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2. Quick man the life-boat! hark! the gun
Boo us through the vapory air;
And see! the signal flags are on,
And speak the ship's despair.
That forked flash, that pealing crash,
Seemed from the wave to sweep her:
She's on the rock, with a terrible shock-
And the wail comes louder and deeper.
The life-boat! Man the life-boat!

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3 Quick! man the life-boat! See the crew88
Gaze on their watery grave:

Already, some, a gallant few,
Are battling with the wave;

And one there stands, and wrings his hands,
As thoughts of home come o'er him ;

For his wife and child, through the tempest wild
He sees on the heights before him.

The life-boat! Man the life-boat!

4. Speed, speed the life-boat! Off she goes!
And, as they pulled the oar,
From shore and ship a cheer arose
That startled ship and shore.
Life-saving ark! yon fated bark

Has human lives within her;

And dearer than gold is the wealth untold
Thou 'It save if thou canst win her.

On, life-boat! Speed thee, life-boat!

5. Hurra! the life-boat dashes on,

-

Though darkly the reef may frown;
The rock is there- the ship is gone
Full twenty fathoms down.

But, cheered by hope, the seamen cope

With the billows single-handed:

They are62 all in the boat! - hurra! they 're afloat!

And now they are safely landed,

By the life-boat! Cheer the life-boat!

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1. WHAT can surpass, in festa190 magnificence, a clear winter morning, when all things are firm with the cold? The early sunbeams play upon the glittering frost. The crystal icicles, like pend'ulous diamonds, adorn every branch. Hills, valleys and plains, are robed in a pure attire of snow, upon the delicate and

icy points of which10s the hues of the rainbow seem dancing. The once variegated and wide-spreading landscape is transformed, by its white and dazzling mantle, into a scene simple and uniform as some exquisite marble statue. What profound stillness far and near! What a hush in the forest, as if the very winds were frozen!

2. And yet it is not the universal stillness which broods over the snow-clad plains, not the icy jewels which adorn both twig and branch, not the mirror-like surface of the ice on river and lake, which are worthy of our admiring wonder; but the creat ive power of the Father of the universe, and the plenitude of His divine goodness. Thus did David contemplates the wonders of nature. Ever did his adoring soul ascend from the incom. prehensible grandeur of creation, to the Omnipotent Creator. “Great is the Lord,” he sang, "and great is His power; yea, and His wisdom is infinite." "He giveth snow like wool, and scattereth the hoar frost like ashes." "He casteth His ice like morsels who is able to abide His frost?"

ΕΙ

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3. Yes, great is He, and incomprehensible, as He governs! But how few are they who are sensible of the greatness and mysterious wonder displayed in the benevolent appearances of nature! And yet, each single snow-flake, as it floats down from its cloud, is a subject for wonder, and proclaims He is great, and incomprehensible, as He governs! How do these mighty masses of delicately frozen water originate in the chambers of the heavens 280 Who holds these weighty volumes of snow, under which the branches of the trees are broken, and many huts are hidden from sight; volumes which in the aggregate weigh many thousand tons, yet which float with feathery lightness, long invisible, in the expanse of the heavens, in order that they may not sink to earth till the proper time, and then so softly as to be rendered harmless, and which give a nourishing warmth to the seeds of the fields, the food of the ensuing year for man and beast?

4. If we examine with minuteness the falling snow, we will observe, particularly if the air be calm, that each flake consists of a number of exceedingly delicate particles of ice, which are united together with wonderful regularity. Thus they usually form little, six-cornered, and finely-united stars, the half-transparent crystals of which are exquisitely pointed. Now they resemble fur with its regularly shooting points; now they assume the form of feathers; and now they may be likened unto fibrous flowers, as if of braid and moss. So extremely delicate are these heavenly images, that the gentlest breeze severs them, and gives them another form.

5. With whatever penetration man may contemplate, and with whatever ingenuity he may endeavor to account for the origin in the heights of the atmosphere, of these myriads of starry crys tals of inimitable beauty and wondrous shape, there must ever remain to the inquirer an unanswerable how?

ZSCHOKKE

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XXVI. THE TWO ROADS.

1. It was New Year's night. An agëd man was standing at a window. He mournfully raised his eyes towards the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface of a clear calm lake. Then he cast them on the earth, where few more helpless beings than himself were moving towards their inevitable goal-the tomb. Already he had passed sixty of the stages which lead to it, and he had brought from his journey nothing but errors and remorse. His health was destroyed, his mind unfurnished, his heart sorrowful, and his old age devoid of comfort.

2. The days of his youth rose up in a vision before him. and he recalled the solemn moment91 when his father had placed him at the entrance of two roads, one leading into a peaceful, sunny land, covered with a fertile harvest, and resounding with soft, sweet songs; while the other conducted the wanderer into a deep, dark cave, whence there was no issue, where poison flowed instead of water, and where serpents hissed and crawled.

