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cles of the blacksmith's arm swell out with vigor, when those of the man of ease are scarcely visible, though originally he may have been possessed of much greater natural strength; and we are, in the same way, often surprised to see the zealous, earnest student leave far behind him, even in mental power, the idle genius, who once laughed at his snail-like progress. 2. To be successful, we should never be idle. Not content with mere reading, or aimless reveries and imaginations, but employing the knowledge we have gained, and applying the rules we have learned to some useful end. Not content to do any thing superficially or carelessly, but continually striving to avoid defects, and aspiring after new excellencies. Not content with any degree of attainment or success, but regarding the past as only preparation for the future. No man can conceive what he is capable of accomplishing by an ardent perseverance. The Roman Legionary, born under the most luxurious clime, learned by exercise to bear without fatigue a weight of armor which would crush the strongest modern to the earth, and to contend alike successfully with the barbarian of the north amidst his icy mountains, and the agile rover of the burning desert.

3. The intellectual conqueror need never weep, like him* of Macedon, that there remains no more to prove his prowess. The higher he ascends, the more arduous appear the heights yet to be attained. To the generous spirit, rest is itself a weariness. The young man who covets it, or even procrastinates his efforts until he has attained more strength, will make a feeble and useless old age. The moment we repose, we abandon success. The mind, it is true, can not sustain witlout occasional relief severe intellectual exertion; but even our amusements may be made profitable. We may turn from the severer volume to one that refines, without taxing the wearied faculties. We may wander forth and enjoy the loveliness of nature, or the communion of friends, without laying aside the character of intellectual being.

4. No man is to suppose himself destitute of Genius, because

* Alexander the Great,

its effects do not immediately appear. Genius, in its higher forms, belongs, it is admitted, to few. Some men, indeed, can not properly be said to possess it at all. Yet there is not one of us without some capacity for usefulness; and observation would lead us to believe, that even the gifts of Genius have not been bestowed by such a sparing hand as is commonly believed. The fact, that in certain ages many men of Genius. arise to high distinction, and that in others not one appears, seems to prove that certain stimulants to exertion have been wanting in the last, which were felt in the former.

5. Genius, of a very high character, needs no foreign excitement. It has sufficient impulsive force in itself; but, when the plant is more feeble, it needs fostering and care. The success of one great mind will induce others, less daring, to follow in its track. The assurance of sympathy, which is thus given, is a strong encouragement to effort. So, rarely has a new star shone out in the firmament of mind, but many smaller lights have twinkled forth to form a constellation. Precocity of talent is not necessarily Genius. It is sometimes nothing better than a vice of the mental being in overshooting its proper growth, and prematurely exhausting its powers.

6. Not a few instances will occur to you of men, and those, too, the most distinguished, who have passed many years of their lives before they became conscious of their powers or the proper method of directing them. "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" did not appear until its author had attained the meridian of life, and Waverley not till many years afterwards. It is true, that Scott could not have been utterly unconscious of his genius, even in early manhood; yet, doubtless, he would have smiled incredulously at one who would have prognosticated his future triumphs; and it is easy to see, that but for the preparation of his youth, those triumphs would never have been his.

7. The earlier efforts of Byron were really beneath criticism; but the severe chastisement he received, only stimulated him to greater exertions, and he lived to reach the height of fame. No success can be expected without exertion, and no one knows what he can do, until he has resolutely and persever

ingly applied himself to the struggle. Even if we have but one talent, there is no reason why that should be buried in the earth. The praise of success is greater, where the natural ability is small; and it is immeasurably better to be moder ately useful than ingloriously idle.

LESSON IV.

AN EVENING REVERIE.

W. C. BRYANT.

1. THE summer day is closed,—the sun is set :
Well have they done their office, those bright hours,
The latest of whose train goes softly out

2.

