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XLVIII.

A RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

1. O, WHEN I was a tiny boy,

My days and nights were full of joy,
My mates were blithe and kind!
No wonder that I sometimes sigh,
And dash the tear-drop from my eye,
To cast a look behind!

2 A hoop was an eternal round
Of pleasure. In those days I found
A top a joyous thing;

But now those past delights I drop;
My head, alas! is all my top,

And careful thoughts the string!

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3. My kite,181 how fast and far it flew ! Whilst I, a sort of Franklin, drew My pleasure from the sky!

'Twas papered o'er with studious themes, The tasks I wrote,

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my present91 dreams

Will never soar so high!

4. My joys are wingless all and dead;
My dumps are made of more than lead
My flights soon find a fall.
My fears prevail, my fancies droop,
Joy never cometh with a hoop,
And seldom with a call!

5. My football's laid upon the shelf;
I am a shuttlecock myself

The world knocks to and fro;
My archery is all unlearned,
And grief against myself has turned
My arrows and my bow!

6. No more in noontide sun I bask;
My authorship 's an endless task;
My head 's ne'er out of school.
My heart is pained with scorn and slight,
I have too many foes to fight,

And friends grow strangely cool!

7. No skies so blue or so serene

As then ; no leaves look half so green

As clothed the playground tree;
All things I loved are altered so!
Nor does it ease my heart to know
That change resides in me!

8. O, for the garb that marked the boy
The trousers made of corduroy,"I
Well inked with black and red,

The crownless hat, ne'er deemed an ill-
It only let the sunshine still
Repose upon my head!

9. O, for the lessons learned by heart!
Ay, though the very birch's smart
Should mark those hours again;
I'd "kiss the rod," and be resigned
Beneath the stroke, and even find
Some sugar in the cane!

10. When that I was a tiny boy,
My days and nights were full of joy,
My mates were blithe and kind!
No wonder that I sometimes sigh,
And dash the tear-drop from my eye,
To cast a look behind!

THOMAS BOOD.

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FROM "THE CASTLEE OF INDOLENCE."

1. Is not the field with lively culture green
A sight more joyous than the dead morăss?
Do not the skies, with active e'ther clean,
And fanned by sprightly zephyrs, far surpass
The foul Novemberi fogs, and slumberous mass,
With which sad Nature veils her drooping face?
Does not the mountain-stream, as clear as glass,
Gay dancing on, the putrid pool disgrace?

The same in all holds true, but chief in human race.

2. It was not by vile loitering in ease

That Greece obtained the brighter palm of art,
That soft yet ardent Athens learnt to please,
To keen the wit, and to sublime the heart,
In all supreme! complete in every part!
It was not thence majestic Rome arose,

And o'er the nations shook her conquering dart!
For sluggard's brow the laurel never grows;
Renown is not the child of indolent repose.

3. Had unambitious mortals minded naught
But in loose joy their time to wear away-
Had they alone the lap of dalliance sought,
Pleased on her pillow their dull heads to lay,-

Rude Nature's state had been ourl18 state to-day;
No cities e'er their towery fronts had raised,
No arts had made us opulent and gay;

With brother-brutes the human race had grazed;

None e'er had soared to fame, none honored been, none praised.

4. But should your hearts to fame unfeeling be,
If right I read, you pleasure all require :
Then see how best may be obtained this fee,
How best enjoyed this, nature's wide desire.
Toil, and be glad! let industry inspire

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Into your quickened limbs her buoyant breath!
Who does not act is dead; - absorpte entire
In miry sloth, no pride, no joy he hath ;
O, leaden-hearted men, to be in love with death!

5. Ah! what avail the largest gifts of Heaven,80
When drooping health and spirits go amiss?
How tasteless then whatever can be given!
Health is the vital principle of bliss,
And exercise of health. In proof of this,
Behold the wretch who slugs his life away,
Soon swallowed in disease's sad abyss,

While he whom toil has braced, or manly play,

Has light as air each limb, each thought as clear as day.

60, who can speak the vigorous joy of health, -
Unclogged the body, unobscured the mind?
The morning rises gay, with pleasing stealth,
The temperate evening falls serene and kind.
In health the wiser brutes true gladness91 find.
See! how the younglings frisk along the meads,
As May comes on, and wakes the balmy wind ;116
Rampant with life, their joy all joy exceeds:

Yet what but high-strung health this dancing pleasauncTM breeds

7. There are,166 I see, who listen to my lay,

Who wretched sigh for virtue, yet despair.
"All may be done," methinks I hear them say,
"Even death despised by generous actions fair,
All, but for those who to these bowers repair!
Their every power dissolved in luxury,
To quit of torpid sluggishness the lair,
And from the powerful arms of sloth get free
"T is rising from the dead :- -Alas! it cannot be !"

