Page images
PDF
EPUB

4. Here's Love, the dreamy, potent spell
That beauty flings around the heart;
I know.its power, alas! too well;
"T is going! Love and I must part!
Must part!

- What can I more with Love?

All over, the enchanter's reign;

Who'll buy the plumeless, dying dove? -
An hour of bliss, an age of pain!

5. And Friendship,

rarest gem of earth!

(Who e'er hath found the jewel his?) Frail, fickle, false, and little worth ;

Who bids for Friendship

-

as it is?
"Tis going, going!-Hear the call;-

Once, twice, thrice!-'T is very low! "T was once my hope, my stay, my all, – But now the broken staff must go!

6. Fame! hold the brilliant meteor high;
How dazzling every gilded name!
Ye millions, now's the time to buy!-

How much for Fame? How much for Fame?
Hear how it thunders! Would you stand
On high Olympus,* far renowned,

Now purchase, and a world command,

And be with a world's curses crowned!

7. Sweet star of Hope! with ray to shine
In every sad, foreboding breast,
Save this desponding one of mine;

Who bids for man's last friend and best?

Ah, were not mine a bankrupt life,

This treasure should my soul sustain ;

* O-lym'pus, a name given by the ancients to several mountains, the most celebrated of which was in Thessaly The early Greeks regarded it as the highest of all mountains, and as the central point of the earth's surface.

But Hope and I are now at strife,

Nor ever may unite again!

8. And Song!

For sale my tuneless lute, —
Sweet solace, mine no more to hold;
The chords that charmed my soul are mute;
I can not wake the notes of old!
Or e'en were mine a wizard shell,
Could chain a world in raptures high,
Yet now a sad farewell!- farewell!
Must on its last faint echoes die!

9. Ambition, fashion, show, and pride,-
I part from all for ever now!
Grief, in an overwhelming tide,

Has taught my haughty heart to bow.
Poor heart! distracted, ah, so long,

And still its aching throb to bear!
How broken, that was once so strong!
How heavy, once so free from care!

10. No more for me life's fitful dream;
Bright vision, vanishing away!
My bark requires a deeper stream;
My sinking soul a surer stay.
By Death, stern sheriff! all bereft,
I weep, yet humbly kiss the rod !
The best of all, I still have left, -

My Faith! my Bible! and my God!

[ocr errors]

QUESTIONS.-1. What is the world called in this stanza? 2. What is said of it here? 2. What is it called? 3. What does it contain? 4. What is here offered for Bale ? 5. What, in this stanza? 6. What, in this? What is said of Olympus? 7. What is offered for sale in this stanza? 8. What, in this? 9. What, in this? 10. What does the writer here say? 10. What has he left, after selling the world and all he enumerates? What general truth is taught in this lesson? What is the character of the composition of this piece? To which kind of poetry does it belong? Point out the examples of exclamation, and tell the inflection with which each one should De read. See Rule 6, and Exception, page 85.

[ocr errors]

LESSON LVII.

2. STATES'MAN, one skilled in government.
5. IN VAD'ED, entered with an army.
6. RE-VERSE', usually an adverse change.
8. RES'CU-ED, delivered, freed from.
9. SPEC'I-MEN, a sample.

11. SA-GAC'1-TY, quick discernment.
16. IM-MORTAL'I-TY, endless existence.

ERRORS.

19. CON-FED'ER-A-CY, a league, or alliance
20. MU-TATIONS, changes.

20. BAN'ISH ED, condemned to exile.
25. RE-MON'STRANCE, an act against a

measure.

26. A-WARD'ED, adjudged, gave.

26. PEN'SION, annual allowance.

- Op-per-chu'ni-ty for op-por-tu'ni-ty; peuh'son for person; um′ble for hum'ble; wance for wants; an'ic-dote for an-ec'dote; re-mähk for re-märk'; fōre'head for forehead (for'ed).

THE WISE MEN* OF GREECE. BULFINCH.

-

1. As there were seven wonders of the world,† so there were said to be seven wise men of Greece. The names of these seven have come down to us; but of only two of them do we learn from history any thing particularly wise or good.

2. The first is Solon.§ He was a statesman and philosopher of Athens.|| When he came into power, the country was governed by the laws of Draco,¶ which were so severe as to punish all offenses with death. It was therefore said of the laws of Draco, that "they were written in blood."

3. Solon substituted milder punishments for all crimes except murder. In many other ways he improved the institutions of his country; and when his term of office expired, he traveled into foreign lands. In the course of his travels, he

* The names of the seven wise men of Greece were Periander, Pittacus, Thales, Solon, Bias, Chilo, and Cleobulus.

