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morning sun. I returned: it was dying upon its stalk; the grace of the form of it was gone: its loveliness was vanished away; its leaves were scattered on the ground, and no one gathered them again.

2. A stately tree grew on the plain; its branches were covered with verdure; its boughs spread wide, and made a goodly shadow; the trunk was like a strong pillar; the roots were like crooked fangs. I returned: the verdure was nipt by the east wind, the branches were lopt away by the ax; the worm had made its way into the trunk, and the heart thereof was decayed it mouldered away and fell to the ground.

3. I have seen the insects sporting in the sunshine, and darting along the streams; their wings glittered with gold and purple; their bodies shone like the green emerald; they were more numerous than I could count; their motions were quicker than my eye could glance. I returned: they were brushed into the pool; they were perishing with the evening breeze; the swallow had devoured them; the pike had seized them; there were none found of so great a multitude.

4. I have seen a man in the pride of his strength; his cheeks glowed with beauty; his limbs were full of activity; he leaped; he walked; he ran; he rejoiced in that he was more excellent than those. I returned: he lay stiff and cold on the bare ground; his feet could no longer move, nor his hands stretch themselves out; his life was departed from him; and the breath out of his nostrils. Therefore do I weep because DEATH is in the world; the spoiler is among the works of God; all that is made must be destroyed; all that is born must die.

LESSON XXV.
Immortality.-Barbauld.

1. I HAVE seen the flower withering on the stalk, and its bright leaves spread on the ground. I looked again; it sprung forth afresh; its stem was crowned with new buds, and its sweetness filled the air.

2. I have seen the sun set in the west, and the shades of night shut in the wide horizon: there was no color, nor shape, nor beauty, nor music; gloom and darkness brooded around. I looked the sun broke forth again upon the east, and gilded the mountain tops; the lark rose to meet him from her low nest. and the shades of darkness fled away.

3. I have seen the insect, being come to its full size, languish, and refuse to eat: it spun itself a tomo, and was shrouded in the silken cone; it lay without feet, or shape, or power to move. I looked again: it had burst its tomb; it was full of life, and sailed on colored wings through the soft air; it rejoiced in its new being.

4. Thus shall it be with thee, O man! and so shall thy life be renewed. Beauty shall spring up out of ashes, and life out of the dust. A little while shalt thou lie in the ground, as the seed lies in the bosom of the earth: but thou shalt be raised again; and thou shalt never die any more.

5. Who is he that comes to burst open the prison doors of the tomb; to bid the dead awake; and to gather his redeemed from the four winds of heaven? He descends on a fiery cloud; the sound of a trumpet goes before him thousands of angels are on his right hand. It is Jesus, the Son of God; the Saviour of men; the friend of the good. He comes in the glory of his Father; he has received power from on high.

6. Mourn not, therefore, child of immortality! for the spoiler, the cruel spoiler, that laid waste the works of God, is subdued. Jesus has conquered death: child of immortality! mourn no longer.

LESSON XXVI.

The End of Perfection. MRS. SIGOURNEY.

1. I HAVE seen a man in the glory of his days and the pride of his strength. He was built like the tall cedar that lifts its head above the forest trees; like the strong oak that strikes its root deeply into the earth. He feared no danger he felt no sickness he wondered that any should groan or sigh at pain.

2. His mind was vigorous like his body; he was perplexed at no intricacy; he was daunted at no difficulty; into hidden things he searched, and what was crooked he made plain.

3. He went forth fearless upon the mighty deep; he surveyed the nations of the earth; he measured the distances of the stars, and called them by their names; he gloried in the extent of his knowledge, in the vigor of his understanding, and strove to search even into what the Almighty had concealed.

4. And when I looked on him, I said, "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in forin and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a God!"

5. I returned his look was no more lofty, nor his steps proud; his broken frame was like some ruined tower; his hairs were white and scattered; and his eye gazed vacantly upon what was passing around him.

6. The vigor of his intellect was wasted, and of all that he had gained by study nothing remained. He feared when there was no danger, and when there was no sorrow he wept. His memory was decayed and treacherous, and showed him only broken images of the glory that was departed.

7. His house was to him like a strange land, and his friends were counted his enemies; and he thought himself strong and healthful while he stood trembling on the verge of the grave.

8. He said of his son-he is my brother; of his daughter— I know her not; and he inquired what was his own name.And one who supported his last steps, and ministered to his many wants, said to me as I looked on the melancholy scene -"Let thine heart receive instruction, for thou hast seen an end of all earthly perfection."

9. I have seen a beautiful female treading the first stages of youth, and entering joyfully into the pleasures of life. The glance of her eye was variable and sweet; and on her cheek trembled something like the first blush of the morning; her lips moved, and there was harmony and when she floated in the dance, her light form, like the aspen, seemed to move with every breeze.

