Spring blazing from the ocean, and go back
To their mysterious caverns; mountains rear
To heaven their bold and blackened cliffs, and bow
Their tall heads to the plain; and empires rise,
Gathering the strength of hoary centuries,
And rush down, like the Alpine tavalanche,
Startling the nations; and the very stars,
Yon bright and glorious +blazonry of God,
Glitter awhile in their eternal depths,
And, like the Pleiad, loveliest of their train,
Shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away
To darkle in the trackless void; yet Time,
Time, the tomb-builder, holds his fierce career,
Dark, stern, all pitiless, and pauses not
Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path,
To sit and muse, like other conquerors,
Upon the fearful ruin he hath wrought.

G. D. PRENTICE.

LESSON CCXXXIII.

THE LAST MAN.

1. ALL worldly shapes shall melt in gloom, The sun himself must die,

Before the mortal shall assume

Its immortality.

I saw a vision in my sleep,

That gave my spirit strength to sweep
Adown the gulf of time.

I saw the last of human +mold,
That shall creation's death behold,
As Adam saw her prime.

2. The sun's eye had a sickly +glare,
The earth with age was wan
The skeletons of nations were
Around that lonely man.

Some had expired in fight; the brands
Still rusted in their bony hands;

In plague and famine, some.

Earth's cities had no sound nor tread;
And ships were drifting with the dead
To shores where all was dumb.

3. Yet, prophet-like, the lone one stood,
With dauntless words and high,
That shook the tsear leaves from the wood,
As if a storm passed by;

Saying, "We are twins in death, proud Sun,
Thy face is cold, thy race is run,

'Tis mercy bids thee go.

For thou, ten thousand thousand years,
Hast seen the tide of human tears
That shall no longer flow.

4. "What though beneath thee, man put forth His pomp, his pride, his skill,

And arts that made fire, flood, and earth,
The +vassals of his will:

Yet mourn I not thy parted sway,
Thou dim, discrowned king of day;
For all these trophied arts

And triumphs, that beneath thee sprang,
Healed not a passion or a pang,
Entailed on human hearts.

5. "Go, let oblivion's curtain fall
Upon the stage of men;

Nor with thy rising beams, recall
Life's tragedy again.

Its piteous pageants bring not back,
Nor waken flesh, upon the rack
Of pain anew to writhe,
Stretched in disease's shapes abhorred,
Or mown in battle by the sword,
Like grass beneath the scythe.

6. "Even I am weary, in yon skies
To watch thy fading fire;
Test of all sunless agonies,
Behold not me expire.

My lips, that speak thy dirge of death,
Their rounded gasp and gurgling breath
To see, thou shalt not boast.
The eclipse of nature spreads my pall,
The majesty of darkness shall
Receive my parting ghost.

7. "This spirit shall return to Him
That gave its heavenly spark;
Yet think not, Sun, it shall be dim
When thou thyself art dark.
No! it shall live again, and shine
In bliss unknown to beams of thine,
By Him recalled to breath,
Who captive led captivity,
Who robbed the grave of Victory,
And took the sting from Death.

8. "Go, Sun, while mercy holds me up
On nature's awful waste,

To drink this last and bitter cup
Of grief that man shall taste,
Go, tell the night, that hides thy face,
Thou saw'st the last of Adam's race
On earth's sepulchral clod,
The dark'ning universe defy
To quench his immortality,
Or shake his trust in God!"

CAMPBELL.

LESSON CCXXXIV.

GOD BLESSES THE INDUSTRIOUS.

1. THERE is an ancient fable of a man whose wagon was set fast in the mire, urgently praying to Hercules to come and lift it out for him. The statement is, that Hercules did, indeed, come, but told him to put his own shoulder to the wheel; for he would not try to help him, till he began in earnest to help himself.

2. Fables of this nature do well enough to exhibit a moral sentiment when we want to smile, but on the present occasion we may say, on authority quite different from fables, "Providence rules over all things, and rules, by assisting our personal exertions." It is the blessing of God which maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow therewith. And this blessing has always a connection with our own endeavors. "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule." "Seest thou a man slothful in his business?-there is more hope of a fool than of him."

3. There are two mistakes, which are extremes to each other, either of them very hurtful to such as incline toward them. One considers the over-ruling power and providence of God as a reason, or rather as an excuse for indolence. If God works, and gives as he pleases, I need not work; I may be still, till he chooses to shower down the blessing. Facts and experience show that such persons mistake sadly; they read their folly in their failure. This mode of error is not very likely to allure the young; the spirit of activity natural to youth, revolts against it. There is more danger from the opposite feeling, which places so much confidence in its own exertions, as to forget, that, after all, the blessing must be sought, must, indeed, be obtained, or no actual success will crown our labors.

