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LESSON XCVI.

2 MA-TE'RI-AL, not spiritual. 2. IN-DEF/I-NITE, undefined. 3. SAT'U-RATES, entirely fills.

3. QUAR'RY, place where stones are dug.

3. AUS-TERE', stern; rough.

4. I-DEN'TI-CAL, the same; not different 4. IN-CON'GRU-OUS, out of place.

5. SYM-BOL'IC-AL, typical.

5. AM-A-RAN'THINE, unfading.

5. CA'LYX, outer covering of a flower.

ERRORS. — La'b'rer for la'bor-er; dus tan dash'es for dust and ash'es; fur instead of for; und for and; réal'um for realm.

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[The class may determine the character of the language in this lesson, and tell how it should be read. See Rule 2, page 112.]

1. I would urge the cultivation and public exhibition of flowers, especially, because they are not entirely what is called practically useful. There is in them an influence and a charm, like that which pertains to the splendors of sunset, the autumnal tints, and the shadows that sail over the everlasting hills.

2. We need this unworldly attraction. We need to be lifted up by the suggestion, that we are not all dust and ashes, or made for material ends; by the suggestion of something indefinite,something inexpressible, with which we are allied, and to which we tend; but which now we can not completely grasp.

3. Let us, then, be thankful for the possession of these flowers, whose fragrance sweetens the .laborer's toil; and whose glory lines the traveler's way; thankful for this unmeasured, indefinable beauty, that saturates the universe; that flows among the stern realities of our lot, glows through the smoke of the furnace, clings to the furrow, and overhangs the rough quarry, to show us, that life is not all for work; and that rebukes mere science, which, stripping the vail from nature, reveals it only as a stupendous and austere machine.

4. Flowers, though born of earth, we may well believe if anything of earthly soil grows in the higher, brighter

realm, if any of its methods are continued, if any of its forms are identical there will live on the banks of the River of Life.* Flowers! that in all our gladness, in all our sorrow, are never incongruous, always appropriate, -appropriate in the church, as expressive of the purest and most social themes, and blending their sweetness with the incense of prayer, appropriate in the joy of the marriage hour, in the loneliness of the sick-room, and crowning with prophecy the foreheads of the dead.

5. They give completeness to the associations of childhood, and are appropriate even by the side of old age, strongly as their freshness contrasts with the wrinkles and the gray hairs; for, still they are suggestive: they are symbolical of the soul's perpetual youth, the inward blossoming of immortality, the amaranthine crown. In their presence, we feel that, when the body shall drop as a withered calyx, the soul shall go forth like a wing-ed seed.

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QUESTIONS.-1. Why does the author urge the cultivation of flowers? 2. What do we need to be taught by the flowers? 3. Can their beauty be described? 3. Is their influence confined to any locality? 3. What does mere science teach us of nature? 4. What is said of flowers in connection with a future life? 4. Where are they appropriate? 5. Of what are they symbolical? 5. What may we feel in their presence ?

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1. OB-SERV'A-TO-RY, a building for watch- 3. TRANS-FIG-U-RAʼTION, change.

ing the heavenly bodies.

1. CON-CEPTIONS, ideas; notions.

ERRORS.

3. SCEN/ER-Y, appearance.

4. CE-LES'TIAL, pertaining to the heavens.

Uc-ca'sion for oc-ca'sion; sence for since; morn'in for morn'ing; fist for just; trans-fig-er-a'tion for trans-fig-u-ra'tion.

GLORIES OF THE NIGHT AND DAWN. — EVERETT.

1. Much as we are indebted to our observatories for elevating our conceptions of the heavenly bodies, they present, even to the unaided sight, scenes of glory, which words are too feeble to describe. I had occasion, a few weeks since,

* See the last chapter of the Book of Revelation.

to take the early train from Providence to Boston; and, for this purpose, rose at two o'clock in the morning. Everything around was wrapt in darkness and hushed in silence, broken only by what seemed at that hour the unearthly clank and rush of the train.

2. It was a mild, serene, mid-summer's night: the sky was without a cloud: the winds were whist. The moon,

then in the last quarter, had just risen; and the stars shone with a spectral luster but little affected by her presence. Jupiter,* two hours high, was the herald of the day; the Pleiades,† just above the horizon, shed their sweet influence in the East; Lyra sparkled near the zenith; Andromeda || vailed her newly discovered glories from the naked eye in the South; and the steady Pointers, § far beneath the Pole, looked meekly up from the depths of the North to their Sovereign.

