Yet, like some sweet, beguiling melody,

So sweet, we know not we are listening to it,

Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought,-
Yea, with my life, and life's own secret joy,-
Till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused,
Into the mighty vision passing-there,

As in her natural form, swelled vast to heaven!

Awake, my soul! Not only passive praise
Thou owest; not alone these swelling tears,
Mute thanks and secret ecstasy. Awake,
Voice of sweet song! Awake, my heart, awake!
Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn.

Thou, first and chief, sole sovereign of the vale!
O struggling with the darkness all the night,
And visited all night by troops of stars,

Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink,-
Companion of the morning star at dawn,
Thyself earth's rosy star, and of the dawn
Co-herald, wake! O wake! and utter praise!
Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in earth?
Who filled thy countenance with rosy light?
Who made thee parent of perpetual streams?

And you, ye five wild torrents, fiercely glad!
Who called you forth from night and utter death,
From dark and icy caverns called you forth,
Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks,
Forever shattered, and the same forever?
Who gave you your invulnerable life,

Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy,
Unceasing thunder, and eternal foam?

And who commanded-and the silence came-
"Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest?"

Ye ice-falls! ye, that, from the mountain's brow, Adown enormous ravines slope amain

Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice,

And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge!
Motionless torrents! silent cataracts!

Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven
Beneath the keen full moon? Who bade the sun
Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers
Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet ?—
"God!" let the torrents, like a shout of nations,
Answer; and let the ice-plains echo, "God!"

"God!" sing, ye meadow-streams, with gladsome voice!
Ye pine groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds !
And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow,
And, in their perilous fall, shall thunder, "God!"

Ye living flowers, that skirt the eternal frost! Ye wild goats, sporting round the eagle's nest! Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain-storm! Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds! Ye signs and wonders of the elements !

Utter forth "God!" and fill the hills with praise!

Thou, too, hoar mount! with thy sky-pointing peaks,
Oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard,
Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene,
Into the depth of clouds, that veil thy breast-
Thou, too, again, stupendous mountain! thou
That, as I raise my head, awhile bowed low
In adoration, upward from thy base

Slow travelling with dim eyes suffused with tears,—
Solemnly seemest, like a vapory cloud,

To rise before me,-rise, O ever rise!

Rise, like a cloud of incense, from the earth.
Thou kingly spirit, throned among the hills,
Thou dread ambassador from earth to heaven,
Great hierarch, tell thou the silent sky,
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun,
"Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God."

LESSON CXXVII.

The Soldier's Widow.-WILLIS.

Wo! for my vine-clad home! That it should ever be so dark to me,

With its bright threshold, and its whispering tree!
That I should ever come,

Fearing the lonely echo of a tread,
Beneath the roof-tree of my glorious dead!

Lead on, my orphan boy;

Thy home is not so desolate to thee,
And the low shiver in the linden tree

May bring to thee a joy ;

But, oh! how dark is the bright home before thee, To her who with a joyous spirit bore thee!

Lead on; for thou art now

My sole remaining helper. God hath spoken,
And the strong heart I leaned upon is broken;
And I have seen his brow,

The forehead of my upright one and just,
Trod by the hoof of battle to the dust.

He will not meet thee there,

Who blessed thee at the eventide, my son;
And when the shadows of the night steal on,
He will not call to prayer.

The lips that melted, giving thee to God,
Are in the icy keeping of the sod!

Ay, my own boy, thy sire

Is with the sleepers of the valley cast,
And the proud glory of my life hath past,

With his high glance of fire.

Wo! that the linden and the vine should bloom, And a just man be gathered to the tomb!

Why, bear them proudly, boy,—
It is the sword he girded to his thigh,
It is the helm he wore in victory;

And shall we have no joy?

For thy green vales, O Switzerland, he died;
I will forget my sorrow-in my pride!

LESSON CXXVIII.

Extract from "Suggestions on Education."-
MISS C. E. BEECHER.

WOMAN has been but little aware of the high incitements, that should stimulate to the cultivation of her noblest powers. The world is no longer to be governed by physical force, but by the influence which mind exerts over mind. How are the great springs of action, in the political world, put in motion? Often by the secret workings of a single mind, that in retirement plans its schemes, and comes forth to execute them only by presenting motives of prejudice, passion, selfinterest or pride, to operate on other minds.

Now, the world is chiefly governed by motives that men are ashamed to own. When do we find mankind acknowledging, that their efforts in political life are the offspring of pride, and the desire of self-aggrandizement? And yet who hesitates to believe that this is true?

But there is a class of motives, that men are not only willing, but proud to own. Man does not willingly yield to force; he is ashamed to own he can yield to fear; he will not acknowledge his motives of pride, prejudice, or passion. But none are unwilling to own they can be governed by reason; even the worst will boast of being regulated by conscience; and where is the person who is ashamed to own the influence of the kind and generous emotions of the heart.

sex.

Here, then, is the only lawful field for the ambition of our Woman, in all her relations, is bound to "honor and obey" those, on whom she depends for protection and support;

nor does the truly feminine mind desire to exceed this limitation of Heaven. But where the dictates of authority may never control, the voice of reason and affection may ever convince and persuade; and while others govern by motives, that mankind are ashamed to own, the dominion of woman may be based on influence, that the heart is proud to acknowledge.

And if it is indeed the truth, that reason and conscience guide to the only path of happiness, and if affection will gain a hold on these powerful principles, which can be attained no other way, what high and holy motives are presented to woman for cultivating her noblest powers! The development of the reasoning faculties, the fascinations of a purified imagination, the charms of a cultivated taste, the quick perceptions of an active mind, the power of exhibiting truth and reason, by perspicuous and animated conversation and writing, all these can be employed by woman as much as by man. And with these attainable facilities for gaining influence, woman has already received, from the hand of her Maker, those warm affections and quick susceptibilities, which can most surely gain the empire of the heart.

Woman has never wakened to her highest destinies and holiest hopes. She has yet to learn the purifying and blessed influence, she may gain and maintain over the intellect and affections of the human mind. Though she may not teach from the portico, nor thunder from the forum, in her secret retirements she may form and send forth the sages that shall govern and renovate the world. Though she may not gird herself for bloody conflict, nor sound the trumpet of war, she may inwrap herself in the panoply of Heaven, and send the thrill of benevolence through a thousand youthful hearts. Though she may not enter the lists in legal collision, nor sharpen her intellect amid the passions and conflicts of men, she may teach the law of kindness, and hush up the discords and conflicts of life. Though she may not be clothed as the ambassador of Heaven, nor minister at the altar of God, as a secret angel of mercy, she may teach its will, and cause to ascend the humble, but most accepted sacrifice.

It is believed that the time is coming, when educated