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Where, too, the groves in greener pomp arrayed?
The deep and solemn gloom of the inspiring shade?

The verdant heaven that once the woods o'erspread,
And underneath a pensive twilight shed,

Is shrivelled all dead the vine-mantled bowers,
And withered in their bloom the beautiful young flowers!

Mute, too, the voice of Joy! no tuneful bird
Amid the leafless forest now is heard ;

Nor more may ploughboy's laugh the bosom cheer, 10 Nor in the velvet glade Love's whisper charm the ear.

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But lo! the ruthless storm its force hath spent ;
And see where sinking 'neath yon cloudy tent,
The sun withdraws his last cold, feeble ray,
Abandoning to Night his short and dubious sway

A heavier gloom pervades the chilly air!

Now in their northern caves the Winds prepare
The nitrous frost to sheet with dazzling white,
The long deserted fields at the return of light:

Or with keen icy breath they may glass o'er
The restless wave, and on the lucid floor
Let fall the feathery shower, and far and wide
Involve in snowy robe the land and fettered tide!

Thus shut the varied scene! and thus, in turn,
O Autumn! thou within thine ample urn

Sweep'st all earth's glories. Ah, for one brief hour,
Spare the soft virgin's bloom and tender human flower!

LESSON XCVI.-MAN.-N. Y. EVENING POST.

The human mind,-that lofty thing!

The palace and the throne,
Where reason sits a sceptred king,
And breathes his judgment tone.

Oh! who with silent step shall trace
The borders of that haunted place,
Nor in his weakness own

That mystery and marvel bind
That lofty thing,—the human mind!

The human heart,-that restless thing'
The tempter and the tried;

The joyous, yet the suffering,

The source of pain and pride;
The gorgeous thronged, the desolate,
The seat of love, the lair of hate,-
Self-stung, self-deified!

Yet do we bless thee as thou art,
Thou restless thing, the human heart!
The human soul,-that startling thing!
Mysterious and sublime!

The angel sleeping on the wing
Worn by the scoffs of time,-
The beautiful, the veiled, the bound,
The earth-enslaved, the glory-crowned,
The stricken in its prime!

From heaven in tears to earth it stole,
That startling thing,-the human soul!
And this is man:-Oh! ask of him,
The gifted and forgiven,-

While o'er his vision, drear and dim,
The wrecks of time are driven;
If pride or passion in their power,
Can chain the time, or charm the hour,
Or stand in place of heaven?

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He bends the brow, he bows the knee,—

Creator, Father! none but thee!"

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LESSON XCVII.-PASSAGE DOWN THE OHIO.-JAMES K.

PAULDING.

As down Ohio's ever-ebbing tide,
Oarless and sailless, silently they glide,

How still the scene, how lifeless, yet how fair,
Was the lone land that met the strangers there!
No smiling villages, or curling smoke,

The busy haunts of busy men bespoke;

No solitary hut the banks along,

Sent forth blithe Labor's homely, rustic song;
No urchin gambolled on the smooth white sand,
Or hurled the skipping-stone with playful hand,
While playmate dog plunged in the clear blue wave,
And swam, in vain, the sinking prize to save.
Where now are seen, along the river side,
Young busy towns, in buxom painted pride,

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And fleets of gliding boats with riches crowned,
To distant Orleans or St. Louis bound,
Nothing appeared but nature unsubdued,
One endless, noiseless woodland solitude,
Or boundless prairie, that aye seemed to be
As level and as lifeless as the sea;

They seemed to breathe in this wide world alone,
Heirs of the Earth,-the land was all their own!

'T was evening now: the hour of toil was o'er,
Yet still they durst not seek the fearful shore,
Lest watchful Indian crew should silent creep,
And spring upon and murder them in sleep;
So through the livelong night they held their way,
And 't was a night might shame the fairest day;
So still, so bright, so tranquil was its reign,

They cared not though the day ne'er came again.
The moon high wheeled the distant hills above,
Silvered the fleecy foliage of the grove,
That, as the wooing zephyrs on it fell,
Whispered, it loved the gentle. visit well:
That fair-faced orb alone to move appeared,
That zephyr was the only sound they heard.
No deep-mouthed hound the hunter's haunt betrayed
No lights upon the shore or waters played,
No loud laugh broke upon the silent air,
To tell the wanderers man was nestling there.
All, all was still, on gliding bark and shore,
As if the earth now slept to wake no more.

