XXXVIII. TO A WATERFOWL.

"BEHOLD the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?"-St. Matt. vi., 24, 34.

With what adjectives or verbs are the following abstract nouns connected.

WHITHER' 'midst falling dew,

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way,2

Vainly the fowler's eye

Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.

Seek'st thou the plashy brink

Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink
On the chafed ocean side?

There is a power whose care

Teaches thy way along that pathless coast-
The desert and illimitable air-3

Lone-wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere:
Yet, stoop not, weary, to the welcome land
Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end;

Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,5
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,
Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.

Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet on my heart
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given
And shall not soon depart.

TO A SKY LARK.

He who, from zone to zone,

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright.7

1. With what word is whither directly connected?

2. Put this whole verse into prose order.

3. What is the construction of this line?
4. What does weary agree with?
5. Is rest a noun or a verb here?

6. "The very rhythm of the stanzas To a Waterfowl,' gives the impression of its flight. Like the bird's sweeping wing, they float with a calm and ma

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BRYANT.

We see that 'cold thin

jestic cadence to the ear.
solitary wanderer of the
atmosphere;' we watch, almost with
awe, its serene course, until the abyss
of heaven has swallowed up its form,'
and then gratefully echo the bard's con-
soling inference:

'He who, from zone to zone,' &c.

Tuckerman's Thoughts on the Poets. 7. Natural order of the whole verse?

XXXIX. TO A SKY LARK.

"NEITHER childhood nor manhood can hear birds of song with indifference. Their notes are everywhere a large addition to human gratification, and become connected with the sweetest remembrances of the most joyous and impressible season of our life. They are usually small birds, and seem to be indestructible; for although cultivation, as it spreads, drives off many other species, yet by supplying these with more of the food they like best, they multiply from its abundance; and wherever gardens, fields or trees appear, some classes of these rural musicians are sure to be part of their feathered inhabitants. Of these, England possesses a considerable share."Turner's Sacred History of the World.

ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!

Dost thou despise the earth, where cares abound?
Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye,
Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?
Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will,
Those quivering wings composed, that music still.
To the last point of vision, and beyond,

Mount daring warbler! that love-prompted strain
("Twixt thee and thine a never failing bond)
Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain:
Yet mightst thou seem, proud privilege! to sing
All independent of the leafy spring.

Leave to the nightingale her shady wood;
A privacy of glorious light is thine;
Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood
Of harmony, with instinct more divine;
Type of the wise who soar, but never roam;
True to the kindred points of heaven and home.

WORDSWORTH.

XL. THE HOUR OF DEATH.

"MEN fear death as children fear to go into the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. Certainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin and passage to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak. * * * He that dies in an earnest pursuit, is like one that is wounded in hot blood; who, for the time, scarce feels the hurt; and, therefore, a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good, doth avert the dolours of death." -Bacon's Essays.

LEAVES have their time to fall,

And flowers to wither' at the North wind's breath,
And stars to set-but all,

Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death!

Day is for mortal care,

Eve for glad meetings round the joyous hearth,
Night for the dreams of sleep, the voice of prayer;
But all for thee, thou Mightiest of the Earth!

We know when moons shall wane,

When summer birds from far shall cross the sea,
When autumn's hue shall tinge the golden grain ;
But who shall teach us when to look for thee?

Is it when spring's first gale

Comes forth to whisper where the violets lie?
Is it when roses in our paths grow pale?
They have one season-all are ours to die!

Thou art where billows foam;

Thou art where music melts upon the air;
Thou art around us in our peaceful home;
And the world calls us forth-and thou art there;

Thou art where friend meets friend,

Beneath the shadow of the elm to rest;

Thou art where foe meets foe, and trumpets rend
The skies, and swords beat down the princely crest!
MRS. HEMANS.

the

2. What is stars the nom, to?

1. What governs this verb in the infinitive mood?

"UPON me lies a burden which I cannot shift upon any other human creature-the burden of duties unfulfilled, words unspoken, or spoken violently and untruly; of holy relationships neglected; of days wasted for ever; of evil thoughts once cherished, which are ever appearing now as fresh as when they were first admitted into the heart; of talents cast away; of affections in myself, or in others, trifled with; of light within turned to darkness. So speaks the conscience; so speaks or has spoken the conscience of each man.”. Maurice on the Lord's Prayer.

All this it tells, and could I trace
The imperfect picture o'er again,
With power to add, retouch, efface,

The lights and shades, the joy and pain,
How little of the past 3 would stay!
How quickly all should melt away—

All-but that freedom of the mind

Which hath been more than wealth to me;
Those friendships, in my boyhood twined,
And kept till now unchangingly,
And that dear home, that saving ark,
Where Love's true light at last I've found,
Cheering within, when all grows dark,
And comfortless, and stormy round! *

1. What?

2. Another word for haply.

3. Past, what?

4

MOORE.

4. What is round meant to be joined with?

N.B. Fontenelle is the person alluded to in the first verse. Franklin's saying that he would be glad to live his life over again if he had the power to make amendments in the second edition, was much more sensible.

II. WHAT IS PRAYER?

"THE prayers of men have saved cities and kingdoms from ruin: prayer hath raised dead men to life, hath stopped the violence of fire, shut the mouths of wild beasts, hath altered the course of nature, caused rain in Egypt, and drought in the sea; it made the sun to go from west to east, and the moon to stand still, and rocks and mountains to walk; and it cures diseases without physic, and makes physic to do the work of nature, and nature to do the work of grace, and grace to do the work of God; and it does miracles of accident and event; and yet prayer, that does all this, is, of itself, nothing but an ascent of the mind to God, a desiring things fit to be desired, and an expression of this desire to God as we can, and as becomes us. And our unwillingness to pray is nothing else but a not desiring what we ought passionately to long for, or, if we do desire, it is a choosing rather to miss our satisfaction and felicity than to ask for it."-Jeremy Taylor.

Derivations.

Sincere.

4

Etymology.

Hidden.

Unexpressed.

Sublimest.

Majesty.

Life.

Vital.

Trod.

Lieth.

Syntax.

Soul's.

That.

But, 2 v. 4 1.

Fellowship.
Disappear.