THE LAST MINSTREL.

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delight comes over us, and we pause with rapture if, among the dingles we are crossing, the voice of the nightingale starts out, touching and strong. They found a home in every habitation of the world, and the lowliness of their condition but exalted them the more. The hero listened to their songs, and the conqueror of the earth did reverence to a poet; for he felt that, without poets. his own wild and vast existence would pass away like a whirlwind, and be forgotten for ever."- Goethe's Wilhelm Meister.

1

THE way was long, the wind was cold,
The minstrel was infirm and old;
His withered cheek, and tresses gray,
Seemed to have known a better day;
The harp, his sole remaining joy,
Was carried by an orphan boy;
The last of all the Bards was he,
Who sung of border chivalry.2
For, well-a-day! their date was fled,
His tuneful brethren all were dead;
And he, neglected and oppressed,
Wished to be with them and at rest.
No more on prancing palfrey borne,
He carolled, light as lark at morn;
No longer courted and caressed,
High placed in hall, a welcome guest,
He poured, to lord and lady gay,

The unpremeditated lay;

Old times were changed, old manners gone,
A stranger filled the Stuart's throne,3

The bigots of the iron time

Had called the harmless art a crime.
A wandering harper, scorned and poor,
He begged his bread from door to door,
And tuned, to please a peasant's ear,
The harp, a king had loved to hear.5

.. What are tresses?

2. What is meant by border chivalry? 3. Historical allusion?

SIR W. SCOTT.

4. Who are here referred to, and how far is the accusation just?

5. The ellipsis in this line?

XI. A COMPARISON.

"THE life of every individual may be compared to a river rising in obscurity, increasing by the accession of tributary streams, and, after flowing through a longer or shorter distance, losing itself in some common receptacle. The lives of individuals also, like the course of rivers, may be, more or less extensive, but will all vanish and disappear in the gulf of eternity. Whilst a stream is confined within its banks, it fertilizes, enriches, and improves the country through which it passes; but if it deserts its channel it becomes injurious and destructive, a sort of public nuisance, and, by stagnating in lakes and marshes, its exhalations diffuse pestilence and disease around. Some glide away in obscurity and insignificance; whilst others become celebrated, traverse continents, give names to countries, and assign the boundaries of empires. Some are tranquil and gentle in their course, whilst others, rushing in torrents, dashing over precipices, and tumbling in waterfalls, become objects of terror and dismay. But however diversified their character or their direction, all agree in having their course short, limited, and determined: soon they fall into one capacious receptacle; their waters eventually mix in the waves of the ocean. Thus human characters, however various, have one common destiny; their course of action may be greatly diversified, but they all lose themselves in the ocean of eternity."-Robert Hall.

THE lapse of time and rivers is the same,

Both speed their journey with a restless stream;
The silent pace, with which they steal away,
No wealth can bribe, no prayers persuade to stay;
Alike irrevocable both when past,

And a wide ocean swallows both at last.

Though each resemble each, in every part,

A difference strikes at length the musing heart;
Streams never flow in vain; where streams abound,
How laughs the land with various plenty crowned!
But time, that should enrich the nobler mind,
Neglected, leaves a dreary waste behind.

XII. THE HARPER.

COWPER.

"WHO from his own experience cannot bear testimony to the good qualities of the dog! It has been somewhere said, and with truth, that man is the god of the dog, for to man he looks up with reverence and affection, and the praise of his master is his richest reward. Is this instinctive attachment of the dog to man an acquired feeling? in is it an original impulse implanted in its nature, by the all wise

Creator, for man's benefit, so that, in the primitive condition of society, he might have a friend and assistant, all important in the chace, and in the extirpation of wild beasts, which, ere he can settle in the land and found a colony, he must drive to a distance or destroy?"-Knight's Museum of Animated Nature.

Compare the following adjectives:

Parse the following, and put them

into sentences (both as nouns
and verbs when necessary):

On the green banks of Shannon, when Sheelah was nigh,

No blithe Irish lad was so happy as I;1

No harp like my own could so cheerily 2 play,

And wherever I went was my poor dog Tray.

