8. O! I hate the false cup, that the idlers have tasted,

When I think on the ills of life's comfortless day; How the flowers of my childhood their odor have wasted, And the friends of my youth have been stolen away;— 1 think not, how fruitless the warmest endeavor,

To recall the kind moments, neglected when near, When the hours, that Oblivion has canceled forever, Are interred by her hand in the grave of the year! 4. Since the last solemn reign of this day of reflection, What throngs have relinquished life's perishing breath! How many have shed the sad tear of dejection,

And closed the dim eye in the darkness of death! How many have sudden their pilgrimage ended Beneath the lone pall that envelops the bier, Or to Death's lonely valley, have gently descended, And made their cold beds with the grave of the year!

5. "Tis the year, that so late, its new beauty disclosing, Rose bright on the happy, the careless, and gay, Who now, on their pillows of dust are reposing,

While the sod presses damp on their bosoms of clay! Then think not of bliss, when its smile is expiring, Disappointment still drowns it in misery's tear;

Reflect, and be wise, for the day is retiring,

And TO-MORROW will dawn on the grave of the year!

6. Yet, awhile, and no seasons around us shall flourish, But Silence, for each, her dark mansion prepare, Where Beauty, no longer, her roses shall nourish,

Or the lily o'erspread the wan cheek of Despair;But the eye shall with luster unfading be brightened, When it wakens to bliss in yon orient sphere,

By the sunbeams of splendor immortal, enlightened,

Which no more shall go down on the grave of the year!

LESSON XXII.

SOLILOQUY OF THE GAMBLER'S WIFE.-COATES

[See Transition, p. 196, and Personations, p. 200.]

1. "Dark is the night! How dark! No light! No fire! Cold on the hearth, the last faint sparks expire! Shivering, I watch by the cradle side

For him, who pledged his love! Last year a bride! 2. “Hark! "T is his footstep! No!-T is past!—'T is gone! Tick! — Tick! — How wearily the time crawls on!

Why should he leave me thus? — He once was kind! And I believed 't would last!- How mad!- How blind!

3. "Rest thee, my babe! - Rest on!-'T is hunger's cry! Sleep! for there is no food! The font is dry!

Famine and cold their wearying work have done:

My heart must break! And thou! The clock strikes one

4. "Hush! 't is the dice-box! Yes! he's there! he's there! For this! for this he leaves me to despair!

Leaves love! leaves truth! his wife! his child! for what? The wanton's smile the villain

and the sot!

5. "Yet I'll not curse him! No! 't is all in vain!

"T is long to wait, but sure he'll come again! And I could starve, and bless him, but for you,

My child!

his child! Oh, fiend! The clock strikes two.

6. "Hark! How the sign-board creaks!

The blast howls by! Moan! moan! A dirge swells through the cloudy sky! Ha! 't is his knock! he comes!- he comes once more!

"T is but the lattice flaps! My hope is o'er!

7. "Can he desert us thus! He knows I stay, Night after night, in loneliness, to pray

For his return,

and yet he sees no tear!

No! no! It cannot be! He will be here!

8. "Nestle more closely, dear one, to my heart!

Thou 'rt cold! Thou 'rt freezing! But we will not part! Husband! I die! - Father! It is not he!

Oh, God! protect my child!" They're dead! The clock struck three.

LESSON XXIII.

PLEASURES OF HOPE.- CAMPBELL.

[See page 210.]

1. At summer's eve, when heaven's aerial bow
Spans, with bright arch, the glittering hills below,
Why, to yon mountain, turns the musing eye,
Whose sun-bright summit mingles with the sky!
Why do those hills, of shadowy tint, appear
More sweet than all the landscape smiling near?
'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain with its azure hue.

2. Thus, with delight, we linger to survey
The promised joys of life's unmeasured way;
Thus, from afar, each dim discovered scene
More pleasing seems, than all the past has been;
And every form that fancy can repair
From dark oblivion, glows divinely there.