3. Such was the glorious spectacle as I entered the train. As we proceeded, the timid approach of twilight became more perceptible; the intense blue of the sky began to soften ; the smaller stars, like little children, went first to rest; the sister-beams of the Pleiades soon melted together; but the bright constellations of the West and North remained un changed. Steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on. Hands of angels, hidden from mortal eyes, shifted the scenery of the heavens: the glories of night dissolved into the glories of the dawn.

4. The blue sky now turned more softly gray: the great watch-stars shut up their holy eyes: the East began to kindle. Faint streaks of purple soon blushed along the sky; the whole celestial concave was filled with the inflowing tides of the morning light, which came pouring down from above in

* JU'PI-TER, the largest of the planets. It is remarkable for its brightness. PLE'IA-DES, a cluster of seven stars, in the constellation Taurus.

LY'RA, the largest star in the constellation of the same name.

AN-DROM'E-DA, one of the northern constellations.

§ POINTERS and their SOVEREIGN, the Pole-star, and the two in the "Dipper" always in range with it.

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one great ocean of radiance; till, at length, as we reached the Blue Hills, a flash of purple fire blazed out from above the horizon, and turned the dewy tear-drops of flower and leaf into rubies and diamonds. In a few seconds, the everlasting gates of the morning were thrown wide open; and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too severe for the gaze of man, began his course.

5. I do not wonder at the superstition of the ancient Magians, who, in the morning of the world, went up to the hill-tops of Central Asia, and, ignorant of the true God, adored the most glorious work of his hand. But, I am filled with amazement, when I am told that in this enlightened age, and in the heart of the Christian world, there are persons who can witness this daily manifestation of the power and wisdom of the Creator, and yet say in their hearts, "There is no God!"

QUESTIONS.-1. Is it easy to describe the beauties of the starry sky as they appear to the naked eye? 1. To what are we indebted for still nobler ideas of the heavenly bodies? 1. At what time in the morning did the author begin his journey? 2. What was the appearance of the sky at that time? 2. Where was Jupiter? 2. The Pleiades? 2. Lyra? 2 Andromeda? What can you tell me about the stars mentioned here? 3, 4. Describe the change that took place as the train proceeded? 5. What is said of the Magians? 5. What of those who say, "There is no God?"

LESSON XCVIII. 44

1. RA'DI-ANT, emitting rays of light or heat. 4. IN'FI-NITE, boundless; endless.

1. A-BYSS', immeasurable space.

1. MYR'I-AD, an indefinite number.

4. AZ'URE, the sky.

7. FIRM'A-MENT, apparent arch of the sky.

Articulate properly rld in world, lms in realms, pths in depths, sph in spheres, in az'ure, ft in swiftly.

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[Let the class determine the character of this lesson, and the manner of reading it. See remark on page 388, and Rule 4, page 114.]

1. WHEN the radiant morn of creation broke,
And the world in the smile of God awoke,

*MA'GI-ANS, wise men in the East. See Mat. Chap. ii.

And the empty realms of darkness and death

Were moved through their depths by his mighty breath,
And orbs of beauty and spheres of flame
From the void abyss by myriads came,

In the joy of youth, as they darted away,
Through the widening wastes of space to play,
Their silver voices in chorus rung;

And this was the song the bright ones. sung:

2. "Away, away! through the wide, wide skyThe fair blue fields that before us lie,

Each sun, with the worlds that around him roll,
Each planet, poised on her turning pole,

With her isles of green, and her clouds of white,
And her waters that lie like fluid light!

3. "For the Source of Glory uncovers his face;
And the brightness o'erflows unbounded space;
And we drink as we go the luminous tides
In our ruddy air and our blooming sides:.
Lo! yonder the living splendors play;
Away, on our joyous path, away!

1 "Look! look! through our glittering ranks afar,

In the infinite azure, star after star,

How they brighten and bloom as they swiftly pass
How the verdure runs o'er each rolling mass!

And the path of the gentle winds is seen,

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Where the small waves dance, and the young woods lean

5. "And see! where the brighter day-beams pour,
How the rainbows hang in the sunny shower!
And the morn and eve, with their pomp of hues,
Shift o'er the bright planets and shed their dews;
And 'twixt them both, o'er the teeming ground,
With her shadowy cone, the night goes round!

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