3. Tell us for doubtless thou canst recollect,
To whom should we assign the sphinx's fame?
Was Cheops or Cephrenes architect

Of either Pyramid* that bears his name?
Is Pompey's pillar really a misnomer?

Had Thebes a hundred gates, as sung by Homer?†

4. Perhaps thou wert a Mason, and forbidden
By oath to tell the mysteries of thy trade,
Then say what secret melody was hidden

In Memnon's statue which at sunrise played?
Perhaps thou wert a Priest-if so, my struggles
Are vain ;-Egyptian priests ne'er owned their juggles

5. Perchance that very hand, now pinioned flat,
Has hob-a-nobb'd with Pharaoht glass to glass;
Or dropped a halfpenny in Homer's hat,

Or doffed thine own to let Queen Dido pass,
Or held, by Solomon's own invitation,
A torch at the great Temple's dedication.

6. I need not ask thee if that hand, when armed,
Has any Roman soldier mauled and knuckled,
For thon wert dead, and buried, and embalmed,
Ere Romulus and Remus had been suckled :-
Antiquity appears to have begun

Long after thy primeval race was run.

7. Since first thy form was in this box extended,

We have, above ground, seen some strange mutations,
The Roman empire has begun and ended;

New worlds have risen-we have lost old nations,
And countless kings have into dust been humbled,
While not a fragment of thy flesh has crumbled.

Pyr-a-mid, a large, solid body, or edifice, standing on a square or triangular base, and terminating in a point at the top. The Pyramids of Egypt have been the wonder of all ages of the world. The largest of them is that of Cheops, near Cairo. It is 500 feet high, and covers more than 11 acres. When, and for what purpose they were built, is unknown.

† Homer, a celebrated Grecian poet, who lived about 907 B. C.

+ Pronounced Fa'-ro, an ancient king of Egypt.

Dido, founder of the Carthaginian Empire, 869 B. C.

§ Romulus and Remus, founders of the Roman Empire, 759-B. C. They were thrown, when infants, into the Tiber, but the river stopped, and a shewolf came and fed them with her milk.

8. Didst thou not hear the pother o'er thy head
When the great Persian conqueror, Cambyses,*
March'd armies o'er thy tomb with thundering tread,
O'erthrew Osiris,† Orus,† Apis,† Isis,t

And shook the Pyramids with fear and wonder,
When the gigantic Memnon fell asunder ?

9. If the tomb's secrets may not be confessed,
The nature of thy private life unfold;-

A heart has throbb'd beneath that leathern breast, And tears adown that dusky cheek have rolled :Have children climb'd those knees, and kiss'd that face? What was thy name and station, age and race? 10. Statue of flesh-immortal of the dead! Imperishable type of evanescence!

Posthumous man, who quitt'st thy narrow bed, And standest undecayed within our presence, Thou wilt hear nothing till the Judgment morning, When the great trump shall thrill thee with its warning. 11. Why should this worthless tegument endure, If its undying guest be lost for ever?

O let us keep the soul embalmed and pure

In living virtue; that when both must sever,
Although corruption may our frame consume,
Th' immortal spirit in the skies may bloom.

LESSON LXXIII.

The Negro's Complaint.-Cowper.

1. FORC'D from home and all its pleasures,
Afric's coast I left forlorn;

To increase a stranger's treasures,
O'er the raging billows borne.
Men from England bought and sold me,
Paid my price in paltry gold;

But though slave they have enroll'd me,

Minds are never to be sold.

Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, was king of Persia, B. C. 529. He made war against the Egyptians, and ravaged their country in a most barbarous manner. He was cruel and vindictive in the extreme. He died in the eighth year of his reign, B. C. 521.

+ An Egyptian god.

2. Still in thought as free as ever,
What are England's rights I ask,
Me from my delights to sever,
Me to torture, me to task?
Fleecy locks and black complexion
Cannot forfeit nature's claim;
Skins may differ, but affection

Dwells in white and black the same.

3. Why did all-creating nature

Make the plant for which we toil? Sighs must fan it, tears must water, Sweat of ours must dress the soil. Think, ye masters, iron-hearted, Lolling at your jovial boards; Think how many backs have smarted For the sweets your cane affords. 4. Is there, as ye sometimes tell us, Is there one who reigns on high? Has he bid you buy and sell us, Speaking from his throne, the sky? Ask him, if your knotted scourges, Matches, blood-extorting screws, Are the means that duty urges, Agents of his will to use?