LESSON XCVIII.-SPIRIT OF BEAUTY.-RUFUS DAWES.

The Spirit of Beauty unfurls her light,
And wheels her course in a joyous flight,

I know her track through the balmy air,

By the blossoms that cluster and whiten there;
She leaves the tops of the mountains green,
And gems the valley with crystal sheen.
At morn, I know where she rested at night,
For the roses are gushing with dewy delight;
Then she mounts again, and around her flings
A shower of light from her purple wings,
Till the spirit is drunk with the music on high,
That silently fills it with ecstasy!

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At noon, she hies to a cool retreat,

Where bowering elms over waters meet;

She dimples the wave, where the green leaves dip;
That smiles, as it curls, like a maiden's lip,
When her tremulous bosom would hide in vain,
From her lover, the hope that she loves again.

At eve, she hangs o'er the western sky
Dark clouds for a glorious canopy;
And round the skirts of each sweeping fold,
She paints a border of crimson and gold,
Where the lingering sunbeams love to stay,
When their god in his glory has passed away.
She hovers around us at twilight hour,
When her presence is felt with the deepest power;
She mellows the landscape, and crowds the stream
With shadows that flit like a fairy dream:-
Still wheeling her flight through the gladsome air,
The Spirit of Beauty is every where!

LESSON XCIX.-EDUCATION OF FEMALES.-JOSEPH STORY.

5 ence.

If Christianity may be said to have given a permanent elevation to woman, as an intellectual and moral being, it is as true, that the present age, above all others, has given play to her genius, and taught us to reverence its influIt was the fashion of other times to treat the literary acquirements of the sex, as starched pedantry, or vain pretension; to stigmatize them as inconsistent with those domestic affections and virtues, which constitute the charm of society. We had abundant homilies read upon their 10 amiable weaknesses and sentimental delicacy, upon their timid gentleness and submissive dependence; as if to taste the fruit of knowledge were a deadly sin, and ignorance were the sole guardian of innocence. Their whole lives were "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;" and 15 concealment of intellectual power was often resorted to, to escape the dangerous imputation of masculine strength.

In the higher walks of life, the satirist was not without color for the suggestion, that it was

"A youth of folly, an old age of cards;"

20 and that, elsewhere, "most women had no character at all," beyond that of purity and devotion to their families,

Admirable as are these qualities, it seemed an abuse of the gifts of Providence, to deny to mothers the power of instructing their children, to wives the privilege of sharing the intellectual pursuits of their husbands, to sisters and 5 daughters the delight of ministering knowledge in the fireside circle, to youth and beauty the charm of refined sense, to age and infirmity the consolation of studies which elevate the soul, and gladden the listless hours of despondency.

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These things have, in a great measure, passed away. The prejudices, which dishonored the sex, have yielded to the influence of truth. By slow, but sure advances, education has extended itself through all ranks of female society. There is no longer any dread, lest the culture of 15 science should foster that masculine boldness, or restless independence, which alarms by its sallies, or wounds by its inconsistencies. We have seen that here, as everywhere else, knowledge is favorable to human virtue and human happiness; that the refinement of literature 20 adds lustre to the devotion of piety; that true learning, like true taste, is modest and unostentatious; that grace of manners receives a higher polish from the discipline of the schools; that cultivated genius sheds a cheering light over domestic duties, and its very sparkles, like 25 those of the diamond, attest at once its power and its purity.

There is not a rank of female society, however high, which does not now pay homage to literature, or that would not blush, even at the suspicion of that ignorance, which, a 30 half century ago, was neither uncommon, nor discreditable. There is not a parent, whose pride may not glow at the thought, that his daughter's happiness is, in a great measure, within her own command, whether she keeps the cool, sequestered vale of life, or visits the busy walks of 35 fashion.

A new path is thus opened for female exertion, to alleviate the pressure of misfortune, without any supposed sacrifice of dignity, or modesty. Man no longer aspires to an exclusive dominion in authorship. He has rivals, or 40 allies, in almost every department of knowledge; and they are to be found among those, whose elegance of manners, and blamelessness of life, command his respect, as much as their talents excite his admiration.