after the manner of the eastern nations.

2. He had not been long in this posture before he was discovered by some of the guards, who asked him "what was his business in that place?" The Dervis told them that he intended to take up his night's lodging in that caravansary. The guards let him know in a very angry manner, that the house he was in, was not a caravansary, but the king's palace.

3. It happened that the king himself passed through the gallery during this debate, and smiling at the mistake of the Dervis, asked him how he could possibly be so dull as not to distinguish a palace from a caravansary? "Sir," says the Dervis, "give me leave to ask your majesty a question or two:"

4. "Who were the persons that lodged in this house when it was first built?" The king replied, "my ancestors." "And who," says the Dervis, "was the last person that lodged here?" The king replied, "my father." "And who is it," says the Dervis, that lodges here at present?" The king told him, that it was he himself.

5. "And who," says the Dervis, "will be here after you ?" The king answered," the young prince, my son. ." "Ah, sir," said the Dervis, “a house that changes its inhabitants so often, and receives such a perpetual succession of guests, is not a palace but a caravansary.”

LESSON IV.

The Old Lark and her Young Ones.

1. An old lark had a nest of young ones in a field of wheat, which was almost ripe, and she was not a little afraid that the reapers would be set to work, before her young ones were large enough to be able to remove from the place.

2. One morning, therefore, before she took her flight to seek something to feed them with, "my dear little creatures," said she, "be sure that in my absence you take the strictest notice of every word you hear, and do not fail to tell me of it, as soon as I come home again. Some time after she was gone, in

came the owner of the field and his son.

3. "Well, George," said he, "this wheat, I think, is ripe enough to be cut down; so to-morrow morning, as soon as the sun is up, go and desire our friends and neighbors to come and

* Wallet, a small bag, or knapsack.

help; and tell them, that we will do as much for them the first time they want us."

4. When the old lark came back to her nest, the young ones began to nestle and chirp about her, begging her to remove them as fast as she could. "Hush," said she, "hold your silly tongues; for, if the old farmer depends upon his friends and his neighbors, you may take my word for it, that his wheat will not be reaped to-morrow." The next morning, therefore, she went out again, and left the same orders as before.

5. The owner of the field came soon after to wait for those to whom he had sent; but the sun grew hot, and none of them came to help him. "Why then," said he to his son, "our friends have left us in the lurch, so you must run to your uncles and your cousins, and tell them that I shall expect them to-morrow, betimes, to help us reap."

6. This also the young ones told their mother, as soon as she came home again. "Never mind it," said she to the little birds; "for if that is all, you may take my word for it, that his brethren and his kinsmen will not be so forward to assist him as he seems willing to persuade himself. But be sure to mind," said she, "what you hear the next time; and let me know it without fail."

7. The old lark went abroad the next day as before; but when the poor farmer found that his kinsmen were full as backward as his neighbors, "You perceive," said he to his son, "that your uncles and cousins are no better than strangers! but hark ye, George, do you provide two good sickles against to-morrow morning, and we will reap the wheat ourselves."

8. When the young birds told the old bird this; "Now," said she, " we must be gone indeed; for when a man resolves to do his work himself, you may then be assured it will be done."

LESSON V.

Moderate Wishes the source of Happiness.

1. THE youthful shepherd Me-nál-cas, being in search of a stray lamb from his flock, discovered in the recesses of the forest, a hunter stretched at the foot of a tree, exhausted with fatigue and hunger. "Alas, shepherd!" he exclaimed, "I came hither yesterday in pursuit of game; and have been unable to retrace the path by which I entered this frightful solitude, or to discover a single vestige of a human footstep. I

faint with hunger; give me relief, or I die!" Menalcas, supporting the stranger in his arms, fed him with bread from his scrip,* and afterwards conducted him through the intricate mazes of the forest in safety.

2. Menalcas being about to take leave of the hunter Eschinus,† was detained by him. "Thou hast preserved my life, shepherd, he said, and I will make thine happy. Follow me to the city. Thou shalt no longer dwell in a miserable cottage, but inhabit a superb palace, surrounded with lofty columns of marble. Thou shalt drink high-flavored wines out of golden goblets, and eat the most costly viands from plates of silver."

3. Menalcas replied, "Why should I go to the city! My little cottage shelters me from the rain and the wind. It is not surrounded with marble columns but with delicious fruit trees, from which I gather my repasts; and nothing can be more pure than the water which I draw in my earthen pitcher from the stream that runs by my door. Then on holidays I gather roses and lilies to ornament my little table; and those roses and lilies are more beautiful, and smell sweeter, than vases of gold and silver.

Eschinus. Come with me, shepherd, I will lead thee through sumptuous gardens, embellished with fountains and statues ; thou shalt behold women, whose dazzling beauties the rays of the sun have never tarnished, habited in silks of the richest hues, and sparkling with jewels; and thou shalt hear concerts of musicians whose transcendent skill will at once astonish and enchant thee.

Menalcas. Our sun-burnt shepherdesses are very handsome. How beautiful they look on holidays, when they put on gar lands of fresh flowers, and we dance under the shade of our trees, or retire to the woods to listen to the song of the birds! Can your musicians sing more melodiously than our nightingale, black-bird, and linnet? No; I will not go to the city. Eschinus. Then take this gold, and with it supply all thy

wants.

Menalcas. Gold is useless to me. My fruit-trees, my little garden, and the milk of my goats supply all my wants.

Eschinus. How shall I recompense thy kindness, happy shepherd? What wilt thou accept from me?

Menalcas. Give me only the horn that hangs to thy belt. Horn is not easily broken; therefore, it will be more useful to me than my earthen pitcher.

Scrip, a little bag. † Pronounced Es-ki-nus. ‡ Goblet, a bowl, or cup.