two or three thousand, in the face of a mountain eleven thousand feet high, and tumbling, crashing, thundering down, with a continuous din of far greater sublimity than the sound of the grandest cataract. 10. The roar of the falling mass begins to be heard the moment it is loosened from the mountain; it pours on with the sound of a vast body of rushing water; then comes the first great concussion, a booming crash of thunders, breaking on the still air in mid-heaven; your breath is suspended, as you listen and look; the mighty glittering mass shoots headlong over the main precipice, and the fall is so great, that it produces to the eye that impression of dread majestic slowness, of which I have spoken, though it is doubtless more rapid than Niagara. But if you should see the cataract of Niagara itself coming down five thousand feet above you in the air, there would be the same impression. The image remains in the mind, and can never fade from it; it is as if you had seen an alabaster cataract from heaven. 11. The sound is far more sublime than that of Niagara, because of the preceding stillness in those Alpine solitudes. In the midst of such silence and solemnity, from out the bosom of those glorious, glittering forms of nature, comes that rushing, crashing, thunder-burst of sound! If it were not that your soul, through the eye, is as filled and fixed with the sublimity of the vision, as through the sense of hearing with that of the audible report, methinks you would wish to bury your face in your hands, and fall prostrate, as at the voice of the Eternal. LESSON LVI. DIRECTION.—In reading or speaking the following sublime composition, the elocution should be slow, full, and distinct, expressing emotions of sublimity and reverence. THE MOUNTAIN HYMN. COLERIDGE. 1. O DREAD and silent mount! I gazed upon thee, Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, Didst vanish from my thought;-entranced in prayer, I worshiped the INVISIBLE alone. Yet like some sweet beguiling melody, So sweet we know not we are listening to it, As in her natural form, swelled vast to heaven! Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink! Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, And who commanded, and the silence came,"Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest ?" 5. Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow Adown enormous ravines slope amain— Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven Beneath the keen full moon! Who bade the sun Clothe you with rainbows? Who with living flowers Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet? "GOD!" let the torrents, like a shout of nations, Answer! and let the ice-plains echo,—“ GOD!" "GOD!" sing ye meadow-streams with gladsome voice! Ye pine groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds! And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow, And in their perilous fall shall thunder,-" GOD!" 6. Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost! Ye wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest! Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain storm! Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds! Ye signs and wonders of the elements! Utter forth-" GOD!" and fill the hills with praise! 7. Once more, hoar mount! with thy sky-pointing peaks, Oft from whose brow the avalanche, unheard, Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene, Slow traveling with dim eyes suffused with tears, Rise, like a cloud of incense, from the earth! LESSON LVII. EXPLANATORY NOTE.-1. WILLIAM TELL, a peasant of Switzerland, is celebrated for his resistance to the tyranny of the Austrian Governor, GESLER, and as one of the heroes who restored liberty to his oppressed country in 1307. For want of obedience to the mandate of Gesler, in bowing to his hat, Tell was condemned to shoot an apple from the head of his own son. He succeeded without harming his boy, but confessed that the second arrow which he had concealed, was intended, in case he failed, for shooting the tyrant. TELL ON THE ALPS. 1. ONCE more I breathe the mountain air; once more 2. That stand like frowning giants, fixed to guard The tyrant passed in safety. God of Heaven! O, liberty! Thou choicest gift of Heaven, and wanting which Even as the smile of Heaven can pierce the depths These beetling cliffs. Some hearts still beat for thee, 3. Lo! while I gaze Upon the mist that wreathes yon mountain's brow, O! is not this a presage of the dawn Of freedom o'er the world? Hear me, then, bright 4. Oh! with what pride I used How happy was I in it then! I loved Its very storms! Yes, I have sat and eyed 5. Ye know the jutting cliff, round which a track And I have thought of other lands, where storms Have wished me there-the thought that mine was free, Blow on! THIS IS THE LAND OF LIBERTY! KNOWLES. |