Page images
PDF
EPUB

Mark how its foaming spray,

Tinged by the sunbeams with reflected dyes,
Mimics the bow of day

Arching in majesty the vaulted skies;

Thence, in a summer shower,

Steeping the rocks around: -O, tell me where
Could majesty and power

Be clothed in forms more beautifully fair?

Yet lovelier, in my view,
The streamlet, flowing silently serene,
Traced by the brighter hue

And livelier growth it gives, itself unseen!

It flows through flowery meads,

Gladdening the herds which on its margin browse; Its quiet beauty feeds

The alders that o'ershade it with their boughs.

Gently it murmurs by

The village churchyard, in low, plaintive tone,
A dirge-like melody

For worth and beauty modest as its own.

More gayly now it sweeps

By the small school-house in the sunshine bright, And o'er the pebbles leaps,

Like happy hearts by holiday made light

May not its course express,

In characters which they who run may read,
The charms of gentleness,

Were but its still small voice allowed to plead?

16

What are the trophies gained

By power alone, with all its noise and strife,
To that meek wreath, unstained,
Won by the charities that gladden life?

Niagara's streams might fail,
And human happiness be undisturbed;
But Egypt would turn pale

Were her still Nile's o'erflowing bounty curbed.

LESSON LXIII.

EXERCISES IN ARTICULATION.

Bark, hark, barks, harks, bark'st, bark'd, bark'dst, snarl, snarl'd, snarl'dst, snarls, snarl'st.

Advantages of a Cultivated Taste.

AKENSIDE.

O BLEST of Heaven, whom not the languid songs

Of Luxury, the siren! not the bribes

Of sordid wealth, nor all the gaudy spoils

Of pageant honor, can seduce to leave

Those ever-blooming sweets, which from the store
Of nature fair Imagination culls,

To charm th' enlivened soul! What though not all

Of mortal offspring can attain the heights

Of envied life;, though only few possess

Patrician treasures, or imperial state;

Yet Nature's care to all her children just —
With richer treasures, and an ampler state,

Endows at large whatever happy man

Will deign to use them.

His the city's pomp,

The rural honors his whate'er adorns

The princely dome, the column and the arch,
The breathing marble and the sculptured gold,
Beyond the proud possessor's narrow claim,
His tuneful breast enjoys. For him the spring
Distils her dews, and from the silken gem
Its lucid leaves unfolds; for him the hand
Of autumn tinges every fertile branch
With blooming gold, and blushes like the morn.
Each passing hour sheds tribute from her wings;
And still new beauties meet his lonely walk,
And loves unfelt attract him.

Not a breeze
Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes
The setting sun's effulgence, not a strain
From all the tenants of the warbling shade
Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake
Fresh pleasure, unreproved; nor thence partakes
Fresh pleasure only, for th' attentive mind,
By this harmonious action on her powers,
Becomes herself harmonious: wont so oft
In outward things to meditate the charm
Of sacred order, soon she seeks at home
To find a kindred order, to exert
Within herself this elegance of love,

This fair, inspired delight: her tempered powers
Refine at length, and every passion wears
A chaster, milder, more attractive mien.
But if to ampler prospects, if to gaze
On Nature's form, where, negligent of all
These lesser graces, she assumes the port
Of that eternal Majesty that weighed
The world's foundations, if to these the mind
Exalts her daring eye, then mightier far

Will be the change, and nobler. Would the formr Of servile custom cramp her generous powers? Would sordid policies, the barbarous growth

Of ignorance and rapine, bow her down
To tame pursuits, to indolence and fear?
Lo! she appeals to Nature, to the winds
And rolling waves, the sun's unwearied course,
The elements and seasons; all declare
For what the eternal Maker has ordained
The powers of man: we feel within ourselves
His energy divine; he tells the heart,

He meant, he made, us to behold and love
What he beholds and loves, the general orb
Of life and being; to be great like him,
Beneficent and active. Thus the men

Whom Nature's works can charm, with God himself
Hold converse; grow familiar, day by day,
With his conceptions; act upon his plan;
And form to his the relish of their souls.

LESSON LXIV.

EXERCISES IN ARTICULATION.

Arm, farm, harm, form, storm, warm, arm'd, harm'd, form'd, warm'd, form'dst, arms, farms, harms, forms, storms, warms, warm'st, warmth.

[blocks in formation]

THE beautiful forest in which we were encamped abounded in bee-trees; that is to say, trees in the decayed trunks of which wild bees had established their hives. It is surprising in what countless swarms the bees have overspread the far west, within but a moderate number of years. The Indians consider them the harbinger of the white man, as the buffalo is of the red man, and say that, in proportion as the bee advances, the Indian and buffalo retire. We are

always accustomed to associate the hum of the bee-hive with the farm-house and flower-garden, and to consider those industrious little animals as connected with the busy haunts of man; and I am told that the wild bee is seldom to be met with at any great distance from the frontier. They have been the heralds of civilization, steadfastly preceding it as it advanced from the Atlantic borders; and some of the ancient settlers of the west pretend to give the very year when the honey-bee first crossed the Mississippi. The Indians with surprise found the mouldering trees of their forests suddenly teeming with ambrosial sweets; and nothing, I am told, can exceed the greedy relish with which they banquet for the first time upon this unbought luxury of the wilderness.

[ocr errors]

At present the honey-bee swarms in myriads in the noble groves and forests that skirt and intersect the prairies, and extend along the alluvial bottoms of the rivers. It seems to me as if these beautiful regions answer literally to the description of the land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey; for the rich pasturage of the prairies is calculated to sustain herds of cattle as countless as the sands upon the sea-shore, while the flowers with which they are enamelled render them a very paradise for the nectar-seeking bee.

[ocr errors]

We had not been long in the camp when a party set out in quest of a bee-tree; and, being curious to witness the sport, I gladly accepted an invitation to accompany them. The party was headed by a veteran bee-hunter, a tall, lank fellow in homespun garb that hung loosely about his limbs, and a straw hat shaped not unlike a bee-hive. A comrade, equally uncouth in garb, and without a hat, straddled along at his heels, with a long rifle on his shoulder. To these succeeded half a dozen others, some with axes and some with rifles; for no one stirs far from the camp without his fire-arms, so as to be ready either for wild deer or wild Indian.

After proceeding some distance, we came to an open glade,

« PreviousContinue »