10. I returned-but she was not in the dance; I sought her in the gay circle of her companions, but I found her not. Her eye sparkled not there-the music of her voice was silent-she rejoiced on earth no more.

11. I saw a train, sable and slow paced, who bore sadly to an open grave what was once animated and beautiful. They paused as they approached, and a voice broke the awful silence; Mingle ashes with ashes, and dust with its original dust. To the earth, whence she was at first taken, we consign the body of our sister."

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12. They covered her with the damp soil, and the cold clods of the valley; and the worms crowded into her silent abode. Yet one sad mourner lingered, to cast himself upon the grave, and as he wept, he said," there is no beauty, or grace, or loveliness that continueth in man; for this is the end of all his glory and perfection."

13. I have seen an infant with a fair brow and a frame like polished ivory. Its limbs were pliant in its sports; it rejoiced

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and again it wept; but whether its glowing cheek dimpled.with smiles, or its blue eye was brilliant with tears, still I said to my heart, it is beautiful.

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14. It was like the first pure blossom which some cherished plant has shot forth, whose cup is filled with a dew drop, and whose head reclines upon its parent stem.

15. I again saw this child when the lamp of reason first dawned in its mind. Its soul was gentle and peaceful; its eye sparkled with joy, as it looked round on this good and pleasant world. It ran swiftly in the ways of knowledge-it bowed its ear to instruction-it stood like a lamb before its teachers. 16. It was not proud, or envious, or stubborn, and it had never heard of the vanities and vices of the world. And when I looked upon it, I remembered that our Saviour had said, "Except ye become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

17. But the scene was changed, and I saw a man whom the world called honorable, and many waited for his smile. They pointed out the fields that were his, and talked of the silver and gold that he had gathered; they admired the stateliness of his domes, and extolled the honor of his family.

18. And his heart answered secretly, "By my wisdom have I gotten all this :"-So he returned no thanks to God, neither did he fear or serve him. And as I passed along, I heard the complaints of the laborers who had reaped down his fields, and the cries of the poor, whose covering he had taken away; but the sound of feasting and revelry was in his apartments, and the unfed beggar came tottering from his door.

19. But he considered not that the cries of the oppressed were continually entering into the ears of the Most High. And when I knew that this man was once the teachable child that I had loved the beautiful infant that I had gazed upon with delight, I said in my bitterness, I have seen an end of all perfection. hin a

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LESSON XXVII.

The Two Bees.-DODSLEY.

1. ON a fine morning in summer, two bees set forward in quest of honey,--the one wise and temperate, the other careless and extravagant. They soon arrived at a garden enriched with aromatic herbs,―the most fragrant flowers,—and the most delicious fruits.

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2. They regaled themselves with the various dainties that were spread before them; the one loaded himself at intervals, with provisions for the hive against the distant winter; the other revelled in sweets, without regard to any thing but his present gratification.

3. At length they found a wide-mouthed phial, that hung beneath the bough of a peach tree, filled with honey ready tempered, and exposed to their taste in the most alluring manner. The thoughtless epicure, in spite of his friend's remonstrances, plunged headlong into the vessel, resolving to indulge himself in all the pleasures of sensuality.

4. His philosophic companion, on the other hand, sipped a little, with caution; but being suspicious of danger, flew off to fruits and flowers; where, by the moderation of his meals, he improved his relish for the true enjoyment of them.

5. In the evening, however, he called upon his friend, to inquire whether he would return to the hive: but he found him surfeited in sweets, which he was as unable to leave, as to enjoy.

6. Clogged in his wings,-enfeebled in his feet,—and his whole frame totally enervated, he was but just able to bid his friend adieu; and to lament, with his latest breath-that though a taste of pleasure may quicken the relish of life, an unrestrained indulgence leads to inevitable destruction.

LESSON XXVIII.

Heroism of a Peasant.

1. A GREAT inundation having taken place in the north of Italy, owing to an excessive fall of snow in the Alps, followed by a speedy thaw, the bridge near Verona* was carried off by the flood, except the middle part, on which was the house of the toll-gatherer, who, with his whole family, thus remained imprisoned by the waves, and in momentary danger of destruction.

2. They were discovered from the banks, stretching forth their hands, screaming, and imploring succor, while fragments of this remaining arch were continually dropping into the water. In this extreme danger, a nobleman who was present, held out a purse of one hundred sequins,† as a reward to any adventurer who would take a boat and deliver the unhappy family. * Verona, a city in the northern part of Italy, now embraced in the Aus trian empire, is situated on the river Adige.

+ Sequin, a gold coin of Venice and Turkey, valued at two dollars and twenty-one and a half cents.

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