Q. What is yon arch which every where I see?
A. The sign of omnipresent Deity.

Q. Where rests the horizon's all-embracing zone?
A.

Where earth, God's footstool, touches heaven, his
throne.

Q. Ye clouds, what bring ye in your train?

A.

God's embassies,-storm-lightning-hail-or rain. Q. Winds,-whence and whither do ye

A. —Thou must be born again to know.

blow?

Q. Bow in the cloud,-what token dost thou bear?

A. That Justice still cries "strike,” and Mercy “spare.' Q. Dews of the morning,-wherefore were ye given?

A. To shine on earth, then rise to heaven.

A.

Q. Rise, glitter, break; yet, Bubble, tell me why?
To show the course of all beneath the sky.
Q. Stay, Meteor, stay thy falling fire!

A.

No, thus shall all the host of heaven expire.

Q. Ocean,-what law thy chainless waves confined?
A. That which in Reason's limits, holds thy mind
Q. Time,-whither dost thou flee?

A. I travel to Eternity.

Q. Eternity, what art thou?-say.

A.

Time past, time present, time to come,-to-day
Q. Ye Dead,-where can your dwelling be?

A. The house for all the living;-come and see.
Q. O Life, what is thy breath?

A. A vapor, lost in death.

Q. O Death, how ends thy strife?

Q. O Grave,-where is thy victory?

A. Ask him who rose again from me.

LESSON CLXV.

On the Death of Mrs. Mason.—Mason.

1. TAKE, holy earth! all that my soul holds dear:
Take that best gift, which heaven so lately gave:
To Bristol's fount I bore, with trembling care,
Her faded form. She bow'd to taste the wave,

2. And died.

Does youth, does beauty read the line?

Does sympathetic fear their breast alarm?

Speak, dead Maria! breathe a strain divine;

E'en from the grave thou shalt have power to charm.

3. Bid them be chaste, be innocent like thee;

Bid them in duty's sphere, as meekly move: And if as fair, from vanity as free,

As firm in friendship, and as fond in love:

4. Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die,
('Twas e'en to thec) yet the dread path once trod,
Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high,

And bids the "pure in heart behold their God."

LESSON CLXVI.

Ode from the 19th Psalm.--ADDISON.

1 THE spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue etherial sky,

And spangled heavens, a shining frame,

Their great original proclaim.

Th' unwearied sun, from day to day,

Does his Creator's power display;
And publishes to ev'ry land,
The work of an Almighty hand.

2. Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wond'rous tale,
And, nightly, to the list'ning earth,
Repeats the story of her birth;

Whilst all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

3. What though, in solemn silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid these radiant orbs be found?
In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing, as they shine,
"The hand that made us is divine."

LESSON CLXVII.

Rest in Heaven.—ANONYMOUS.
1. SHOULD Sorrow o'er thy brow
Its darken'd shadows fling,
And hopes that cheer thee now,
Die in their early spring;
Should pleasure at its birth
Fade like the hues of even,
Turn thou away from earth,
There's rest for thee in Heaven.

2. If ever life shall seem

To thee a toilsome way,
And gladness cease to beam
Upon its clouded day;
If like the weary dove

O'er shoreless ocean driven;
Raise thou thine eye above,

There's rest for thee in Heaven.

3. But O if thornless flowers

Throughout thy pathway bloom,
And gaily fleet the hours,
Unstain'd by earthly gloom,
Still let not every thought
To this poor world be given,
Nor always be forgot

Thy better rest in Heaven.

4. When sickness pales thy cheek,
And dims thy lustrous eye,
And pulses low and weak,
Tell of a time to die;

Sweet hope shall whisper then

"Though thou from earth be riven,

"There's bliss beyond thy ken,

"There's rest for thee in Heaven."

LESSON CLXVIII.

The Star of Bethlehem.-H. K. WHITE.

1 WHEN marshalled on the nightly plain, The glittering host bestud the sky;

One star alone, of all the train,

Can fix the sinner's wandering eye.
Hark! Hark! to God the chorus breaks,
From every host, from every gem;
But one alone the Saviour speaks,
It is the star of Bethlehem.

2. Once on the raging seas I rode,

The storm was loud;-the night was dark,
The ocean yawned and rudely blow'd
The wind that toss'd my foundering bark.
Deep horror then my vitals froze,

Death struck, I ceased the tide to stem;
When suddenly a star arose,

It was the star of Bethlehem.

3. It was my guide, my light, my all,
It bade my dark forebodings cease:
And through the storm and danger's thrall,
It led me to the port of peace.
Now, safely moor'd-my perils o'er,

I'll sing, first in night's diadem,

For ever and for ever more,

The star, the star of Bethlehem!

LESSON CLXIX.

Address to Time.-LORD BYRON.

1. Oн Time! the beautifier of the dead,
Adorner of the ruin, comforter

And only healer when the heart hath bled-
Time! the corrector where our judgments err,
The test of truth, love,—sole philosopher,
For all beside are sophists, from thy thrift,
Which never loses tho' it doth defer-

Time, the avenger! unto thee I lift

My hands, and eyes, and heart, and crave of thee a gift.

2. Amidst this wreck, where thou hast made a shrine And temple more divinely desolate,

Among thy mightier offerings here are mine,
Ruins of years-tho' few-yet full of fate :-
If thou hast ever seen me too elate,

Hear me not; but if calmly I have borne
Good, and reserved my pride against the hate
Which shall not whelm me, let me not have worn
This iron in my soul in vain-shall they not mourn?
3. And thou, who never yet of human wrong
Lost the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis !*
Here where the ancient paid thee homage long-
Thou, who didst call the Furiest from the abyss,
And round Orestes‡ bade them howl and hiss
For that unnatural retribution—just,

Had it but been from hands less near-in this
Thy former realm, I call thee from the dust!

Dost thou not hear my heart?-Awake, thou shalt and must. 4. It is not, that I may not have incurr'd

For my ancestral faults, or mine, the wound
I bleed withal, and had it been conferr'd

With a just weapon, it had flowed unbound;
But now my blood shall not sink in the ground;
To thee do I devote it-thou shalt take

The vengeance which shall yet be sought and found,
Which if I have not taken for the sake-

But let that pass-I sleep, but thou shalt yet awake.

5. And if my voice break forth, 'tis not that now,
I shrink from what is suffered : let him speak
Who hath beheld decline upon my brow,
Or seen my mind's convulsion leave it weak;
But in this page a record will I seek.

Not in the air shall these my words disperse,
Tho' I be ashes; a far hour shall wreak
The deep prophetic fulness of this verse,

And pile on human heads the mountain of my curse.
6. That curse shall be forgiveness.-Have I not-

Hear me, my mother Earth! behold it heaven!—

* Nem'-e-sis, the goddess of justice among the Greeks and Romans, usually represented with a pair of scales in one hand, and a whip in the other. +Furies, three fabulous deities, called goddesses of horror. Their office was to observe and punish the actions of bad men, and torment the consciences of secret offenders.

Orestes was the son of Agamemnon, a distinguished hero at the siege of Troy, who was killed, on his return to Greece, by his wife and Ægisthus, her base lover. Orestes, to avenge the death of his father, slew his mother; for which act he was pursued by the Furies, and suffered the most excruciating torments.