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3. He looked towards the sky, and cried out, in his anguish : 'O, youth, return! O, my father, place me once more at the crossway of life, that I may choose the better road!" But the days of his youth had passed away, and his parents were with the departed. He saw wandering lights float over dark marshes, and then disappear. Such," he said, "were the days of my wasted life!" He saw a star shoot from Heaven, and vanish in darkness athwart the church-yard. "Behold an emblem of myself!" he exclaimed; and the sharp arrows of unavailing remorse struck him to the heart.

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4. Then he remembered his early companions, who had entered life with him, but who, having trod the paths of virtue and industry, were now happy and honored on this New Year's night. The clock in the high church-tower struck, and the sound, falling on his ear, recalled the many tokens of the love of his parents for him, their erring son; the lessons they had taught him; the prayers they had offered up in his behalf. Overwhelmed with shame and grief, he dared no longer look towards

that Heaven where they dwelt. His darkened eyes dropped tears, and, with one despairing effort, he cried aloud, "Come back, my early days! Come back!"

5. And his youth did return; for all this had been but a dream, visiting his slumbers on New Year's night. He was still young; his errors only were no dream. He thanked God fervently that time was still his own; that he had not yet entered the deep, dark cavern, but that he was free to tread the road leading to the peaceful land where sunny harvests wave.

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6. Ye who still linger on the threshold of life, doubting which path to choose, remember that when years shall be passed, and your feet shall stumble on the dark mountain, you will cry bitterly, but cry in vain, “O, youth, return! O, give me back my early days!"

RICHTER.

XXVII. THE PRESENT91 TIME.

1. OF Memory many a poet sings;

And Hope hath oft inspired the rhyme,
But who the charm of music brings
To celebrate the present time?

2. Let the past guide, the future cheer,

While youth and health are in their prime;
But, O, be still thy greatest care

That awful point

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the present time!

3. Fulfil the duties95 of the day

--

The next may hear thy funeral-chime;
So shalt thou wing thy glorious way,
Where all shall be the present time

XXVIII.

THE BLIND STREET-FIDDLER.

- he works on the crowd

1. AN Orpheus !EI an Orpheus!
He sways them with harmony merry and loud;
He fills with his power all their hearts to the brim
Was aught ever heard like his fiddle and him?

2. What an eager assembly! what an empire is this!
The weary have life, and the hungry have bliss;
The mourner is cheered, and the anxious have rest,
And the guilt-burthened soul is no longer opprest.

3. That errand-bound 'prenticel41 was passing in haste
What matter? he's caught- and his time runs to waste.

The newsman is stopped, though he stops on the fret,
And the half-breathless lamplighter - he's in the net!

4. The porter sits down on the weight which he bore;
The lass with her barrow wheels102 hither her store;
If a thief could be here, he might pilfer at ease;
She sees the musician, 't is all that she sees !

5. He stands backed by the wall;

he abates not his din,

His hat gives him vigor, with boons dropping in,
From the old and the young, from the poorest, and there
The one-pennied boy has his
penny to spare.

6. O, blest are the hearers, and proud be the hand

Of the pleasure it spreads through so thankful a band;
I am glad for him, blind as he is; - all the while

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If they speak 't is to praise, and they praise with a smile

7. That tall man, a giant in bulk and in height,
Not an inch of his body is free from delight;
Can he keep himself still, if he would? O, not he'
The music stirs in him like wind through a tree.

8. Mark that cripple! - but little would tempt him to try
To dance to the strain and to fling his crutch by !
That mother! whose spirit in fetters is bound

While she dandles the babe in her arms to the sound.

9. Now, coaches and chariots! roar on like a stream;
Here are twenty souls happy as souls in a dream;
They are deaf to your murmurs they care not for you,
Nor what ye are flying, nor what ye pursue!

WORDSWORTH.

XXIX.

GLADIATORIAL COMBAT WITH A TIGER.

ΕΙ

1. INSIDE of the great amphitheatre of Alexandria, sixty thousand spectators were assembled; and an equal number surrounded the outside. The hum of voices, the uproar which proceeded from this immense assemblage, resembled the noise of the ocean in a storm. Indeed, the amphitheatre itself might be compared to a vessel, the hold of which has been invaded by the waves and filled to overflowing, while, outside, other waves are climbing its sides and dashing over its deck. A horrible roaring, responded to by the cries of the multitude, announced the arrival of a tiger who had just been let out of his cage.

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2. At one of the extremities of the arena, ΕΙ а man lay couched half-naked upon the sand, and apparently asleep, so little interest did he seem to take in the affair which was vehe

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