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calm dignity of Jesus, are fine; but the face of John," as he stands just behind Thomas, and looks upon his rash act, is one to remember always. It seems to me the very personification of forbearance. He submits calmly that Thomas should do it, should satisfy himself, but yet he is exceedingly sorrowful.

10. There is no surprise in his countenance; he knows human frailty; he is not astonished at unbelief or hardness of heart; but it seems, at the same time, as if his own heart were broken at the spectacle. There is not the slightest rebuke in his beautiful countenance; but such a union of indulgence and sorrow, as one might well pray for, at that altar, to be awakened in his mind when he stands by the evil and erring.

11. A walk in St. Peter's is something by itself; a thing not to be had, nor anything like it, anywhere else in the world. The immensity of the place; its immense, unequaled magnificence; the charming temperature of the air, preserved the same the year round, by the vastness of the mass of masonry; the incense-breathing walls; for there is literally an odor of sanctity always here, from the daily burning of incense; the rich, beautiful, variegated marble columns; the altars, the Combs on every side, the statues, the paintings, the fine medallions, in marble, of the heads of saints and fathers of the church, which are set into the sides of the columns in great numbers; then the arches on arches that present themselves to the view in every direction; and, if the walk be toward evening, the music of the vesper hymn, now swelling in full chorus upon the ear, and then dying away, as the music changes, or the walk leads you near the chapel whence it proceeds, or farther from it; all this, with the gathering shadows of approaching evening, the shadows slowly gathering in arch and dome, makes a walk in St. Peter's like nothing else!

12. Among the most beautiful things in Rome are its fountains, and among the most striking things are its obelisks.

a John; another of the apostles. b Medallion; the representation of a medal in painting or sculpture. c Ves'per hymn; a hymn sung at the evening service of Catholic churches.

The fountains in front of St. Peter's especially, are really glorious. They rise thirty or forty feet into the air, and come down in a shower. The quantity of water thrown up is so great, and the streams as they spring out from the basin are made so to diverge, that they present the appearance of two trees, one on each side of the piazza.

13. The fountains are partly resolved into drops and mist, and a rainbow may always be seen in the direction opposite the sun. Every time one sees them, they seem a new mystery and beauty; and when the sky is so fair, so glorious a thing, that you feel almost (as you do some days) as if you could kneel down and worship it, they appear like a cloud of incense, pure, bright, resplendent, offered up to that supernal splendor and purity.

14. As to these Egyptian obelisks, of polished granite, pointing up to the sky from almost every square and open space in Rome, and with that handwriting of mysterious and yet unexplained characters upon their sides, what could be more striking? The antiquities of Rome are young by their side. Some of them were built by Sesostris," between three and four thousand years ago. They saw ages of empire and glory before Rome had a being.

15. They are also in the most perfect preservation. So beautifully polished, and entirely free from stain, untouched by the storms of thirty-five centuries, it seems as if they had not lost one of their particles, since they came from the quarries of Egypt. That very surface, we know, has been gazed upon by the eyes of a hundred successive generations.

16. Speak, dread monitors! as ye point upward to heaven; speak, dark hieroglyphic symbols! and tell us, are ye not yet conscious, when conscious life has been flowing around you for three thousand years? Methinks it were enough to penetrate the bosom of granite with emotion, to have witnessed what ye have witnessed. Methinks that the stern and inex

a Egyptian obelisks; four-sided pyramids, brought from Egypt by Roman emperors, The largest one in Rome is 179 feet high. b Sesostris (Ses-os'tris ;) a king of ancient Egypt.

orable mystery, graven upon your mighty shafts, must break silence, to tell that which it hath known of weal and woe, of change, disaster, blood, and crime.

LESSON LXXX.

ODE TO ART.

1. WHEN, from the sacred garden" driven,
Man fled before his Maker's wrath,
An angel left her place in heaven,

And crossed the wanderer's sunless path.

2. 'Twas Art! sweet Art! new radiance broke,
Where her light foot flew o'er the ground;
And thus with seraph voice she spoke,
"The curse a blessing shall be found."

3. She led him through the trackless wild,
Where noontide sunbeams never blazed;
The thistle shrunk, the harvest smiled,
And nature gladdened as she gazed.

4. Earth's thousand tribes of living things,
At Art's command are to him given;
The village grows, the city springs,
And point their spires of faith to heaven.

5. In fields of air he writes his name,

And treads the chambers of the sky;
He reads the stars, and grasps the flame
That quivers round the throne on high.

a Sacred garden; the garden of Eden.

LESSON LXXXI.

TO THE CONDOR.

[The learner may scan the first stanza of the following piece, and note the words in which the metrical and customary accents conflict. See note under Metrical Accent, p. 71.]

1. WONDROUS, majestic bird! whose mighty wing
Dwells not with puny warblers of the spring,
Nor on earth's silent breast;

Powerful to soar in strength and pride on high,
And sweep the azure bosom of the sky,
Chooses its place of rest.

2. Proud nursling of the tempest, where repose
Thy pinions at the daylight's fading close?
In what far clime of night

Dost thou in silence, breathless and alone,
While round thee swell, of life no kindred tone,
Suspend thy tireless flight?

3. The mountain's frozen peak is lone and bare,
No foot of man hath ever rested there;
Yet 't is thy sport to soar

Far o'er its frowning summit; and the plain
Would seek to win thy downward wing in vain,
Or the green sea-beat shore.

4. The limits of thy course no daring eye

Has marked; thy glorious path of light on high

Is trackless and unknown;

The gorgeous sun thy quenchless gaze may share ;
Sole tenant of his boundless realm of air,

Thou art, with him, alone.

5. Imperial wanderer! the storms that shake
Earth's towers, and bid her rooted mountains quake,
Are never felt by thee!

Beyond the bolt, beyond the lightning's gleam,

:

Basking forever in the unclouded beam,-
Thy home, immensity!

6. And thus the soul, with upward flight like thine,
May track the realms where heaven's own glories shine,
And scorn the tempest's power;

Yet meaner cares oppress its drooping wings,
Still to earth's joys the sky-born wanderer clings,
Those pageants of an hour!

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LESSON LXXXII.

THE LEAF.

GOODRICH.

It came with spring's soft sun and showers,
Mid bursting buds and blushing flowers;

It flourished on the same light stem,

It drank the same clear dews with them.

The crimson tints of summer morn,

That gilded one, did each adorn;

The breeze, that whispered light and brief
To bud or blossom, kissed the leaf;
When o'er the leaf the tempest flew,
The bud and blossom trembled too.

But its companions passed away,
And left the leaf to lone decay.
The gentle gales of spring went by,
The fruits and flowers of summer die.
The autumn winds swept o'er the hill,
And winter's breath came cold and chill.

The leaf now yielded to the blast,

And on the rushing stream was cast;

Far, far it glided to the sea,

And whirled and eddied wearily,

Till suddenly it sank to rest,

And slumbered on the ocean's breast.

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