And bring pale Death upon him in his prime.
Why did he not to pleasure give his days,-
His nights to rest,—and live while live he might?"
What is 't to live? To breathe the vital áir,
Consume the fruits of earth, and doze away
Nèver! this is living death,-

Existence?

'Tis brutish life,-base, groveling. E'en the brutes
Of nobler nature, live not lives like this.

Shall man, then, formed to be creation's lord,
Stamped with the impress of Divinity, and sealed
With God's own signet, sink below the brute?
Forbid it, Heaven! it can not, must not be!

2. Oh! when the mighty GoD from nothing brought
This universe, when at His word the light

Burst forth, the sun was set in heaven,—

And earth was clothed in beauty; when the last,
The noble work of all, from dust He framed
Our bodies in His image,—when he placed
Within its temple-shrine of clay, the soul,-
The immortal soul,-infused by His own truth,
Did He not show, 'tis this which gives to man
His high prerogative? Why then declare
That he who thinks less of his worthless frame,
And lives a spirit, even in this world,

Lives not as well,-lives not as long, as he

Who drags out years of life, without one thought,One hope,-one wish beyond the present hour?

3. How shall we measure life? Not by the years,The months, the days,—the moments that we pass

On carth. By him whose soul is raised above

Base worldly things,-whose heart is fixed in Heaven,→
His life is measured by that soul's advance,—
Its cleansing from pollution and from sin,-

The enlargement of its powers,--the expanded field
Wherein it ranges,-till it glows and burns
With holy joys, with high and heavenly hopes.

4. When in the silent night, all earth lies hushed
In slumber, when the glorious stars shine out,
Each star a sun,—each sun a central light
Of some fair system, ever wheeling on
In one unbroken round,—and that again
Revolving round another sun,-while all,
Suns, stars, and systems, proudly roll along,
In one majestic, ever-onward course,
In space uncircumscribed and limitless,-
Oh! think you then the undebased soul
Can calmly give itself to sleep,-to rest?
5. No! in the solemn stillness of the night,

It soars from earth,-it dwells in angels' homes,--
It hears the burning song,—the glowing chant,
That fills the sky-girt vaults of heaven with joy!
It pants, it sighs, to wing its flight from earth,
To join the heavenly choirs, and be with God.
6. And it is joy to muse the written page,
Whereon are stamped the gushings of the soul
Of genius; where, in never-dying light,
It glows and flashes as the lightning's glare;
Or where it burns with ray more mild,—more sure,
And wins the soul, that half would turn away
From its more brilliant flashings. These are hours
Of holy joy,-of bliss so pure, that earth
May hardly claim it. Let his lamp grow dim,
And flicker to extinction; let his check
Be pale as sculptured marble,-and his eye
Lose its bright luster,-till his shrouded frame
Is laid in dust. Himself can never die!

7. His years, 'tis true, are few, his life is long;
For he has gathered many a precious gem;
Enraptured, he has dwelt where master minds
Have poured their own deep musings, and his heart
Has glowed with love to Him who framed us thus,—
Who placed within this worthless tegument

8.

The spark of pure Divinity, which shines
With light unceasing.

Yes; his life is long,-
Long to the dull and loathsome epicure's,-
Long to the slothful man's-the groveling herds
Who scarcely know they have a soul within,-
Long to all those who, creeping on to death,
Meet in the grave, the earth-worm's banquet-hall,-
And leave behind no monuments for good.

LESSON XCV.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. It is generally supposed that the cities SODOM and GOMORRAH, the destruction of which is mentioned in the 19th Chapter of Genesis, were situated where is now the DEAD SEA.

2. TI' BER is the river of Italy, on whose banks the city of Rome is situated. EU RO' TAS is a river of Greece, on the banks of which stood SPARTA, the great capital of Laconia, and also numerous villages and towns. CEPHIS' SUS is the name of three rivers of Greece, on the banks of one of which Athens is situated. This is doubtless the one, to which reference is here had. 3. ENNUI (en wa) is a term denoting lassitude, gloominess.