When at last I was forced from my Sheelah to part,
She said, while the sorrow was big at her heart,
Oh, remember your Sheelah, when far, far away,
And be kind, my dear Pat, to your poor dog Tray.
Poor dog; he was faithful and kind to be sure,
And he constantly loved me, although I was poor;
When the sour-looking folks sent me heartless away,
I had always a friend in my poor dog Tray.

When the road was so dark, and the night was so cold,
And Pat and his dog were grown weary and old,
How snugly we slept in my old coat of grey,
And he licked me for kindness-my poor dog Tray.
Though my wallet was scant, I remembered his case,
Nor refused my last crust to his pitiful face;
But he died at my feet, on a cold winter's day,3
And I played a lament for my poor dog Tray.
Where now shall I go? poor, forsaken and blind,
Can I find one to guide me, so faithful and kind?
To my sweet native village, so far, far away,
I can never return with my poor dog Tray.

1. What is I the nom, to?

2. What other form has this adverb?

CAMPBELL,

3. Is there any difference between a winter's day and a wintry day?

XIII. TO A BEE.

"EVERY thing in these little animals (bees) should excite our wonder. The construction of their limbs, so regular and so well adapted to their mode of life; the care which they take of their young; the art with which they build their cells; their activity, industry, and intel

R

ligence. Let us never pass a bee-hive with indifference, and without reflection. Let us at least admire them; and that admiration may lead us to sublime thoughts. If we wish to meditate on our Creator, we shall find him here: this interesting spectacle may lead us to him; and cause us to adore his wisdom, power, and goodness, in the production of these little creatures."- Sturm.

THOU wert out betimes, thou busy, busy bee!
As abroad I took my early way,
Before the cow from her resting-place
Had risen up, and left her trace

On the meadow, with dew so gray,
Saw I thee, thou busy, busy bee.

Thou wert working late, thou busy, busy bee!
After the fall of the cistus flower,

When the primrose of evening was ready to burst,
I heard thee last, as I saw thee first;
In the silence of the evening hour,
Heard I thee, thou busy, busy bee.
Thou art a miser, thou busy, busy bee!
Late and early at employ;
Still on thy golden stores intent,

Thy summer in keeping and hoarding is spent,
What thy winter will never enjoy;

Wise lesson this for me, thou busy, busy bee.
Little dost thou think, thou busy, busy bee,
What is the end of thy toil.

When the latest flowers of the ivy are gone,
And all thy work for the year is done,

Thy master comes for the spoil;

Woe then for thee, thou busy, busy bee.

XIV. THE SKYLARK.

SOUTHEY.

"In early spring, the cheerful and exhilarating song of the skylark, fresh as the season, is the admiration of all. The bird rises on quivering wing, almost perpendicularly, singing as he flies, and gaining an elevation that is quite extraordinary; yet so powerful is his voice, that his wild joyous notes may be heard distinctly, when the pained eye can trace his course no longer. An ear well tuned to his song can even then determine by the notes, whether the bird is still ascending, remaining stationary, or on the descent. When at a considerable height, should a hawk appear in sight, or the well-known voice of his mate reach his ear, the wings are closed, and he drops to the earth with the rapidity of a stone. Occasionally the skylark sings when on the ground; but his most lively strains are poured forth during his flight; and even in confinement, this would-be tenant of the free air tramples his turf, and flutters his wings while singing, &8 if muscular motion were with him a necessary accompaniment to his music." Yarrell.

THE SKYLARK.

HAIL to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert,

That from heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.1

Higher still and higher

From the earth thou springest,
Like a cloud of fire!

The blue deep thou wingest,

And singing, still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

In the golden lightning

Of the sunken sun,

O'er which clouds are brightening,

Thou dost float and run,

Like an embodied joy, whose race is just begun.

The pale purple even

Melts around thy flight;

Like a star of heaven

In the broad daylight,

Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.

Keen as are the arrows

Of that silver sphere,

Whose intense lamp narrows

In the white dawn clear,

Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there.

All the earth and air
With thy voice is loud,

As, when night is bare,
From one lonely cloud

The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed.

What thou art, we know not;

What is most like thee?

From rainbow clouds there flow not

Drops so bright to see,

As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.

Like a poet hidden

In the light of thought,
Singing hymns unbidden,
Till the world is wrought

To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not.

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