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1. OFT has it been my lot to mark
A proud, conceited, talking spark,
With eyes that hardly served at most
To guard their master 'gainst a post;
Yet round the world the blade has been
To see whatever could be seen,
Returning from his finished tour,EI
Grown ten times perter than before.
Whatever word you chance to drop,
The travelled fool your mouth will stop,.
"Sir, if my judgment you 'll allow,
I've seen, and sure I ought to know."

So begs you 'd pay a due submission,
And acquiesce in his decision.

2. Two travellers of such a cast,

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As o'er Arabia's wilds they passed,
And on their way, in friendly chat,
Now talked of this, and then of that,
Discoursed a while, 'mongst other matter
Of the Chameleon'sEI form and nature.
"A stranger animal," cries one,
"Sure never lived beneath the sun :
A lizard's body lean and long,
A fish's head, a serpent's tongue;
Its foot with triple claw disjoined;
And what a length of tail behind!
How slow its pace! and then its hue, -
Who ever saw so fine a blue ! "

3. "Hold there!" the other quick replies,
""T is green; I saw it with these eyes,
As late with open mouth it lay,
And warmed it in the sunny ray:
Stretched at its ease the beast I viewed,
And saw it eat the air for food."

4. "I've seen it, sir, as well as you,
And must again affirm it blue
At leisure I the beast surveyed,
Extended in the cooling shade."

5. ""T is green, 't is green, sir, I assure ye!
"Green! cries the other, in a fury;
"Why, sir, d' ye think I've lost my eyes ?
""T were no great loss," the friend replies;
For, if they always serve you thus,
You'll find them of but little use."

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6. So high at last the contest rose,
From words they almost came to blows;
When luckily came by a third;
To him the question they referred,
And begged he 'd tell them, if he knew,
Whether the thing was green or blue.

ΕΙ

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7. "Sirs," cries the umpire, cease your pother
The creature 's neither one nor t' other;
I caught the animal last night,
And viewed it o'er by candle-light:
I marked it well, 't was black as jet,
You stare; but, sirs, I've got it yet,
And can produce it. Pray, sir, do;
I'll lay my life the thing is blue."
"And I'll be bound, that when you 've seen
The reptile, you 'll pronounce him green
"Well, then, at once to end the doubt,"
Replies the man, "I'll turn him out:
And when before your eyes I've set him,
If you don't find him black, I'll eat him."
He said; then full before their sight
Produced the beast, and, lo!

-'t was white.

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IN man or woman, but far most in man,
And most of all in man that ministers
And serves the altar, in my soul I loathe
All affectation; 't is my perfect scorn,
Object of my implacable disgust.

What! will a man play tricks, will he indulge
A silly fond conceit of his fair form
And just proportion, fashionable mien
And pretty face, in presence of his God?
Or will he seek to dazzle me with tropes,EI
As with the diamond on his lily hand,
And play his brilliant parts before my eyes,
When I am hungry for the bread of life?
He mocks his Maker, prostitutes and shames
His noble office, and, instead of truth,
Displaying his own beauty, starves his flock.
Therefore, avaunt! all attitude and stare,
And start theatric, practised at the glass.
I seek divine simplicity in him

Who handles things divine; and all beside,

Though learned with labor, and though much admired By curious eyes and judgments ill-informed,

To me is odious.

COWPER.

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2. Higher still and higher

From the earth thou springest;

Like a cloud of fire,

The blue deep thou wingest,

And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest

3 All the earth and air

With thy voice is loud;

As, when night is bare,
From one lonely cloud

The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed.

4. Teach us, sprite or bird,

What sweet thoughts are thine;

I have never heard

Praise of love or wine

That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.

5. Chorus hymenē'al,

Or triumphal chant,

Matched with thine would be all

But an empty vaunt,

A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.

6. With thy clear keen joyance

Languor cannot be;

Shadow of annoyance

Never came near thee.

Thou lovest, but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.

7. Better than all measures

Of delightful sound,

Better than all treasures

That in books are found,

Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!

8. Teach me half the gladness

That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness

From my lips would flow,

The world should listen then, as I am listening now.

SHELLEY (ABRIDGED).

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FROM harmony, from heavenly harmony.
This universal frame began!
When nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,

And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
"Arise, ye more than dead!

Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,
In order to their stations leap,
And Music's power obey.

2. From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began;

From harmony to harmony,

Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapa'son closing full in man.

3. What passion cannot music raise and quell?
When Jubal struck the chorded shell,

His listening brethren stood around,

And, wondering, on their faces fell

To worship that celestial sound.

Less than a god they thought there could not dwell
Within the hollow of that shell,

That spoke so sweetly and so well.

What passion cannot music raise and quell?

4. The trumpet's loud clangor

Excites us to arms,

With shrill notes of anger,

And mortal alarms.

The double, double, double beat

Of the thundering drum,

Cries," Hark! the foes come;

Charge, charge! 't is too late to retreat."

5. The soft complaining flute

In dying notes discovers

The woes of hapless lovers,

Whose dirge is whispered by the warbling lute.

6. Sharp violins proclaim

Their jealous pangs, and desperation,

Fury, frantic indignation,

Depths of pain and height of passion,
For the fair disdainful dame.

7. But, O! what art can teach,

What human voice can reach,

The sacred organ's praise!
Notes inspiring holy love,

Notes that wing their heavenly ways
To mend the choirs38 above.
OrpheusEI could lead the savage race;
And trees uprooted left their place,
Sequacious of the lyre;

But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher :
When to her organ vocal breath was given,
An angel heard, and straight appeared,
Mistaking earth for heaven.

DRYDEN.

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On the departure of his vessels, Pizarro marched into the interior, in the hope of finding the pleasant champaign country which had been promised him by the natives. But at every step the forests seemed to grow denser and darker, and the trees towered to a height such as he had never seen, even in these fruitful regions, where nature works on so gigantic a scale. Hill continued to rise above hill, as he advanced, rolling onward, as it were, by successive waves, to join that colossal barrier of the Andes, whose frosty sides, far away above the clouds, spread out like a curtain of burnished silver, that seemed to connect the heavens with the earth.

On crossing these woody eminences, the forlorn adventurers would plunge into ravines' of frightful depth, where the exhalations of a humid soil steamed up amidst the incense of sweetscented flowers, which shone through the deep glooms in every conceivable variety of color. Birds, especially of the parrot tribe, mocked this fantastic variety of nature with tints as brilliant as those of the vegetable world. Monkeys chattered in crowds above their heads, and made grima'ces like the fiendish spirits of these solitudes; while hideous reptiles, engendered in the slimy depths of the pools, gathered round the footsteps of the wanderers.

Here was seen the gigantic boä, coiling his unwieldy folds about the trees, so as hardly to be distinguished from their trunks, till he was ready to dart upon his prey; and alligators lay basking on the borders of the streams, or, gliding under the waters, seized their incautious victim before he was aware of their approach. Many of the Spaniards perished miserably in

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