In the red west. The green blade of the ground
Has risen, and herds have cropped it; the young twig
Has spread its plaited tissues to the sun;

Flowers of the garden and the waste have blown
And withered; seeds have fallen upon the soil,

From bursting cells, and in their graves await
Their resurrection.

Insects from the pools

Have filled the air awhile with humming wings,
That now are still forever; painted moths
Have wandered the blue sky, and died again;
The mother-bird hath broken for her brood
Their prison shell, or shoved them from the nest,
Plumed for their earliest flight. In bright alcoves,
In woodland cottages with barky walls,

In noisome cells of the tumultuous town,
Mothers have clasped with joy the new-born babe.

3. Graves by the lonely forest, by the shore
Of rivers and of ocean, by the ways

Of the thronged city, have been hollowed out
And filled, and closed. This day hath parted friends

That ne'er before were parted; it hath knit

New friendships; it hath seen the maiden plight

Her faith, and trust her peace to him who long
Had wooed; and it hath heard, from lips which fate
Were eloquent with love, the first harsh word,
That told the wedded one her peace was flown.

4. Farewell to the sweet sunshine!

One glad day

Is added now to Childhood's merry days.
And one calm day to those of quiet Age.
Still the fleet hours run on; and, as I lean
Amid the thickening darkness, lamps are lit,
By those who watch the dead, and those who twine
Flowers for the bride. The mother from the eyes
Of her sick infant shades the painful light,
And sadly listens to his quick-drawn breath.

5. Oh, thou great Movement of the Universe,
Or change, or Flight of Time-for ye are one!
That bearest, silently, this visible scene
Into night's shadow and the streaming rays
Of starlight, whither art thou bearing me?
I feel the mighty current sweep me on,
Yet know not whither. Man foretells afar
The courses of the stars; the very hour

He knows when they shall darken or grow bright;
Yet doth the eclipse of Sorrow and of Death
Come unforewarned.

6.

Who next, of those I love,

Shall pass from life, or, sadder yet, shall fall
From virtue ? Strife with foes, or bitterer strife
With friends, or shame and general scorn of men—
Which who can bear?-or the fierce rack of pain,
Lie they within my path? or shall the years
Push me, with soft and inoffensive pace,

Into the stilly twilight of my age?

Or do the portals of another life

Even now, while I am glorying in my strength,
Impend around me?

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7.

Oh! beyond that bourne,

In the vast cycle of being which begins

At that broad threshold, with what fairer forms
Shall the great law of change and progress clothe
Its workings? Gently-so have good men taught-
Gently, and without grief, the old shall glide
Into the new; the eternal flow of things,
Like a bright river of the fields of heaven,
Shall journey onward in perpetual peace.

LESSON V.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. MAG' ER OE, an island of the Arctic ocean, belonging to Norway, in latitude 71° 10′ north, longitude 25° 50' west. 2. FI' ORD, means an arm of the sea.

3. UL' TI MA THU' LE. See Note, page 71.

THE MIDNIGHT SUN.

BAYARD TAYLOR.

1. WHEN I went on deck, on the morning after our depart ure, we were in the narrow strait between the island of Mageroe'—the northern extremity of which forms the North Cape, and the mainland. On either side, the shores of bare, bleak rock, spotted with patches of moss and stunted grass, rose precipitously from the water, the snow filling up their ravines from the summit to the sea. Not a tree, nor a shrub, nor a sign of human habitation was visible; there was no fisher's sail on the lonely waters, and only the cries of some sea-gulls, wheeling about the cliffs, broke the silence.

2. The sea and fiords are alive with fish, which are not only a means of existence, but of profit to them, while the wonderful Gulf Stream, which crosses five thousand miles of the Atlantic to die upon this Ultima Thule in a last struggle with the Polar Sea, casts up the spoils of tropical forests to feed their fires. Think of arctic fishers burning upon their hearths the palms of Hayti, the mahogany of Honduras, and the precious woods of the Amazon and the Orinoco!

3. On issuing from the strait, we turned southward into the

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