"lie still," balanced her body, spread her wings, and was away again for the sea! 7. Joseph was determined to see the result. His eye fol lowed her till she grew small, smaller, a mere speck in the sky, and then disappeared. What boy has not often watched the flight of the bird of his country in this way? 8. She was gone nearly two hours, about double her usual time for a voyage, when she again returned, ɔn a slow, weary wing, flying uncommonly low, in order to have a heavier atmosphere to sustain her, with another fish in her talons. 9. On nearing the field, she made a circuit arcund it, to see if her enemies were again there. Finding the coast clear, she once more reached her tree, drooping, faint, and weary, and evidently nearly exhausted. Again the eaglets set up their cry, which was soon hushed by the distribution of a dinner, such as-save the cooking—a king might admire. 10. "GLORIOUS BIRD!" cried the boy in ecstasy, and aloud; "what a spirit! Other birds can fly swifter, others can sing more sweetly, others can scream more loudly; but what other bird, when persecuted and robbed-when weary -when discouraged-when so far from sea, would have done this! 11. "GLORIOUS BIRD! I will learn a lesson from thee to-day. I will never forget hereafter, that when the spirit is determined, it can do almost any thing. Others would have drooped and hung the head, and mourned over the cruelty of man, and sighed over the wants of the nestlings; but thou, by at once recovering the loss, hast forgotten all. 12. "I will learn of thee, noble bird! I will remember this. I will set my mark high. I will try to do something, and to be something in the world; I will never yield to discouragements." QUESTIONS.-1. How far was this Old Eagle tree from the rea-shore? 2. In what way did the workmen obtain the fish she brought for her young? 3. What is said of the eaglets and the parent bird, when she returned to the nest? 4. What did she then do? 5. What did Joseph say when she returned with another fish? 1. KNOWLEDGE can not be stolen from you. It can not be bought or sold. You may be poor, and the sheriff come into your house, and sell your furniture at auction, or drive away your cow, or take your lamb, and leave you homeless and penniless; but he can not lay the law's hand upon the jewelry of your mind. This can not be taken for debt; neither can you give it away, though you give enough of it to fill a million minds. 2. I will tell you what such giving is like. Suppose, now, that there were no sun nor stars in the heavens, nor any thing that shone in the black brow of night; and suppose that a lighted lamp were put into your hand, which should burn wasteless and clear amid all the tempests that should brood upon this lower world. 3. Suppose, next, that there were a thousand millions of human beings on the earth with you, each holding in his hand an unlighted lamp, filled with the same oil as yours, and capable of giving as much light. Suppose these millions should come, one by one, to you, and light each his lamp by yours, would they rob you of any light'? Would less of it hine on your own path'? Would your lamp burn more limly for lighting a thousand millions'? 4. Thus it is, young friends. In getting rich in the things which perish with the using, men have often obeyed to the letter that first commandment of selfishness: "Keep what you can get, and get what you can." In filling your minds with the wealth of knowledge, you must reverse this rule, and obey this law: "Keep what you give, and give what you can." 5. The fountain of knowledge is filled by its outlets, not by its inlets. You can learn nothing which you do not teach; you can acquire nothing of intellectual wealth, except by giving. In the illustration of the lamps, which I have given you, was not the light of the thousands of millions which were lighted at yours, as much your light, as if it all came from your solitary lamp'? Did you not dispel darkness by giving away light'? 6. Remember this parable, and, whenever you fall in with an unlighted mind in your walk of life, drop a kind and glowing thought upon it from yours, and set it a-burning in the world with a light that shall shine in some dark place to beam on the benighted. QUESTIONS.-1. What is said of knowledge? 2. What is the giving of knowledge like ? 3. In getting rich, what precept have men obeyed? 4. What precept must be obeyed in getting knowledge? 5. How is knowledge best acquired? 6. What is meant by the jewelry of the mind, first paragraph? 7. What, by intellectual wealth, fifth paragraph ? LESSON XX. EX TIN" GUISH ED, put out. SEN' TI NEL, Soldier on guard. [stars. traders or pilgrims. CON STEL LA' TION$, clusters of fixed BRILL' IANT, shining; sparkling. HOST, great multitude. CRES' CENT, form of the new moon. EF FUL' GENCE, splendor. RE' GEN CY, rule; government. SUP PLI CA' TION, prayer; petition, 1 PAL' ES TÏNE includes that part of Turkey in Asia, lying on the eastern porders of the Mediterranean Sea. NIGHT'S LESSONS. L. II. SIGOURNEY. The lights in the 1. THE lessons of our school are over. distant windows are extinguished, one after the other. The village will soon be lost in slumber. When all the men and the women are asleep, must we keep awake to learn lessons'? 2. In large cities, there may be heard, now and then, the rushing wheel of the traveler. The watchmen pace their round, and cry, "All is well." In the long, cold nights of Norway, the watchmen who guard the capitol, pronounce, in a solemn tone, "God bless our good city of Bergen !" 3. In the garrison, or the endangered fortress, the armed sentinel keeps watch, lest they should be surprised by the foe. But in this peaceful village there is no need of either sentinel or watchman. Why may we not go to sleep, instead of learning Night's lessons? 4. My son, one of these you may learn in a moment. Did you say that all will soon be sleeping'? No! there is one Eye that never slumbers. He who made all the people, keepeth watch above the everlasting hills. Commit yourself to His care. 5. Now, will you learn with me the second lesson of the night'? Lift your eyes to yon glorious canopy'. Seest thou not there a sentinel, set by the Eternal, at the northern gate of heaven', -the pole-star'? 6. The pole-star'! Blessings are breathed upon it, by the weary caravan, fearing the poisonous wind of the desert, -by the red forest-children, seeking their home beyond the far Western prairies,—and by the lonely mariner, upon the pathless ocean. 7. The stars'! See them'! The oil in their lamps never burns out. These glorious constellations wheel their mighty course unchanged, while "man dieth and wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he ?”* 8. Yon brilliant orbs maintain their places, while countless generations pass away, and nations disappear and are forgotten. Let us bow in humility before "Him who bringeth out their host by number, who calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth." 9. Thirteen times in the year, Night, the teacher, gives extra lessons. Will you be there to learn them? First, she hangs up a pale crescent in the west. The ancient Jews hailed its infant beam, and answering fires of joy were kindled on the hills of Palestine.' 10. Next, she summons forth a rounded orb, clad in full effulgence, and commits to it the regency when the sun retires. Lastly, a slender, waning crescent appears nightly, like an aged man, ready to descend into the night of the tomb. * Job, 14th chap., 10th verse. Isaiah, 40th chap., 26th verse. |