4. The hand of Providence is an unseen hand; but not on that account the less real, or the less powerful, or the less suited to our daily occasions. "He is on my right hand, though I can not see

him; and on my left hand he worketh, though I can not behold him." To have so powerful, so wise, so gracious an agent on our side, must be an advantage; even the careless must own this. To have him, on the contrary, our adversary, must be to ruin us; the most hardy will eventually feel it so. Were we speaking of the world to come, the statement would scarcely be denied; and it is equally true of the world that now is.

5. Let it be recollected, that large, and beauteous, and wellfurnished as this globe of ours is, it is rather a laboratory than a store-house. The things we see are not exactly what we want; they are rather materials, and tools, and incitements toward the production of our own enjoyments. He who prepared Eden for man, did not authorize him to lounge and take his ease there, but "He put him into the garden to dress it and to keep it." There were fruits, and flowers, and shady groves, and sunny banks, no doubt; luxurious gratifications to every sense; but these were all of a nature to run wild and spoil, if left to themselves; mind, intellectual mind was necessary to keep them in proper order, to give them their sweetest beauty, to produce their most gratifying effect, and, especially, to continue the varied succession for daily occasions, as new days would severally demand.

6. His plan is still the same. Every individual mind he brings into existence, is placed where little can be obtained by ignorance or torpidity, but much by skill and labor. That wheat, which becomes the substantial food of man, was once a neglected plant, growing wild, and scattering vainly its starveling seeds to the wind. Were it not now selected, carefully sown, defended, +fostered, cleaned, it would still be almost useless, except to the birds, whose instinct prompts them incessantly to seek it. The spreading tree may afford a shelter, by its shady branches, to a few naked Indians; but cut down, squared into timber, sawed into planks, planed, cut into moldings, it may form a habitation of quite another kind, which shall be more comfortable, secure, and certain.

7. Behold that mis-shapen, dirty, useless lump. "Throw it away," says ignorance. "No," says science, "that is a mass of ore. By fire, by water, by hammering, by sifting, by melting, by shaping, we shall obtain the bar of iron, the workman's tool, the almost diamond-like brightness of polished steel! Our fruit-trees must be sown, and planted, and grafted, and pruned, or no delicious fruit will be obtained. Those who grudge the labor, deserve to have crab-apples, or black-berries for their dessert, for such is the +spontaneous production of the soil."

8. We have many pretty descriptions given us of nature and her simple children, sometimes by the noveliste, but oftener by

+

those falsifying gentry, the poets, who never knew how to keep to plain matters of fact; accordingly, it is very fascinating in good rhymes, to have a vivid picture set before us, of nature spontaneously providing for her favorite offspring. We are shown them in natural bowers, sleeping sweetly during the dominion of darkness, while the moonbeam flickers on their leafy pillow. Or we trace them, plucking from the bending bough, the +luscious +mangostan, the prickly-pear, the date, the flaming + pomegranate, or the ripe citron.

9. If this picture please us, we had better not take a nearer inspection by traveling thither. At least, let us first inquire, what serpents bask upon their sunny banks, or festoon from their overarching mangroves? what locusts sometimes blast all their vegetable hopes? what diseases undermine their health, which they have no skill to repel? In short, wherever nature, simple, unassisted nature rules, there are countless privations. Where arts are unknown, science uncultivated, commerce unattended to, there are misery, want, superstition, and every kind of suffering.

10. Such is, always, and under every climate, the condition of those who do not hearken to the voice of Almighty Benevolence, saying, "Arise and labor. Bind, and prune, and dig, and sow; form, build, beautify, exalt. Here are, around you, in rich abundance, materials, tools, immense powers of action; apply them. While you sit still, I shall give you little; up, and be doing. Invent, it shall delight you; make, it shall be useful to you; preserve, it shall enrich you; associate, mutual kindness shall make you happy; ye shall cultivate one another; ye shall do soon, by mutual assistance, what by individual exertion no one can ever effect. Let me see fields of golden corn waving; there is a fine vale for them; gather me flocks on those mountains; drain that marsh, it will make the air wholesome: on that knoll, assemble a village; teach the hollowed tree to float in that river; catch the fish, allure the birds, drive off the beasts of prey, defend the cattle, educate the children. Activity will bring health; wants will lead to invention; inventions will produce accommodation; accommodation will give leisure; and leisure, which avoids the fatigues of labor, gives opportunity for thinking."

11. The being who lives idly, lives rebelliously, contrary to nature's first law, and purest feeling; and he must take, as his appropriate punishment, poverty, ignorance, misery, and want.

TAYLOR.