5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 They knelt them on the desert sand, Alone upon the dreary strand They looked upon the high blue air, And felt their spirits glow, Resolved to live or perish there,- The warrior's red right arm was bared, Was there a foreign footstep dared To seek his home and child? The dark chiefs yelled alarm, and swore And his hewn bones should bleach their shore,—- But lo! the warrior's eye grew dim, His arm was left alone,— The still, black wilds which sheltered him, No longer were his own! Time fled, and on the hallowed ground His highest pine lies low, And cities swell where forests frowned, Two hundred years ago! Oh! stay not to recount the tale,— The firmest cheek might well grow pale, To hear it to the last. The God of heaven, who prospers us, Could bid a nation grow, And shield us from the red man's curse, Two hundred years ago! Come then,--great shades of glorious men, Look on your own proud land again, O bravest of the brave! We call you from each mouldering tomb, To bless the world ye snatched from doom, 5 Then to your harps,-yet louder,-higher, And smite again each quivering wire, Shout for those godlike men of old, On this blest soil their anthem rolled, LESSON CXI.-THE STAGE.-CHARLES Sprague. Lo, where the Stage, the poor, degraded Stage, 5 There, where grown children gather round to praise 10 The herded vagabonds of every shore; Women, unsexed, who, lost to woman's pride, Gods! who can grace yon desecrated dome, Ask ye who can? why, I, and you, and you: They have no time for Hamlet, or for Lear; 5 Our daughters turn from gentle Juliet's woe, To count the twirls of Almaviva's toe. Not theirs the blame who furnish forth the treat, 15 Where are the crowds so wont to choke the door? Pray Heaven, if yet indeed the Stage must stand, And one approving silence curtain all. Despots to shame may yield their rising youth, Even Wit, so long forgot, may play its part, 25 Perchance the listeners, to their instinct true, May fancy common sense, 't were surely Something New LESSON CXII. THE BURIAL-PLACE AT LAUREL HILL. W. G. CLARK. Here the lamented dead in dust shall lie, Life's lingering languors o'er, its labors done; 5 Here the long concourse from the murmuring town, 10 To lay the loved in tranquil silence down, And in this hallowed spot, where Nature showers Whose fragrant incense from the grave shall rise. And here the impressive stone, engraved with words 5 Say, wherefore should we weep, and wherefore pour 10 While sun-bright waves are quivering to the shore, There is an emblem in this peaceful scene: Soon rainbow colors on the woods will fall; Then, cold and pale, in distant vistas round, Disrobed and tuneless, all the woods will stand; 20 Where dazzling streams and vernal fields expand, LESSON CXIII.-THE GOOD WIFE.-GEORGE W. BURNAP. "The good wife!" How much of this world's happiness and prosperity, is contained in the compass of these two short words! Her influence is immense. The power of a wife, for good, or for evil, is altogether irresistible. 5 Home must be the seat of happiness, or it must be forever unknown. A good wife is, to a man, wisdom, and courage, and strength, and hope, and endurance. A bad one is confusion, weakness, discomfiture, despair. No condition is hopeless, when the wife possesses firmness, decision, 10 energy, economy. There is no outward prosperity which can counteract indolence, folly, and extravagance at home. No spirit can long resist bad domestic influences. Man is strong; but his heart is not adamant. He de lights in enterprise and action; but, to sustain him, he 5 needs a tranquil mind, and a whole heart. He expends his whole moral force, in the conflicts of the world. His feelings are daily lacerated, to the utmost point of enduranae, by perpetual collision, irritation, and disappointment.. To recover his equanimity and composure, home must be 10 to him a place of repose, of peace, of cheerfulness, of comfort; and his soul renews its strength, and again goes forth, with fresh vigor, to encounter the labors and troubles of the world. But if at home he find no rest, and there is met by a bad temper, sullenness, or gloom; or is assailed 15 by discontent, complaint, and reproaches, the heart breaks, the spirits are crushed, hope vanishes, and the man sinks. into total despair. Let woman know, then, that she ministers at the very fountain of life and happiness. It is her hand that lades 20 out, with overflowing cup, its soul-refreshing waters, or casts in the branch of bitterness, which makes them poison and death. Her ardent spirit breathes the breath of life into all enterprise. Her patience and constancy are mainly instrumental, in carrying forward, to completion, the best 25 human designs. Her more delicate moral sensibility is the unseen power which is ever at work to purify and refine society. And the nearest glimpse of heaven that mortals ever get on earth, is that domestic circle, which her hands have trained to intelligence, virtue and love, 30 which her gentle influence pervades, and of which her radiant presence is the centre and the sun. LESSON CXIV. A GOOD DAUGHTER.-J. G. PALFREY. A good daughter!-there are other ministries of love, more conspicuous than hers, but none, in which a gentler, lovelier spirit dwells, and none, to which the heart's warm requitals more joyfully respond.-There is no such thing, 5 as a comparative estimate of a parent's affection, for one or another child. There is little which he needs to covet, to whom the treasure of a good child has been given. But a son's occupations and pleasures carry him more abroad; and he lives more among temptations, which hardly per10 mit the affection that is following him perhaps over half |