Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

EI

1. ALTHOUGH desirous of reaching the Lake of Constance with all possible speed, I was obliged to stop at Vadutz. Since our journey began it had rained in torrents, and now both horse hatinately refused to go a step further; the beast

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

And ask ye why He claims our love?
O answer, all ye winds of even,
O answer, all ye lights above,

That watch in yonder darkening heaven;
Thou earth, in vernal radiance gay

As when His angels first arrayed thee,
And thou, O deep-tongued ocean, say

Why man should love the Mind that made thee

There's not a flower that decks the vale,

There's not a beam that lights the mountain,
There's not a shrub that scents the gale,

There's not a wind that stirs the fountain.

There's not a hue that paints the rose,
There's not a leaf around us lying,

But in its use or beauty shows

True love to us, and love undying!

[blocks in formation]

The clouds proclaim, like heralds, through the skies,

Advance!

Throughout the world, the mighty Master's laws
Allow not one brief moment's idle pause;

5 ADDRESS TO DUTY.160-Wordsworth.

Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face;

Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,

, ou, who wounding tide
Advance!

Go, draw the marble from its secret bed,

And make the cedar bend its giant head;

Let domes and columns through the wandering air

Advance!

The world, O man! is thine. But, wouldst thou share,

Advance!

4. Unto the soul of man the same voice spoke,

Advance!

From out the chaos thunder-like it broke,

Advance!

Go, track the cometer in its wheeling race,
And drag the lightning from its hiding-place;
From out the night of ignorance and tears,
Advance!

For love and hope, borne by the coming years,
Advance!

5. All heard, and some obeyed the great command,
Advance!

It passed along from listening land to land,
Advance!

The strong grew stronger, and the weak grew strong,
As passed the war-cry of the world along

Awake, ye nations, know your powers and rights,

Advance!

Through Hope and Work, to Freedom's new delights
Advance!

6. Knowledge came down, and waved her steady torch,
Advance!

Sages proclaimed, 'neath many a marble pōrch,
Advance !

As rapid lightning leaps from peak to peak,
The Gaul, the Goth, the Roman, and the Greek,
The painted Briton, caught the winged word,

Advance!

And earth grew young, and carolled as a bird,
Advance !

D F. M'CARTHY.

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

EI

1. ALTHOUGH desirous of reaching the Lake of Constance with all possible speed, I was obliged to stop at Vadutz. Since our journey began it had rained in torrents, and now both horse and driver obstinately refused to go a step further; the beast because he sank in the mud up to his knees, and the man because he was wet to the bone. Indeed, it would have been cruel to have insisted on proceeding. Nothing but motives of philanthropy, however, could have induced me to enter the wretched inn whose sign had arrested our equipage.

ΕΙ

2. Hardly had I set foot in the narrow entry that led to the kitchen, which was, at the same time, the common room for travellers, than I was taken by the throat by a sharp odor of sour-krout, which came as a sort of preännouncement of my billof-fare. Now, I can say of sour-krout, as a certain abbë said of flounders, that if sour-krout and I were left alone on the earth. the world would very soon come to an end.

3. I began, then, to pass in review my whole Teutonic vocab'ulary, and to apply it to the possibilities of the larder of a village inn. The precaution was not untimely; for hardly was I seated at the table, where a couple of teamsters, the first occupants, were disposed to yield me an end, than a deep plate, full of the abhorred food, was placed before me. Fortunately I had been prepared for this infamous pleasantry, and I put aside the dish, which was smoking like a small Vesuvius, with a nicht gut (not good), so heartily enunciated that my hearers must have taken me for a full-blooded Saxon.

4. A German always supposes that he has misunderstood you when you say that you do not like sour-krout; but when it is in his own language that you express your disgust for this national dish, his astonishment to avail myself of an ex pression in vogue with his countrymen becomes "mountain

ous." There succeeded, then, an intal of silence, of stupefaction, like that which would have followed some abominable blas phemy, and while it lasted the hostess seemed to be laboriously occupied in rallying her disordered ideas.

EI

5. The result of her reflections was a phrase, pronounced in a voice so changed that the words were wholly unintelligible to me, although, from the physiognomy. I interpreted them to be, "But, sir, if you do not like sour-krout, what do you like?" Alles dieses ausgenommen," I replied; which I will remark, for the benefit of those not up with me in philology, means "All, except that." It appeared that disgust had produced upon

[ocr errors]

ΕΙ

me the same effect that indignation did upon Ju'vënal; only instead of inspiring me to versify, it had enabled me to pro nounce German; I perceived it in the submissive air with which the hostess took away the unfortunate sour-krout.