†The seven wonders of the world, as recorded by the ancients, were the Egyptian Pyramids, the Mausoleum erected by Artemisia, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Walls and Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus at Rhodes, the Statue of Jupiter Olympius, and the Pharos, or Watch-tower, of Alexandria.

Greece, or Ancient Greece, was situated in the southern part of Europe, and com

prised all of Modern Greece, and the most of Turkey in Europe.

§ So'lon was born 638 B. C., and died 558 B. C., at the age of eighty. Ath'ens, the ancient capital of Attica, in Greece, was formerly the seat of learning and refinement. It was surrounded by walls having a circuit of about twenty miles, but is now reduced to comparatively a small town.

¶ Dra'co, a ruler and legislator, who flourished at Athens about 621 B. C., celebrated for the extraordinary severity of his laws.

visited Sardis,* the capital of the kingdom of Lydia,† where Croesus was king.

4. Croesus was the richest monarch of his time, and was pleased with the opportunity of exhibiting his treasures to Solon; after which he asked the philosopher if he had ever known a person whose lot was more blessed than his. Solon said, "Yes," and named one of his humble neighbors at Athens, who possessed enough for his wants, and had no desire for more.

5. At this, Croesus expressed surprise; but Solon' added that human affairs are so liable to change, that it is not safe to pronounce any lot happy until it is terminated by death. Years afterward, the kingdom of Croesus was invaded by Cyrus. Croesus was taken prisoner, and, according to the barbarous mode of warfare in those days, was condemned to be burned alive.

6. As he mounted the pile he thought of Solon, and uttered his name aloud. Cyrus heard him, and asked who that Solon was whom he called upon? Croesus then told him the story of his conversation with Solon; and Cyrus was so much affected at the thought of the sad reverse of fortune which the case presented, that he released Croesus, and made him his friend.

THALES.

7. Another of the seven wise men of Greece was Thales. He was the earliest cultivator of the sciences of astronomy and geometry. An anecdote is told of him, that, being on one occasion intent on gazing at the heavens, he fell into a ditch.

* Sar'dis, in the time of Croesus, was one of the most splendid and luxurious cities of Asia Minor, or that part of Turkey in Asia lying between the Mediterranean, the Egean, and the Black Sea. After the subjugation of the kingdom of Lydia by Cyrus, t began to decline, and is now in a state of ruins.

† Lyd'i-a, an ancient kingdom of Asia Minor, in the middle of the western part of the peninsula.

Croe'sus. See note, page 96.

Cy'rus (the elder) was a celebrated conqueror, and the founder of the Persian empire. He overthrew the kingdom of Lydia, and took the city of Babylon, but was finally slain in battle, 529 B. C.

8. His cries brought an old woman to his assistance, who rescued him; and when she learned the cause of his accident, she remarked that "people better not have their heads among the stars when their feet are upon the earth."

9. Her remark is a specimen of that homely kind of wisdom called "common sense," which is often the best wisdom, but not always; as in the case of Thales, who, if he had confined his views to the narrow circle of every-day life, would hardly have left a name to be honored by distant ages.

10. Thales was the earliest philosopher of Greece. He was born six hundred and forty years before the Christian era; and he was the author of that celebrated maxim, "Know thyself." He died five hundred and forty-eight years before Christ.

SOCRATES.

11. The greatest of all the wise men of Greece, though he was not reckoned among the seven, was Socrates. He was not distinguished as a learned man nor as a writer, but as a person of great sagacity and good sense, which he showed in his conversation with his countrymen, particularly with the young men, who flocked around him to listen to his remarks.

12. He was as modest as he was wise; and when the oracle of Delphi,* in answer to a question, pronounced Socrates to be the wisest of men, he, on being told of it, said, “he could not think wherein his wisdom consisted, if it were not in the fact that he knew how ignorant he was." This was meant to imply that many of the errors and follies of men arise from their over-conceit of their own abilities.

13. Socrates was said to have brought down Philosophy from heaven, and to have taught her to live among men. This is a figurative way of saying that he introduced correct

Delphi, the seat of the most famous oracle of Ancient Greece, was situated in, Phocis, on the southern side of Parnassus. This oracle, though always obscure and ambiguous, enjoyed the reputation of infallibility for a long time. No person who asked the god for counsel ventured to approach him without gifts; hence the splendid temple, erected here, possessed immense wealth.

Y*

« PreviousContinue »