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Look upon my boy as though I guessed it!—
Guessed the trial thoud'st have me make !-
Guessed it instinctively! Thou dost not mean→
No, no-Thou wouldst not have me make
A trial of my skill upon my child!
Impossible! I do not guess thy meaning.
Ges. I'd see thee hit an apple on his head,
Three hundred paces off.

Tell. Great Heaven!

Ges. On this condition only will I spare His life and thine.

Tell. Ferocious monster! make a father Murder his own child!

Ges. Dost thou consent?

Tell. With his own hand!-

The hand I've led him when an infant by!
My hands are free from blood, and have no gust
For it, that they should drink my child's.
I'll not murder my boy, for Gesler.

Boy. You will not hit me, father. You'll be sure
To hit the apple. Will you not save me, father?
Tell. Lead me forth-I'll make the trial.
Boy. Father-

Tell. Speak not to me;

Let me not hear thy voice-Thou must be dumb;
And so should all things be-Earth should be dumb,
And Heaven, unless its thunder muttered at

The deed, and sent a bolt to stop it.—

Give me my bow and quiver.

Ges. When all is ready.

Sarnem, measure hence

The distance three hundred paces.
Tell. Will he do it fairly?

Ges. What is't to thee, fairly or not.

Tell. [sarcastically.] O, nothing, a little thing, A very little thing; I only shoot

At my child!

[Sarnem prepares to measure.]

Villain, stop! you measure against the sun.
Ges. And what of that?

What matter whether to or from the sun?

Tell. I'd have it at my back.

The sun should shine

Upon the mark, and not on him that shoots

I will not shoot against the sun.

Ges. Give him his way. [Sarnem paces and goes out.}

Tell. I should like to see the apple I must hit.

Ges. [Picks out the smallest one] There, take that.
Tell. You've picked the smallest one.

Ges. I know I have. Thy skill will be

The greater if thou hittest it.

Tell. [sarcastically.] True-true! I did not think of that

I wonder I did not think of that. A larger one

Had given me a chance to save my boy.

Give me my bow. Let me see my quiver.

Ges. Give him a single arrow. [To an attendant.] [Tell looks at it and breaks it.]

Tell. Let me see my quiver. It is not

One arrow in a dozen I would use

To shoot with at a dove, much less a dove
Like that.

Ges. Show him the quiver.

[Sarnem returns and takes the apple and the boy to
place them.
While this is doing, Tell conceals an
arrow under his garment. He then selects another
arrow, and says,]

Tell. Is the boy ready? Keep silence now
For Heaven's sake, and be my witnesses,
That if his life's in peril from my hand,

"Tis only for the chance of saving it.

For mercy's sake keep motionless and silent.

[He aims and shoots in the direction of the boy. In a moment Sarnem enters with the apple on the arrow's point.

Sar. The boy is safe.

Tell. [Raising his arms.] Thank Heaven!

[As he raises his arms the concealed arrow falls. Ges. [Picking it up.] Unequalled archer! why was this concealed?

Tell. To kill thee, tyrant, had I slain my boy.

LESSON CIV.

The Philosopher's Scales.-JANE TAYLOR.

1. A MONK* when his rites sacerdotal were o'er,

In the depth of his cell, with its stone-covered floor,

*Monk, a member of the Roman Catholic church, who has taken a vow of poverty and celibacy.

Resigning to thought his chimerical brain,

Once formed the contrivance we now shall explain :
But whether by magic's or alchymy's powers,
We know not-indeed, 'tis no business of ours:

2. Perhaps it was only by patience and care,
At last, that he brought his invention to bear;
In youth 'twas projected, but years stole away,
And ere 'twas complete, he was wrinkled and gray;
But success is secure, unless energy fails-

And at length he produced the Philosopher's Scales.

3. "What were they?" you ask; you shall presently see;
These scales were not made to weigh sugar and tea;
O no; for such properties wondrous had they,

That qualities, feelings, and thoughts, they could weigh.
Together with articles small, or immense,

From mountains or planets, to atoms of sense;

4. Nought was there so bulky, but there it could lay,
And nought so ethereal, but there it would stay,
And nought so reluctant, but in it must go-
All which soine examples more clearly will show.

5. The first thing he weighed was the head of Voltaire,*
Which retained all the wit that had ever been there;
As a weight, he threw in a torn scrap of a leaf,
Containing the prayer of the Penitent Thief;
When the skull rose aloft with so sudden a spell,
That it bounced like a ball on the roof of the cell.

6. One time he put in Alexander the Great,†

With a garment, that Dorcast had made, for a weight,
And though clad in armor from sandals to crown,
The Hero rose up, and the garment went down.