8. Would you, then, learn to dissipate the band
Of these huge threatening difficulties dire,156
That in the weak man's way like lions stand,
His soul appall,24 and damp his rising fire?

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Resolve, resolve! and to be men aspire.
Exert that noblest privilege,

alone

Here to mankind indulged : - control desire.
Let godlike Reason, from her sovereign throne,
Speak the commanding word, I will!—and it is done.

THOMSON.

L.

THE TEACHINGS OF NATURE.

1. AMONG the disciples of Hillel, the wise teacher of the sons of Israël, was one named Saboth, who was averse to labor; and he gave himself up to sloth and idleness. But Hillel sor rowed over the youth, and resolved to turn him from the error of his ways. For this purpose, he led him out into the valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem. There was here a stagnant pool, full of worms and insects, and covered with slimy weeds.

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2. When they reached the valley, Hillel laid his staff upon the ground and said, "We will rest here on our way." But the youth wondered, and answered, "How, master! by this loathsome pool? Dost thou not see the poisonous vapor that ascends therefrom?"_ "Thou art right, my son!" answered the teacher; "this pool is like the soul of the sluggard. Who would tarry near it?"

3. Hillel now led the youth to a barren field, upon which grew naught but thorns and thistles, that choked the wheat and the healthful herbs. Hillel here leaned upon his staff, and said, "Behold, the soil of this field is good, and it is able to bring forth useful and salutary fruits. But it has been forgotten and neglected. Therefore it now produces prickly thorns and thistles, and poisonous weeds; snakes and toads dwell therein. In the pool thou didst see the soul,118 here recognize the life of the slug. gard."

4. Then Saboth was filled with shame and repentance, and he said, "Master, wherefore" dost thou lead me into these waste and dreary places? They are the rebuking emblems of my soul and of my life." And Hillel said, "As thou wouldst not hearken to my words, I have tried whether the voice of Nature would not speak with greater power to thee."

5. Saboth then clasped his teacher's hand, and said, “O, it has penetrated my heart, and thou wilt, henceforth, see that a new life has arisen within me." And so it was. Saboth became an active and industrious youth. Hillel then led him into a fair and fertile valley, by the banks of a clear stream, which flowed in pleasant windings between fruitful trees, flowering meadows, and dark-green bushes.

6. ・ Behold,” said the old man to the delighted youth, “ the emblem of thy new and active life! Nature, which hath warned thee, may now reward thee also.”—“ And mine own heart," replied the youth, with emotion, “and the approbation of my faithful teacher." The charms and beauty of Nature can truly delight him only who in her life views his own.

FROM THE GERMAN

LI. — - A CHASE ON THE ICE.

1. DURING the winter of 1844, being in the northern part of Maine, I had much leisure for the sports of a new country. To none was I more passionately addicted than to skating. The sequestered lakes, frozen by intense cold, offer a wide plain to the lovers of this pastime. Often would I bind on my skates, and glide away up the glittering river, threading every mazy streamlet that flowed on toward the parent ocean, and feeling every pulse bound with the joyous exercise. It was during one of these excursions that an adventure befell me, that I can rarely think upon, even now, without a certain thrill of astonishment.

2. I had left a friend's house one evening, just before dusk, with the intention of skating a short distance up the noble Kennebec, which, under its icy crust, flowed directly before the door." The air was clear, calm, and bracing. The new moon silvered the lofty pines, and the stars twinkled with rare brilliancy from their dark-blue depths. In the stillness, the solitude and magnificence of the scene, there was an effect almost preternatural upon the mind. I had gone up the river nearly two miles, when, coming to a little stream which emptied into a larger, I turned in to explore its course. Fir and hemlock trees of a century's growth met overhead, and formed an evergreen archway, radiant with frost-work.

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3. All was dark within; but I was young and fearless, and, as I peered into the unbroken forest, I laughed in very joyous ness. My wilde hurra rang through the woods, and I stood listening to the echo that reverberated again and again, until all was hushed. Occasionally from some tall oak a night-bird would flap its wings. I watched the owls as they fluttered by, and I held my breath to listen to their distant hooting.

4. All of a sudden," a sound arose, which seemed to proceed from the very ice beneath my feet. It was loud and tremendous at first, and ended in a long yell. I was appalled. Coming on the car amid such an unbroken solitude, it sounded like a blast from an infernal trumpet. Presently I heard the twigs on the shore

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