156

Away, away, through the wide, wide sky,
The fair blue fields that before us lie;
Each sun with the worlds that round us roll,
Each planet poised on her turning pole,
With her isles of green and her clouds of white,
And her 15 waters that lie like fluid light.
'For the Source of glory uncovers His face,
And the brightness 150'erflows unbounded space;
And we 12drink, as we go, the luminous tides
In our ruddy air and our blooming sides;
Lo, 'yonder the living splendours play!
15 Away, on our joyous path, away!

12' Look, look through our glittering ranks afar,
In the infinite azure, 'star after star,

How they brighten and bloom as they swiftly pass ! 12How the verdure runs o'er each rolling mass !

And the path of the gentle winds is seen,

Where the small waves dance, and the young woods lean.
'And see where the brighter day-beams pour,
How the rainbows hang in the sunny shower;
And the Morn and Eve, with their pomp of hues,
Shift o'er the bright planets and shed their dews,
And 'twixt them both, o'er the teeming ground,
With her shadowy cone, the Night goes round.

156 Away, away! in our blossoming bowers,
In the soft air wrapping those spheres of ours,
12In the seas and fountains that shine with morn,
See, love is brooding, and life is born,

And breathing myriads are breaking from night,
To rejoice, like us, in motion and light!'
Glide on in your beauty, ye youthful spheres!
To weave the dance that measures the years :
Glide on in the glory and gladness sent
To the farthest wall of the firmament,
The boundless visible smile of 'Him,
To the veil of whose brow our lamps are dim.

Bryant.

Ex. 83.

The Felon.

Oh! mark his wan and hollow cheeks, and mark his eyeballs' glare,

And mark his teeth, in anguish clenched-the anguish of despair!

'Know, three days since, his penance o'er, 'yon culprit left a jail;

And since three days, no food has passed those lips so parched and pale."

9' Where shall I turn,' the wretch exclaims; 12' where hide my shameful head?

How fly from scorn, or how contrive to earn an honest bread ?

'This branded hand would gladly toil; but when for work I pray,

"Who views this mark, "16A felon!" cries, and 13loathing turns away.

10 My heart has greatly erred-but now would fain return to good!

'My hand has deeply sinned-but yet has ne'er been stained with blood!

For alms or work in vain I sue-the scorners both 14deny. "I starve! I starve !-Then what remains? This choice-to sin, or die!

86

Here, Virtue spurns me with disdain ;-there, Pleasure spreads her snare ;

Strong habit drives me 'back to vice; and, urged by fierce despair,

"I strive, while hunger 4gnaws my heart, to fly from shame 11in vain!

World! 'tis thy cruel will! I yield, and 15plunge in guilt again.

"There's mercy in each ray of light that mortal eyes e'er saw; "There's mercy in each breath of air that mortal lips e'er draw; "There's mercy both for bird and beast in Heaven's indulgent plan;

10There's mercy in each creeping thing-but "man has none for man!

126 Ye proudly honest! when you heard my wounded 'conscience groan,

1Had generous hand, or feeling heart, one glimpse of mercy shown;

1That act had made, from burning eyes, sweet tears of virtue

roll,

Had fixed my heart, "assured my faith, and 16heaven had

gained a soul!'

Lewis.

102

PART IV.

EXERCISES FOR PRACTICE IN RECITATION.

Ex. 84.

EXTRACTS RELATING TO ANCIENT HISTORY.

The Days of Creation.

All dead and silent was the earth,

In deepest night it lay,

The Eternal spoke Creation's word,
And called to being, Day.

God spake the murmuring waters fled,
They left their deep repose,

Wide over-arching heaven's blue vault
The firmament arose.

God spake: He bade the waves divide ;
The earth uprears her head;

From hill, from rock, the gushing streams
In bubbling torrents spread.

God spake the hills and plains put on
Their robe of freshest green;

Dark forests in the valleys wave,

And budding trees are seen.

God spake and on the new-dressed earth
Soft smiled the glowing sun;

Then full of joy he sprang aloft,

His heavenly course to run.

