LESSON CIV.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. Columns, long, round pillars of wood or stone used to support a building; here means, the trees. 2. Century, space of a hundred years. 3. Fantastic, fanciful; imaginary; not real. 4. Perch, a branch on which fowls may light; a pole. 5. Wells, issues forth, as water from the earth. 6. Annihilated, reduced to nothing. 7. Coronal, a crown; a wreath. 8. Ancestors, those that precede in the order of nature; here means, the old decayed trees. 9. Arch, cunning; vly; shrewd. 10. Re-assure, to restore courage to; to free from fear. 11. Firmament, the region of the air; the sky.

1.

2.

3.

Forest Hymn.-Bryant.
FATHER, thy hand

Hath reared these venerable columns; thou
Didst weave this verdant roof.

Thou didst look down

Upon the naked earth, and, forthwith, rose

All these fair ranks of trees. They, in thy sun,
Budded, and shook their green leaves in thy breeze,
And shot towards heaven. The century-living crow,
Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died
Among their branches, till, at last, they stood,
As now they stand, massy, and tall, and dark,
Fit shrine for humble worshipers to hold
Communion with their Maker.

These dim vaults,

These winding aisles, of human pomp or pride
Report not. No fantastic carvings show
The boast of our vain race to change the form
Of thy fair works. But thou art here-thou fill'st
The solitude. Thou art in the soft winds
That run along the summits of these trees
In music;-thou art in the cooler breath,
That, from the inmost darkness of the place,

Comes, scarcely felt ;-the barky trunks, the ground,
The fresh, moist ground, are all instinct with thee.

Here is continual worship;-nature, here,

In the tranquillity that thou dost love,

Enjoys thy presence. Noiselessly, around,

From perch to perch, the solitary bird

Passes; and yon clear spring, that, 'midst its herbs,
Wells softly forth, and visits the strong roots
Of half the mighty forest, tells no tale

Of all the good it does.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Thou hast not left

Thyself without a witness, in these shades,

Of thy perfections. Grandeur, strength, and grace,
Are here to speak of thee. This mighty oak-
By whose immovable trunk I stand and seem
Almost annihilated-not a prince,

In all that proud old world beyond the deep,
E'er wore his crown as lofty as he

Wears the green coronal of leaves with which
Thy hand has graced him.

Nestled at his root

Is beauty, such as blooms not in the glare
Of the broad sun. That delicate forest flower
With scented breath, and look so like a smile,
Seems, as it issues from the shapeless mold,
An emanation of the indwelling Life,
A visible token of the upholding Love,
That are the soul of this wide universe.

My heart is awed within me, when I think
Of the great miracle that still goes on,
In silence, round me-the perpetual work
Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed
For ever. Written on thy works I read
The lesson of thy own eternity.

Lo! all grow old and die—but see, again.
How on the faltering footsteps of decay
Youth presses-ever gay and beautiful youth-

In all its beautiful forms.

These lofty trees

Wave not less proudly that their ancestors
Molder beneath them. Oh, there is not lost
One of earth's charms: upon her bosom yet,
After the flight of untold centuries,

The freshness of her far beginning lies

And yet shall lie.

Life mocks the idle hate

Of his arch enemy Death-yea, seats himself
Upon the tyrant's throne-the sepulcher,
And of the triumphs of his ghastly foe

Makes his own nourishment. For he came foit
From thine own bosom, and shall have no end.

8.

9.

10.

There have been holy men who hid themselves
Deep in the woody wilderness, and gave

Their lives to thought and prayer, till they outlived
The generation born with them, nor seemed
Less aged than the hoary trees and rocks
Around them; and there have been holy men
Who deemed it were not well to pass life thus;
But let me often to these solitudes

Retire, and in thy presence re-assure
My feeble virtue. Here, its enemies,
The passions, at thy plainer footsteps shrink
And tremble, and are still.

