sea and land on the rush of engines not then imagined, in a time so full of exciting hopes that it hardly has leisure to contemplate the past, we pause from all our toil and traffic, our eager plans and impetuous debate, to commemorate the event. The whole land pauses, as I have said; and some distinct impression of it will follow the sun, wherever he climbs the steep of heaven, until in all countries it has more or less touched the thoughts of men. The voice of the cottage as well as the college, of the church as well as the legislative assembly, was in the paper. It echoed the talk of the farmer in homespun, as well as the classic eloquence of Lee, or the terrible tones of Patrick Henry. It gushed at last from the pen of its writer,' like the fountain from the roots of Lebanon, a brimming river where it issues from the rock. But it was because its sources had been supplied, its fullness filled, by unseen springs; by the rivulets winding far up among the cedars, and percolating through hidden crevices in the stone; by melting snows, whose white sparkle seemed still on the stream; by fierce rains, with which the basins above were drenched; by even the dews, silent and wide, which had lain in stillness all night upon the hill. 1 Thomas Jefferson. RICHARD S. STORRS. THE ESCAPE. WALTER SCOTT was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Aug. 15, 1771. At the age of eight he attended the high school, and there acquired some knowledge of languages and improved his ardent taste for poetry. He studied law, and was admitted to practice; but, fortunately for the world, he was irresistibly drawn toward the art of letters. His first published work was a series of ballads translated from the German. In 1802 he published "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," and thus began that career of wonderful productiveness, in poetry and in fiction, which has delighted and instructed many readers, from that time to this. He is among the noblest characters in all literature. The selection here given is taken from that delightful romance in verse, "The Lady of the Lake." The death of Scott occurred Sept. 21, 1832. The stag at eve had drunk his fill In lone Glenarty's hazel shade; But when the sun his beacon red Had kindled on Benvoirlich's head, The deep-mouthed bloodhound's heavy bay And faint, from farther distance borne, As Chief who hears his warder call, The antlered monarch of the waste Sprung from his heathery couch in haste. The dewdrops from his flank he shook; That thickened as the chase drew nigh; Yelled on the view the opening pack; Far from the tumult fled the roe, Faint, and more faint, its failing din Less loud the sounds of sylvan war For ere that steep ascent was won, The noble stag was pausing now WALTER SCOTT. SAVED FROM THE SEA. EDWIN ARNOLD was born at Gravesend, England, June 10, 1832. He studied at Rochester and at King's College, London. In 1854 he received his degree at University College, Oxford. For a brief time he taught school in Birmingham, and then became principal of the Sanskrit College in Poona, Bombay, India. In 1861 he returned to England and joined the editorial staff of the London Telegraph. He is the author of several books of excellent verse, the best known of these being "The Light of Asia." His prose books are also very entertaining. In 1891 he visited the United States and gave public readings from his own works. He died March 29, 1904. The present selection is taken from " Wandering Words," by courtesy of Longmans, Green and Company. The morning had been fine, but at midday a wind rose up from the southwest suddenly, and rolled a rough sea along the feet of the cliffs. Clannen had gone out after his lobster-pots alone, and whether one of them had drifted, which he was trying to recover, or whether, skillful boatman as he was, he misjudged the force of the incoming surge, he got his dingey1 flung upon the rocks and stove in, while he himself, in scrambling out upon a ledge of the cliff, sprained his ankle, and by the same fall broke his arm. This was not known until the broken boat of 1 din'gy; a small boat. |