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7. And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy
I wanton'd with thy breakers-they to me
Were a delight; and if the freshening sea
Made them a terror--'twas a pleasing fear,
For I was as it were a child of thee,
And trusted to thy billows far and near,
And laid my hand upon thy mane-as I do here.

LESSON CLVII.

Wisdom.-POLLOK.

1. WISDOM is humble, said the voice of God. "Tis proud, the world replied. Wisdom, said God Forgives, forbears, and suffers, not for fear Of man, but God. Wisdom revenges, said The world, is quick and deadly of resentment, Thrusts at the very shadow of affront, And hastes, by death, to wipe its honor clean. 2. Wisdom, said God, loves enemies, entreats, Solicits, begs for peace. Wisdom, replied The world, hates enemies, will not ask peace, Conditions spurns, and triumphs in their fall. Wisdom mistrusts itself, and leans on Heaven, Said God. It trusts and leans upon itself, The world replied.

3.

Wisdom retires, said God, And counts it bravery to bear reproach And shame, and lowly poverty, upright;

And weeps with all who have just cause to weep.
Wisdom, replied the world, struts forth to gaze,
Treads the broad stage of life with clamorous foot,
Attracts all praises, counts it bravery

Alone to wield the sword, and rush on death;
And never weeps, but for its own disgrace.

4. Wisdom, said God, is highest, when it stoops Lowest before the Holy Throne; throws down Its crown, abased; forgets itself, admires,

And breathes adoring praise. There Wisdom stoops,
Indeed, the world replied, there stoops, because
It must, but stoops with dignity; and thinks
And meditates the while of inward worth

LESSON CLVIII.

The Inhumanity of Slavery.-CowPER.

1. Oн, for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade,

Where rumor of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,

Might never reach me more! My ear is pain'd,
My soul is sick with every day's report

Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fill'd.
There is no flesh in man's ohdurate heart;
It does not feel for man. The nat❜ral bond
Of brotherhood is sever'd as the flax
That falls asunder at the touch of fire.

2. He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not color'd like his own; and having pow'r
T'enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interpos'd,
Make enemies of nations, who had else,
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.

3. Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys:
And worse than all, and most to be deplor'd,
As human nature's broadest, foulest blot,
Chains him and tasks him, and exacts his sweat
With stripes, that mercy, with a bleeding heart,
Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast.

4. Then what is man! And what man seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blush
And hang his head, to think himself a man?
I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.
5. No: dear as freedom is, and in my heart's
Just estimation pris'd above all price;

I had much rather be myself the slave,
And wear. the bonds, than fasten them on him.
We have no slaves at home-then why abroad.
And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave
That parts us, are emancipate and loos'd.

6. Slaves cannot breathe in England: if their lungs Receive her air, that moment they are free;

They touch our country, and their shackles fall
That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud
And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then,
And let it circulate through ev'ry vein

Of all your empire: that where Britain's power
Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too.

LESSON CLIX.

The Cuckco.-LOGAN.

1. HAIL, beauteous stranger of the wood,
Attendant on the spring!

Now heav'n repairs thy rural seat,
And woods thy welcome sing.

2. Soon as the daisy decks the green,
Thy certain voice we hear:
Hast thou a star to guide thy path,
Or mark the rolling year?

3. Delightful visitant! with thee

I hail the time of flow'rs,

When heav'n is fill'd with music sweet
Of birds among the bow'rs.

4. The school-boy wand'ring in the wood,
To pull the flow'rs so gay,

Starts, thy curious voice to hear,
And imitates thy lay.

3. Soon as the pea puts on the bloom,
Thou fly'st the vocal vale,

An annual guest in other lands,
Another spring to hail.

6. Sweet bird, thy bow'r is ever green,
Thy sky is ever clear;
Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year!

7. O could I fly, I'd fly with thee;
We'd make, with social wing,
Our annual visit o'er the globe.
Companions of the spring

LESSON CLX.

The Star of Bethlehem.-J. G. Percival.

1. BRIGHTER than the rising day,
When the sun of glory shines;
Brighter than the diamond's ray,
Sparkling in Golconda's* mines;
Beaming through the clouds of wo,
Smiles in Mercy's diadem
On the guilty world below,

The star that rose in Bethlehem.

2. When our eyes are dimmed with tears,
This can light them up again,
Sweet as music to our ears,
Faintly warbling o'er the plain.
Never shines a ray so bright
From the purest earthly gem;
O! there is no soothing light
Like the Star of Bethlehem.

3. Grief's dark clouds may o'er us roll,
Every heart may sink in wo,
Gloomy conscience rack the soul,

And sorrow's tears in torrents flow;
Still, through all these clouds and storms,
Shines this purest heavenly gem,
With a ray that kindly warms—
The Star that rose in Bethlehem.

4. When we cross the roaring wave
That rolls on life's remotest shore;
When we look into the grave,

And wander through this world no more;
This, the lamp whose genial ray,
Like some brightly-glowing gem,
Points to man his darkling way-
The Star that rose in Bethlehem.

5. Let the world be sunk in sorrow,
Not an eye be charmed or bless'd;
We can see a fair to-morrow
Smiling in the rosy west;

* A province in Hindoostan, now called Hyderabad, formerly celebrated for its diamond mines.

This, her beacon, Hope displays;
For, in Mercy's diadem,
Shines, with Faith's serenest rays,
The Star that rose in Bethlehern.
6. When this gloomy life is o'er,

When we smile in bliss above,
When, on that delightful shore,
We enjoy the heaven of love,-
O! what dazzling light shall shine
Round salvation's purest gem!
O! what rays of love divine
Gild the Star of Bethlehem!

LESSON CLXI.

The Last Man.-CAMPBell.

ALL worldly shapes shall melt in gloom: The sun itself shall die,

Before this mortal shall assume

Its immortality.

2. I saw a vision in my sleep,

That gave my spirit strength to sweep
Adown the gulf of time;

I saw the last of human mould,
That shall creation's death behold,
As Adam saw the prime.

3. The sun's eye had a sickly glare;
The earth with age was wan;
The skeletons of nations were
Around that lonely man.

Some had expir'd in fight: the brands
Still rested in their bony hands;

In plague and famine, some;
Earth's cities had no sound, no tread;
And ships were drifting with their dead,
To shores where all was dumb.

4. Yet, prophet like, the lone one stood,
With dauntless words and high,

That shook the sere leaves from the wood
As if a storm pass'd by,

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