6. Hark! he answers-wild tornadoes,*
Strewing yonder sea with wrecks;
Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,
Are the voice with which he speaks.
He, foreseeing what vexations

Afric's sons should undergo,
Fix'd their tyrants' habitations
Where his whirlwinds answer-No.

6. By our blood in Afric wasted,

Ere our necks receiv'd the chain;
By the mis'ries that we tasted,
Crossing in your barks the main ;
By our suff'rings since ye brought us
To the man-degrading mart;
All sustain'd by patience, taught us
Only by a broken heart.

* Tornado, a violent wind, a hurricane.

7. Deem our nation brutes no longer,
Till some reason ye shall find
Worthier of regard, and stronger
Than the color of our kind.
Slaves of gold, whose sordid dealings
Tarnish all your boasted pow'rs,
Prove that you have human feelings,
Ere you proudly question ours.

LESSON LXXIV.

Victory.-ANONYMOUS.

1. WAFT not to me the blast of fame,
That swells the trump of victory;
For to my ear it gives the name
Of slaughter and of misery.

2. Boast not so much of honor's sword;
Wave not so high the victor's plume;
They point me to the bosom gor'd-

They point me to the blood-stain'd tomb. 3. The boastful shout, the revel loud,

That strive to drown the voice of pain; What are they, but the fickle crowd, Rejoicing o'er their brethren slain?

4. And ah! through glory's fading blaze,
I see the cottage taper, pale,
Which sheds its faint and feeble rays,
Where unprotected orphans wail-

5. Where the sad widow weeping stands,
As if her day of hope was done—
Where the wild mother clasps her hands
And asks the victor for her son-

6. Where the lone maid, in secret, sighs
O'er the lost solace of her heart,
As prostrate, in despair, she lies,
And feels her tortur'd life depart!

7. Where, midst that desolated land,
The sire, lamenting o'er his son,
Extends his weak and powerless hand,
And finds his only prop
is gone.

1. JERUSALEM was built on two mountains, and surrounded by three walls on every side, except where it was enclosed with deep valleys, which were deemed inaccessible. Each wall was fortified by high towers. The celebrated temple, and strong castle of Antonia, were on the east side of the city, and directly opposite to the Mount of Olives. But notwithstanding the prodigious strength of this famed metropolis, the infatuated Jews brought on their own destruction by their intestine contests.

2. At a time when a formidable army was rapidly advancing, and the Jews were assembling from all parts to keep the passover, the contending factions were continually inventing new methods of mutual destruction, and in their ungoverned fury they wasted and destroyed such vast quantities of provisions as might have preserved the city many years.

3. Such was the miserable situation of Jerusalem, when Titust began his march towards it with a formidable army; and *Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, 1491 B. C. They wandered 40 years in the wilderness, and entered the land of Canaan, or Palestine, under Joshua, 1451 B. C. After the death of Joshua, which happened 1426 B. C., they were governed 351 years by Judges, when they wished for a king. Saul was chosen, and anointed king over them 1075 B. C. He was succeeded by David in 1056 B. C. David was succeeded by Solomon in 1015 B. C Solomon was succeeded by Rehoboam 975 B. C. The same year, ten of the Jewish tribes revolted, and established the kingdom of Israel, and chose Jeroboam for their king. In 721 B. C. Shalmaneser, of Assyria, conquered the ten tribes and carried them into captivity, which put an end to the kingdom of Israel. The two tribes, viz. the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, formed the kingdom of Judah. They were often conquered by the surrounding nations, but soon regained their liberty. In 63 B. C. Pompey, a celebrated Roman General, marched an army against Jerusalem, and took it, after a siege of three months. From that period, the Jews became dependent on the Romans:-and after the death of Herod the Great, in A. D. 1, Judea became a Roman province, and had rulers appointed by the Emperors of Rome. The rapine and cruelty of the Roman governors, caused the Jews at length to rebel;-and Titus, a Roman General, marched an army of 60,000 men against them, A. D. 70, and destroyed the Jewish nation. From that time, the Jews have been scattered, contemned, persecuted, and despised among all nations.

+Titus Vespasian, a distinguished Roman general-afterwards emperor of Rome. He died A. D. 81.