3. What potent spirit guides the raptured eye,
To pierce the shades of dim futurity?
Can wisdom lend, with all her boasted power,
The pledge of joy's anticipated hour?
Ah, no she darkly sees the fate of mar,
Her dim horizon bounded to a span;
Or if she holds an image to the view,
"Tis nature, pictured too severely true,

4. With thee, sweet Hope, resides the heavenly light,
That pours remotest rapture on the sight;
Thine is the charm of life's bewildered way,
That calls each slumbering passion into play.

5. Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime
Pealed their first notes to sound the march of time,

Thy joyous youth began, but not to fade;
When all the sister planets have decayed,

When, wrapt in fire, the realms of ether glow,
And heaven's last thunder shakes the world below,--
Thou undismayed, shalt o'er the ruins smile,
And light thy torch at nature's funeral pile.

LESSON XXIV.

INFLUENCE OF ATHENIAN LITERATURE.-MACAULAY

[The reader may point out the commencing and concluding series in this piece, and tell how they should be read. See Rule 11, p. 126.]

1. I would hope that there may yet appear a writer who may despise the present narrow limits, and assert the rights of history over every part of her natural domain. Should such a writer engage in that enterprise, he will record, indeed, all that is interesting and important in military and political transac tions; but he will not think any thing too trivial for the gravity of history, which is not too trivial to promote or diminish the happiness of man.

2. He will portray in vivid colors the domestic society, the manners, the amusements, the conversation of the Grecks; he will not disdain to discuss the state of agriculture, of the mechanical arts, and of the conveniences of life; the progress of painting, of sculpture, and of architecture, will form an important part of his plan; but above all, his attention will

be given to the history of that splendid literature, from which has sprung all the strength, the wisdom, the freedom, and the glory of the western world.

3. If we consider merely the subtilty of disquisition, the force of imagination, the perfect energy and elegance of expression, which characterize the great works of Athenian genius, we must pronounce them intrinsically most valuable;— but what shall we say, when we reflect that from hence have sprung, directly or indirectly, all the noblest creations of the human intellect; that from hence were the vast accomplishments and the brilliant fancy of Cicero; a the withering fire of Juvenal; the plastic imagination of Dante; the humor of Cervantes;d the comprehension of Bacon;e the wit of Butler;f the supreme and universal excellence of Shakspeare? g

4. All the triumphs of truth and genius over prejudice and power, in every country, and in every age, have been the triumphs of Athens. Wherever a few great minds have made a stand against violence and fraud, and the cause of liberty and reason, there has been her spirit in the midst of them, inspiring, encouraging, consoling,-by the lonely lamp of Erasmus;h by the restless bed of Pascal; in the tribune of Mirabeau; in the cell of Galileo;k on the scaffold of Sidney.1

Cicero, see p. 65. b Juvenal, a Roman poet, celebrated for the spirit, boldness, and elegance of his satires. e Dante, an Italian poet, born at Florence, 1265, and died in 1321. d Cervantes, a celebrated Spanish writer. He died in 1616. • Bacon, (Francis,) lord high chancellor of England, born in 1561, and died in 1626. He was one of the greatest and most universal geniuses, that any age or country has produced. Butler, an English poet, who wrote satires. He died in 1680. Shakspeare, see p. 27. h Erasmus, see p. 27. Pascal, (Blaise,) a Frenchman, eminent as a mathematician, and a zealous friend of the Christian religion as taught by the Jansenists. He was born in 1623, and died in 1662. j Mirabeau, a celebrated French nobleman, born 1749, and died 1791. k Galileo, a most eminent philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, and inventor of the telescope; born at Florence, 1564. He was imprisoned as a heretic, for teaching that the sun, and not the earth, is in the center of the world, and immovable, and that the earth moves by a diurnal motion. He died, 1642, aged seventy-eight. 1 Sidney, (Algernon,) a celebrated English republican, and martyr to liberty. He was unjustly executed for treason in 1678.