XLVIII. A RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. 1. O, WHEN I was a tiny boy, My days and nights were full of joy, 2 A hoop was an eternal round But now those past delights I drop; And careful thoughts the string! EI 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, my present91 dreams Will never soar so high! 4. My joys are wingless all and dead; 5. My football's laid upon the shelf; The world knocks to and fro; 6. No more in noontide sun I bask; 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; 8. O, for the garb that marked the boy The crownless hat, ne'er deemed an ill- 9. O, for the lessons learned by heart! 10. When that I was a tiny boy, THOMAS BOOD. FROM "THE CASTLEE OF INDOLENCE." 1. Is not the field with lively culture green 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, And o'er the nations shook her conquering dart! 3. Had unambitious mortals minded naught Rude Nature's state had been ourl18 state to-day; 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, Into your quickened limbs her buoyant breath! 5. Ah! what avail the largest gifts of Heaven,80 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, - 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. 8. Would you, then, learn to dissipate the band -140 Resolve, resolve! and to be men aspire. alone Here to mankind indulged : - control desire. 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. EI 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. EI 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 |