Oh, God!, when thou

Dost scare the world with tempests, set on fire
The heavens with falling thunderbolts, or fill,
With all the waters of the firmanent,

The swift, dark whirlwind that uproots the woods,
And drowns the villages; when, at thy call,
Uprises the great deep, and throws himself
Upon the continent, and overwhelms
Its cities-who forgets not, at the sight
Of these tremendous tokens of thy power,
His pride, and lays his strifes and follies by?

Oh, from these sterner aspects of thy face
Spare me and mine, nor let us need the wrath
Of the mad unchained elements to teach
Who rules them. Be it ours to ineditate
In these calm shades thy milder majesty,
And to the beautiful order of thy works,
Learn to conform the order of our lives.

QUESTIONS.-1. What is meant by 'verdant roof'? 2. What allusion is made to the age of the trees? 3. For what are they a fit shrine? 4. Of what do they not report? 5. What continual worship is in the forest? 6. What is said of the mighty oak? 7. Of the forest flower? 8. What change is constantly going on among the trees? 9. Does age lessen their charms? 10. What have some holy men done? 11. What will make us forget our pride, and lay our strifes and follies by ?

To what does the pronoun its, in the eighth verse, refer? With what tone of voice should the ninth verse be read? With what the last? Which line in the third verse is the most difficult to articulate distinctly, and why?

LESSON CV.

SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. Leviathan, a large water animal, of what kind is not known. 2. Banquet, a feast. 3. Proportion, form or shape. 4. Sundered, separated; parted. 5. Neesings, sneezings, or spoutings of a sea-animal, as of a whale. 6. Nether, lower, or being under. Ila ber' ge on, a defensive armor for the neck or breast.

The Leviathan.-BIBLE.

1. CANST thou draw out leviathan with a hook?
Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
Canst thou put a hook into his nose?

Or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

Will he make many supplications unto thee?
Will he speak soft words unto thee?

Will he make a covenant with thee?

Wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
Wilt thou play with him as with a bird?
Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
Shall thy companions make a banquet of him?
Shall they part him among the merchants?
Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons ?
Or his head with fish spears?

2 Lay thine hand upon him

Remember the battle, do no mòre.

Behold, the hope of him is in vàin:

Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
None is so fierce that dare stir him up:
Who then is able to stand before me?

him?

Who hath prevented me, that I should repay
Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

3 I will not conceal his parts, nor his

Nor his comely proportion.

power,

Who can discover the face of his garment?

Or who can come to him with his double bridle?

Who can open the doors of his face?

His teeth are terrible round about.

His scales are his pride,

Shut up together as with a close seal.

One is so near to another,

That no air can come between them.

They are joined one to another,

They stick together, that they can not be sundered.

By his neesings a light doth shine,

And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

4. Out of his mouth go burning lamps,

And sparks of fire leap out.

Out of his nostrils goeth smoke,
As out of a seething pot or caldron.
His breath kindleth coals,

And a flame goeth out of his mouth.
In his neck remaineth strength,

And sorrow is turned unto joy before him.
The flakes of his flesh are joined together:

They are firm in themselves; they can not be moved.
His heart is firm as a stone;

Yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

5. When he raiseth up himself the mighty are afraid :
By reason of breakings they purify themselves.
The sword of him that layeth at him can not hold:
The spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

He esteemeth iron as straw,

And brass as rotten wood.

The arrow can not make him flee;

Slingstones are turned with him into stubble:
Darts are counted as stubble :

He laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

5. He maketh the deep to boil like a pòt:
He maketh the sea like a pot of òintment.
He maketh a path to shine after hìm;
One would think the deep to be hoary.
Upon earth there is not his like,
Who is made without fear.

He beholdeth all high things—

He is a king over all the children of pride.

2.

QUESTIONS.-1. Does the leviathan live on land or in the water? Who is meant by me, second verse? 3. What is meant by 'the face of his garment,' third verse? 4. What by 'the doors of his face'? 5. What is said of his scales? 6. What is meant by 'eyelids of the morning'? 7. What is said of his strength, fifth verse? 8. Is there any animal that can compare with him? 9. What is meant by 'children of pride,' last line?

With what inflections should the questions in the first verse be read? With what the questions in the third verse?