6. I remained, then, waiting my second service, amusing my. self meanwhile by making pellets out of the bread, or tasting, with many a shrugs and grimace', a kind of sour wine, which, because it had an abominable flavor of flint, and was contained in a long-necked bottle, was pleasantly called Hock. -"Well?" said I, looking up. "Well?" returned the hostess. "My sup'O, yes!"—And she brought me again the sour

per!". krout!

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

7. I made up my mind that unless I took summary justice upon it there would be no end to her persecutions. I therefore called a dog, one of the Saint Bernard' breed, who lay toasting his nose and paws before the fire, and who, on recognizing my good intentions, left the chimney, came to me, and with three jerks of the tongue lapped up the proffered food. "Well done, beast!" said I, when he had finished; and I returned the empty plate to the hostess. "And you?" she said. -"O! I will eat something else."-"But I haven't anything else," she replied. 8. "How!" cried I, from the very depths of my empty stomach; "have n't you some eggs?". -"None.". "Some cutlets?" "None." "Some potatoes?"-"None."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"Some

A luminous idea crossed my mind. I remembered that I had been advised not to pass through the place without tasting the mushrooms, for which, twenty leagues round, it is celebrated. But when I wished to avail myself of this felicitous recollection, an unforeseen difficulty presented itself in the fact that I could not, for the life of me, recall the German word, the pronunciation of which was essential, unless I would go hungry to bed. I remained, then, with open mouth, pausing at the indefinite pro

noun.

some

[ocr errors]

(6

93

9. "Some -some-how do you call it in German? Some-” "Some?" repeated the hostess, mechanically.— Eh? yes; At this moment my eyes fell upon my album, "Wait," said I, "wait!" I then took my pencil, and, on a beautiful white leaf, drew, as carefully as I could, the precious vegetable which formed for the moment the object of my desires. I flattered myself that it approached as near to a resemblance as it is permitted for the work of man to reproduce the work of

nature.

10. All this while the hostess followed me with her eyes, displaying an intelligent curiosity that seemed to augur most favorably for my prospects. "Ah! ja, ja, ja (yes, yes, yes),"

[ocr errors]

said she, as I gave the finishing touch to the drawing. She had comprehended-the clever woman! so well comprehended, that, five minutes after, she entered the room with an umbrella all open. "There!" said she. I threw a glance upon my unfortunate drawing—the resemblance was perfect!

ORIGINAL TRANSLATION FROM DUMAS

LXXXI. THE CAVERN BY THE SEA.

1. THERE is a cavern in the island of Hoonga, one of the Tonga islands, in the South Pacific Ocean, which can be entered only by diving into the sea, and has no other light than what is reflected from the bottom of the water. A young chief discovered it accidentally while diving after a turtle, and the use which he made of his discovery will probably be sung in more than one European language, so beautifully is it adapted for a tale in

verse.

2. There was a tyrannical governor at Văvaoo, against whom one of the chiefs formed a plan of insurrection; it was betrayed, and the chief, with all his family and kin, was ordered to be destroyed. He had a beautiful daughter, betrothed to a chief of high rank, and she also was included in the sentence. The youth who had found the cavern, and kept the secret to himself, loved this damsel; he told her the danger in time, and persuaded her to trust herself to him. They got into a canoe; the place of her retreat was described to her on the way to it. These women person who brings these trơn suv vaftow him and rose in the evenings, range over the entire field of useful knowledge. Our common schools are important in the same way as the common air, the common sunshine, the common rain, invaluable for their commonness. They are the corner-stone of that municipal organization which is the characteristic feature of our social system; they are the fountain of that wide-spread intelligence, which, like a moral life, pervades the country. From the humblest village school there may go forth a teacher who, like Newton, shall bind his temples with the stars of Orion's belt, — with Herschel, light up his cell with the beams of before undiscov. ered planets, with Franklin, grasp the lightning.

ΕΙ

4. ON PAMPERING THE BODY AT THE SOUL'S EXPENSE. — Everett. What, sir! feed a child's body, and let his soul hunger! pamper his limbs, and starve his faculties! What! plant the earth

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »