ened; and the man turned to me with, "Now, you little rascal, you've played truant; scud to the school, or you'll buy it!" "Alas!" thought I, "it was hard enough to turn a grindstone, this cold day; but now to be called a little rascal, is too much." 65 3. It sank deep in my mind; and often have I thought of it since. When I see a merchant over polite to his customers, begging them to take a little brandy, and throwing his goods on the counter, thinks I, That man has an axe to grind. 96 When I see a man flattering the people, making great professions of attachment to liberty, who is in private life a tyrant, methinks, Look out, good people! that fellow would set you turning grindstones. When I see a man hoisted into office by party spirit, without a single qualification to render him either respectable or useful alas! methinks, deluded people, you are doomed for a season to turn the grindstone for a booby. FRANKLIN. XXXIV. - THE PRESENT IN VIEW OF THE FUTURE. 91 1. THE smallest thing becomes respectable when regarded as the commencement of what has advanced, or is advancing, into magnificence. The first rude settlement of Rom'ulus I would have been an insignificant circumstance, and might justly have sunk into oblivion, if Rome had not at length commanded the world. The little rill near the source of one of the great American rivers is an in'teresting object to the traveller who is apprised as he steps across it, or walks a few miles along its banks, that this is the stream which runs so far, and which gradually swells into so immense a flood. 2. So, while I anticipate the endless progress of life, and wonder through what unknown scenes it is to take its course, its past years lose that character of vanity which would seem to belong to a train of fleeting, perishing moments, and I see them assuming 5 the dignity of a commencing eternity. In them I have begun to be that conscious existence which I am to be through infinite duration; and I feel a strange emotion of curiosity about this little life, in which I am setting out on such a progress; I cannot be content without an accurate sketch of the windings thus far of a stream which is to bear me on for ever. 3. I try to imagine how it will be to recollect, at a far distant point, what I was when here; and wish, if it were possible, to retain, as I advance, the whole course of my existence THE GRAVES OF A HOUSEHOLD. 105 within the scope of clear reflection; to fix in my mind so very strong an idea of what I have been 98 in this original period of my time, that I shall most completely possess this idea in ages too remote for calculation. JOHN FOSTER. How are thy servants blest, O Lord! How sure is their defence! In foreign realms and lands remote, supported by thy care, ΕΙ Thy mercy sweetened every toil, made every region please; Confusion dwelt in every face, and fear in every heart, When waves on waves, and gulfs on gulfs, o'ercame the pilot's art: For, though in dreadful whirls we hung, high on the broken wave, In midst of dangers, fears, and death, thy goodness I'll adore, ADDISON. XXXVI. THE GRAVES OF A HOUSEHOLD. THEY grew in beauty, side by side; they filled one house with glee : One, 'mid the forests of the West, by a dark stream is laid; One sleeps where southern vines are dressed above the noble slain: He wrapt his colors round his breast on a blood-red field of Spain; And one-o'er her the myrtle showers its leaves by soft winds fanned; She faded 'mid Italian flowers the last of that bright band! And, parted thus, they rest who played beneath the same green tree ; MRS. HEMANS. XXXVII. — FALL OF A MOUNTAIN IN SWITZERLAND. EI 82 1. THE summer of 1806 had been remarkably stormy, and the copious rains had loosened the soil of the mountain of Rossberg, overlooking the valley of Goldau; but as late as the 2d of September nothing had occurred to presage the danger which menaced us. About two o'clock in the afternoon of that day, I told Louisa; the eldest of my daughters, to go and draw 28 some water from the spring. She took a pitcher and went; but returned in a minute with the news that the spring had stopped flowing. As I had only to cross the garden to satisfy myself in regard to this phenomenon, I went, and found that the spring was in truth dried up. ΕΙ I 2. I was about to give three or four thrusts with the spade into the soil, to discover the cause of this disappearance, when the earth seemed to tremble under my feet. I left the spade upright in the ground. What was my astonishment, when I saw it moving off by itself! At the same time a flock of birds rose with sharp cries into the air. I looked up and saw immense rocks detaching themselves and rolling down the mountain.27 believed that I was seized with a vertigo. I turned to retrace my steps to the house. Between me and it a fissure in the earth had been suddenly formed, the depth of which I could not measure. I leaped over it as if I were in a dream, and ran towards the house. It seemed as if the mountain were sliding from its base, and pursuing me. EI 3. Arrived before the door of my house, I met my father who had just been filling his pipe. He had frequently predicted * It will be remembered (see ¶ 32, Part I.) that the ea of hearth should be sounded like the ea of heart. To suit the rhyme, in this instance it may be sounded to correspond with the ea of earth. The last line in this poem is an instance of the inversion noticed in ¶ 156. The meaning is, -"Alas for love, if thou, O earth, wert all, and there were not another life beyond thee!" The line is elliptical as well as inverted. See ¶ 166. FALL OF A MOUNTAIN IN SWITZERLAND. 107 the disaster which seemed now at hand. I told him that the threatened to fall on us. mountain was staggering like a drunken" man, and that it "It will at least give me time to light my pipe," said he, reëntering 145 the house. At this moment," 91 something passed through the air, casting a huge shadow. I looked up. It was a rock, which, launched like a ball from a cannon, fell upon a house some four hundred paces from the village, and crushed it to pieces. ΕΙ 4. My wife now appeared, turning the corner of the street, and leading three of our children. I ran towards her, took two 66 of the children in my arms, and told her to follow me. "But, Marianna!" exclaimed she; Marianna, who is in the house with Francisca!" I retained her by the arm, for, the same moment,91 the house whirled round upon itself like a reel. My father, who had just set foot on the threshold, was precipitated to the other side of the street. I drew my wife towards I me, and compelled her to follow me. All at once there was a frightful noise, followed by a cloud of dust which covered the valley. My wife was tōrn forcibly from me. I turned she had disappeared with the child! 5. There seemed something incomprehensible-something infernal in it. The earth had opened and closed under her feet. I should not have known what had become of her, but that one of her hands remained visible outside of the soil. I threw myself upon this hand, which the earth seemed to hold like a vice. I would not quit the place. But my children cried for succor. I rose like one demented from the ground, took a child under either arm, and fled. Three times I felt the ground moving under my feet, and fell with my burthen. Three times I rose and struggled forward. 30 6. At length it seemed no longer possible for me to keep standing. I tried to hold on to the trees, and the trees fell. I tried to support myself against a rock, and the rock fled from me as if it were alive. I placed my children on the ground, and lay down beside them. An instant after, it was as if the last day of the creation had come. The whole mountain fell. 7. I remained thus with my poor children all the rest of the day, and a part of the night. We believed we were the last human beings alive in the world; but all at once we heard cries at some paces from us. They were from a young man of Bu'singen, who had been married that day. Returning from Art with the wedding party, at the moment of entering Goldau he had lingered behind to gather from a garden a bouquet of roses for his bride. When he looked for her again, village, wedding party, bride, all had disappeared like a flash; and the youth ran about crying" Catherine!" his bouquet of roses in his hand -like a spectre among the ruins. I called him. He approached, looked at us, and, seeing that she whom he sought was not with us, departed like a madman. 8. We arose, my children and I. Looking round, we perceived by the light of the moon a large crucifix which remained standing. We went towards it. An old man lay couched near the cross, in whom I recognized my father. I believed him dead, and rushed towards him. He started up. Then I asked him if he knew any thing of what had transpired in the house, which he had reëntered at the moment of the catas'tro-phe. But he had seen nothing, except that Francisca, our cook, had taken little Marianna by the hand, telling her to flee, for the day of judgment had come. But at the same moment all was overturned, and he was hurled into the street. He knew nothing more, having been stunned by his head's striking against a stōne. As soon as he recovered his consciousness, he bethought himself of the cross, came to it, prayed, and sank again insensible. 37 33 9. No description can give an adequate idea of the spectacle which presented itself when the day dawned. Three villages had disappeared. Two churches and a hundred houses were interred. Four hundred persons were buried alive. A fragment 91 of the mountain had rolled into the lake of Lowertz, and partly filling it up, had raised a body of water a hundred feet high and a league in extent, which had passed over the Isle of Schwanau, and swept off the houses and inhabitants. The chapel of Olten, built of wood, was found floating, as if by a miracle, on the lake; the clock of Goldau, carried through the air, had fallen a quarter of a league from the church to which it belonged. Only seventeen persons among the population of the valley survived this catastrophe. 30 90 EI 1. TPON the highest corner of a large windōw there dwelt a certain spider, swollen up to the first magnitude by the destruction of infinite numbers of flies, whose spoils lay scattered before the gates of his palace like human bōnes before the cave of some giant. The avenues to his castle were guarded with turnpikes and palisadoes, all after the modern way of fortification. After you had passed several courts you came to the centre, wherein you might behold the constable himself in his own lodg 92 |