*Voltaire, a celebrated French historian, philosopher, dramatic writer, and epic poet, was born at Paris, 1694, and died 1778. He possessed uncommon powers of mind, but was inconstant and unstable; and it is to be regretted that he employed his talents in advancing the cause of infidelity.

A king of Macedon, born at Pella, B. C. 355. After extending his power over Greece, he invaded Asia. He defeated the Persians at the three celebrated battles of the Granicus, of Issus, and of Arbela, which rendered him the master of the country. He afterwards returned to Babylon, where he died of intemperance, B. Č. 323, in the 33d year of his age, and 13th of his reign.

+ See Acts, chap ix. 39

7. A long row of alms-houses, amply endowed
By a well esteemed Pharisee, busy and proud,
Next loaded one scale; while the other was prest
By those mites the Poor Widow* dropt into the chest;
Up flew the endowment, not weighing an ounce,
And down, down the farthing-worth went with a bounce.
8. Again, he performed an experiment rare—
A monk, with austerities, bleeding and bare,
Climbed into his scale-in the other was laid
The heart of our Howard, now partly decayed-
When he found with surprise, that the whole of his brother
Weighed less by some pounds than the bit of the other.

9. By further experiments, (no matter how,)

He found that ten chariots weighed less than one plough;
A sword, with gilt trappings, rose up in the scale,
Though balanced by only a ten-penny nail—

A shield and a helmet, a buckler and spear,
Weighed less than a widow's uncrystallized tear--.

10. A Lord and a Lady went up at full sail,

When a Bee chanced to light on the opposite scale-
Ten Doctors, ten Lawyers, two Courtiers, one Earl,
Ten Counsellor's Wigs, full of powder and curl,
All heaped in one balance, and swinging from thence,
Weighed less than a few grains of candor and sense;

11. A first water Diamond, with brilliants begirt,

Than one good potatoe, just washed from the dirt: Yet not mountains of silver and gold could suffice, One pearl to outweigh-'twas the Pearl of great price! 12. Last of all, the whole world was bowled in at the grate, With the soul of a beggar to serve for a weight— When the former sprang up with so strong a rebuff, That it made a vast rent and escaped at the roofWhen balanced in air, it ascended on high, And sailed up aloft, a balloon in the skyWhile the scale with the soul in, so mightily fell, That it jerked the Philosopher out of his cel!. MORAL.

13. Dear Reader, if e'er self-deception prevails, We pray you to try the Philosopher's Scales

* See St. Mark, chap. xii. 42. + Religion--see Matthew, chap. xiii. 46.

But if they are lost in the ruins around,

Perhaps a good substitute, thus may be found:
Let Judgment and Conscience, in circles be cut,
To which strings of Thought, may be carefully put-
Let these be made even with caution extreme,
And Impartiality serve for a beam.

Then bring those good actions, which pride overrates,
And tear up your motives, in bits, for the Weights.

LESSON CV.

[In the Zoonomia of Dr. Darwin, among various instances recorded by that philosophical physician of what he calls maniacal hallucination, or mental delusion, is the case of a young farmer of Warwickshire, whose story was well authenticated in the public papers of the time. A poor elderly woman in his neighborhood was in the habit, urged by the pinching necessities of an inclement winter, of taking a few sticks from his grounds and his hedge, to preserve the fading fire in her forlorn cottage. Suspecting the delinquent, the hard-hearted hind watched and detected her. After wrenching from her the scanty faggot, blows and reproaches succeeded. Struck with the misery of her situation, and the cruelty of her oppressor, she kneeled, and, rearing her withered hands to the cold moon, prayed that "he might never again know the blessing of warmth." The consciousness of wrong, the solemnity of the hour, the pathetic tone, "sharp misery," and impassioned gesture of the miserable matron, at once extinguished the dim reason of the rustic. He immediately complained of a preternatural chilness, was continually calling for more fire and clothes, and conceived himself to be in a freezing state, till the time of his death, which happened shortly after. On this singular story is founded the following ballad, which is in the genuine spirit of ancient English song, and shows, by proof irrefragable, that simplicity, and the language of ordinary life, may be connected with the most exquisite poetry.-Farmer's Museum.]

Goody Blake and Harry Gill.-Wordsworth.

1. OH! what's the matter? what's the matter?
What is't that ails young Harry Gill?
That evermore his teeth they chatter,
Chatter, chatter, chatter still.
Of waistcoats Harry has no lack,
Good duffle gray, and flannel fine;
He has a blanket on his back,
And coats enough to smother nine.
2. In March, December, and in July,
"Tis all the same with Harry Gill;
The neighbors tell, and tell you truly,
His teeth they chatter, chatter still.
At night, at morning, and at noon,
'Tis all the same with Harry Gill:

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