God spake the waters teem with life,
The tenants of the floods;
The many-colour'd wingèd birds
Dart quickly through the woods.

God spake the lion, steer, and horse
Spring from the moisten'd clay,
While round the breast of mother earth
Bees hum, and lambkins play.

God spake He look'd on earth and heaven
With mild and gracious eye;

In His own image man He made,
And gave him dignity.

And now creation's work was ended;
Man raised his head-he spoke :
The day of rest by God ordained,
The Sabbath morning broke.

Krummacher.

It comes! it comes! the clouds concentring swell,
And, like a rushing cataract, downward pour
Their mass of prisoned waters.

As it fell,

A whirlwind swept the sea and shook the shore;
While Ocean rose, and with reverbering roar
Dashed its high billows o'er the rocky strand,
Responsive to the thunder peal, that tore

The boundless firmament, while Death's dark band, Storm, Fire, Wind, Hail, went forth to work their lord's command.

O then what prayers, and shrieks, and blasphemies
Rung 'mid the din of waters! while the glare
Of broad blue lightnings cleft the clouded skies,
And answering thunders seemed to crush the prayer,
And bid the conscious criminal despair.

Bowed in the dust, they dared not gaze on high :
They said the angel of destruction there
Urged his red car; around his presence fly

The arrows of his wrath; to mark him were to die.

*

*

*

*

Now it is done. The swelling floods may rise-
None live to perish in the gulf profound;
Devouring flames may dazzle o'er the skies--
None hear to startle at the thunder-sound.
There are but clouds above and waves around!
The universe is ocean-one wide sea
Appears, without a barrier or a bound,
As though it ever was, and aye shall be
Ascending upward, through infinity.

Oh! there was terror in the storm's deep gloom,
And wrath and vengeance in the lightning-glare ;
And in the thunder-peal the voice of doom;
And death in ocean, and o'er earth despair!
These, human eye and human heart may bear;
But the cold silence of that drear abyss-
Methinks the very Angels shudder there,
And pause an instant 'mid their songs of bliss

*

To weep-if Seraphs can-and mourn a scene like this.

Dale.

Ex. 86.

Jacob's Dream.

The sun was sinking on the mountain-zone
That guards thy vales of beauty, Palestine!
And lovely from the desert rose the moon,
Yet lingering on the horizon's purple line,
Like a pure spirit o'er its earthly shrine.
Up Padan-Aran's height, abrupt and bare,
A pilgrim toiled, and oft on day's decline
Looked pale-then paused for eve's delicious air;

The summit gained, he knelt, and breathed his evening prayer.
He spread his cloak and slumbered. Darkness fell
Upon the twilight hills; a sudden sound

Of silver trumpets o'er him seemed to swell;
Clouds heavy with the tempest gathered round;
Yet was the whirlwind in its caverns bound,
Still deeper rolled the darkness from on high,
Gigantic volume upon volume wound;
Above, a pillar shooting to the sky-
Below, a mighty sea, that spread incessantly.
Voices are heard-a choir of golden strings-
Low winds, whose breath is loaded with the rose ;
Then chariot wheels-the nearer rush of wings;
Pale lightning round the dark pavilion glows;
It thunders; the resplendent gates unclose:
Far as the eye can glance, on height o'er height,
Rise fiery waving wings and star-crowned brows-
Millions on millions, brighter and more bright,
Till all is lost in one supreme, unmingled light.
But two beside the sleeping pilgrim stand,
Like cherub-kings, with lifted, mighty plume;
Fixed sun-bright eyes and looks of high command:
They tell the Patriarch of his glorious doom :-
Father of countless myriads that shall come,
Sweeping the land like billows of the sea;
Bright as the stars of heaven from twilight's gloom,
Till He is given whom angels long to see,
And Israel's splendid line is crowned with Deity.

Croly.

And Rachel lies in Ephrath's land,
Beneath her lonely oak of weeping;
With mouldering heart, and withering hand,
The sleep of death for ever sleeping.