VALLEY OF THE JORDAN AND DEAD SEA.

From the French of CHATEAUBRIAND.

1. CONCEIVE two long chains of mountains running parallel from north to south, without projections, without recesses, without vegetation. The valley which lies between these mountains, resembles the bottom of a sea, from which the waves have long ago withdrawn,--banks of gravel, a dried bottom, rocks covered with salt, deserts of moving sand, here and there stunted arbutus shrubs grow with difficulty on that arid soil; their leaves are covered with the salt which had nourished their roots, while their bark has the scent and taste of smoke.

2. Instead of villages, nothing but the ruins of towers is to be seen. Through the midst of the valley flows a discolored stream which seems to drag its lazy course unwillingly toward the lake. Its course is not to be discerned by the water, but by the willows and shrubs which skirt its banks, and in which the Arab conceals himself to way-lay and rob the pilgrim.

3. Such are the places rendered famous by the maledictions of Heaven. That river is the Jordan. That lake is the Dead Sea. It appears with a serene surface; but the guilty cities' which are embosomed in its waves, have poisoned its waters. Its solitary abysses can sustain the life of no living thing; no vessel ever plowed its bosom; its shores are without trees, without birds, without verdure; its water, frightfully salt, is so heavy that the highest wind can hardly raise it.

4. I had seen the great rivers of America, with the pleasure which is inspired by the magnificent works of nature. I had hailed the Tiber' with ardor, and sought the Eurotas and Cephissus; but on none of these occasions did I experience the intense emotion which I felt on approaching the Jordan. Not only did that river recall the earliest antiquity, and a name rendered immortal in the finest poetry, but its banks were the theater of the miracles of our religion. Judea is the only country which recalls the earliest recollections of man, and our first impressions of Heaven; and thence arises a mixture of feeling in the mind, which no other part of the world can produce.

5. In traveling in Judea, an extreme feeling of ennui3 frequently seizes the mind, from the sterile and monotonous aspect of the objects which are presented to the eye. But, when journeying on through these pathless deserts, the expanse seems to spread out to infinity before you, the ennui disappears, and a secret terror is experienced, which, far from lowering the soul, elevates and inflames the genius. These extraordinary scenes reveal the land, desolated by miracles; that burning sun, the impetuous eagle, the barren fig-trec, all the poetry, all the pictures of Scripture, are there.

6. Every name recalls a mystery; every grotto speaks of the life to come; every peak re-echoes the voice of a prophet. God himself has spoken on these shores ;-these dried-up torrents, these cleft rocks, these tombs rent asunder, attest His resistless hand. The desert appears mute with terror; and you feel that it has never ventured to break silence since it heard the voice of the Eternal.

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2.

8.

LESSON XCVI.

ELIJAH'S INTERVIEW.*

ON Horeb's rock the prophet stood,-
The Lord before him passed;
A hurricane in angry mood

Swept by him strong and fast;
The forest fell before its force,
The rocks were shivered in its course,
God was not in the blast;

'Twas but the whirlwind of His breath,
Announcing danger, wreck, and death.

It ceased. The air grew mute,- -a cloud
Came, muffling up the sun;

CAMPBELL.

When, through the mountain, deep and loud, <) An earthquake thundered on;

The frighted eagle sprang in air,

The wolf ran howling from his lair;
God was not in the storm ;-
'Twas but the rolling of His car,—
The trampling of His steeds from far.

'Twas still again,--and Nature stood
And calmed her ruffled frame;

(=) When, swift from heaven, a fiery flood
To earth devouring came;

Down to the depth the ocean fled,

The sickening sun looked wan and dead,
Yet God filled not the flame;
'Twas but the terror of His eye,

That lightened through the troubled sky.

4. (p.) At last a voice, all still and small, Rose sweetly on the ear;

Yet rose so shrill and clear that all

In Heaven and earth might hear.

*Consult the 19th Chapter of 1 Kings, 11th and 12th verses.

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