5. Another large sheet of contiguous waters on the other side of the island, undecoyed by appearances, and apparently desperate by an infallible premonition, attempts no evasion, but, with tumult and roar, rushes on, and thunders down the precipice, which stretches about half across to the Canadian shore."

6. The rest and largest portion of the river, as if terrified at the fate of its kindred waters, retires a little; but scarcely is the movement made, before the deep declivities of the river's bed summon the dispersion of waters into one deep, dark flood, which rolls its majestic tide upon the destruction below.

7. The shallow waters which as yet have escaped, cling terrified to the Canadian shore, reconnoitering every nook and corner, in quest of some way to escape; but their search is fruitless, and they come round, at length, reluctantly, and are dashed down upon the death they had so long struggled to

escape.

8. It is at the junction of these two sides of the cataract, nearly in the form of two sides of a triangle, rounded at the point, that the most powerful sheet of water falls. The depth of the water in the channel above, and as it bends over the precipice, cannot, from the nature of the case, be ascertained; I should judge, from the appearance, that it might be from fifteen to twenty feet.

9. The color of the part of the stream above the fall is black. As it bends over the cliff and descends, at the intersection of the two sides, and for several rods on either hand, it becomes a deep and beautiful green, which continues till the column is lost in the cloud of mist that ascends before it.

10. With respect to the impression made by the first view of the falls, it may be observed that whoever approaches them anticipating amazement at the descent of the waters from a giddy height,' will be disappointed. It is the multitude of the waters, and their power, as they roll, and foam, and thunder,

The channel of the Niagara river is the dividing line between the U. S. and Canada. The perpendicular fall is one hundred and sixty feet.

which arrests the step, suspends the breath, dilates the eye lifts the hand, and fills the soul with wonder.

11. It seems to be the good pleasure of God, that men shall learn his omnipotence by evidence addressed to the senses as well as to the understanding, and that there shall be on earth continual illustrations of his mighty power. Of creation we are to ascertain by faith, not by sight; the heavenly bodies, though vast, are distant, and roll silently in their

courses.

12. But the earth by its quakings, the volcano by its fires, the ocean by its mountain waves, and the floods of Niagara by their matchless power and ceaseless thunderings, proclaim to the eye, and to the ear, and to the heart, the omnipotence of God. From their far distant sources and multitudinous dispersions, He called them into the capacious reservoirs of the north, and bid them hasten their accumulating tide to this scene of wonders; and for ages the obedient waters have rolled and thundered his praise.

13. It is, as has been stated, where the two lines of the precipice meet, that the deepest, and most powerful sheet of water falls; but it is here, also, just where the hand of omnipotence is performing its greatest wonders, that the consummation of the work is hid. What the phenomena are, where this stupendous torrent strikes at the foot of the falls, no mortal eye hath seen; a mist, rising to nearly half the height of the fall, is the veil beneath which the Almighty performs his wonders alone, and there is the hiding of his power.

14. This is the spot upon which the eye wishfully fixes, and tries in vain to penetrate; over which imagination hovers, but cannot catch even a glimpse to sketch with her pencil. This deep recess is the most sublime and awful scene upon which my eye was ever fixed. There, amid thunderings, and in solitude and darkness, from age to age, Jehovah has proclaimed, I am the ALMIGHTY GOD.

LESSON XXXVI.

THE GRAY FOREST EAGLE.a

STREET.

1. WITH storm-daring pinion and sun-gazing eye, The gray forest eagle is king of the sky.

From the crag-grasping fir-top, where morn hangs its wreath He views the mad waters, white writhing beneath.

A fitful red glaring, a rumbling jar,

Proclaim the storm demon still raging afar;

The black cloud strides upward, the lightning more red,
And the roll of the thunder more deep and more dread,
A thick pall of darkness is cast o'er the air,
And on bounds the blast with a howl from its lair.

2. The lightning darts zig-zag and forked thro' the gloom,
And the bolt launches o'er with crash, rattle and boom;
The gray forest eagle, where, where has he sped?
Does he shrink to his eyrie, or shiver with dread?
Does the glare blind his eye? Has the terrible blast
On the wing of the sky-king a fear-fetter cast?
No, no, the brave eagle! he thinks not of fright;
The wrath of the tempest but rouses delight.

3. To the flash of the lightning his eye casts a gleam,
To the shriek of the wild blast he echoes his scream,
And with a front like a warrior that speeds to the fray,
And a clapping of pinions, he's up and away.
Away, O, away soars the fearless and free;
What recks he the skies' strife? its monarch is he!
The lightning darts round him, undaunted his sight;
The blast sweeps against him, unwavered his flight;
High upward, still upward, he wheels, till his form
Is lost in the black, scowling gloom of the storm.

a There are several species of the eagle, generally distinguished by their color. They are said to live to the age of sixty, eighty, and sometimes a hundred years.

LESSON XXXVII.

THE SEA.

GREENWOOD.

[The reader may note the inflections for emphatic succession of particulars in the following piece. See Rule 10, p. 34.]

1. "THE sea is His, and He made it." Its beauty is of God. It possesses it in richness of its own; it borrows it from earth, and air, and heaven. The clouds lend it the various dyes of their wardrobe, and throw down upon it the broad masses of their shadows, as they go sailing and sweeping by.

2. The rainbow laves in it its many colored feet. The sun loves to visit it, and the moon, and the glittering brotherhood of planets and stars; for they delight themselves in its beauty. The sunbeams return from it in showers of diamonds and glances of fire; the moonbeams find in it a pathway of silver, where they dance to and fro, with the breeze and the waves, through the livelong night.

3. It has a light, too, of its own, a soft and sparkling light, rivaling the stars; and often does the ship which cuts its surface, leave streaming behind a milky way of dim and uncer ́tain luster, like that which is shining dimly above. It harmonizes in its forms and sound both with the night and the day. It cheerfully reflects the light, and it unites solemnly with the darkness. It imparts sweetness to the music of men, and grandeur to the thunder of heaven.

4. What landscape is so beautiful as one upon the borders of the sea? The spirit of its loveliness is from the waters, where it dwells and rests, singing its spells, and scattering its charms on all the coast. What rocks and cliffs are so glorious as those which are washed by the chafing sea? What groves, and fields, and dwellings, are so enchanting as those which stand by the reflecting sea?

5. If we could see the great ocean as it can be seen by no mortal eye, beholding at one view what we are now obliged to visit in detail, and spot by spot; if we could, from a flight far

higher than the sea-eagle's, and with a sight more keen and comprehensive than his, view the immense surface of the deep all spread out beneath us like a universal chart, what an infinite variety such a scene would display!

6. Here a storm would be raging, the thunder bursting, the waters boiling, and rain, and foam, and fire, all mingling together; and here, next to this scene of magnificent confusion, we should see the bright blue waves glittering in the sun, while the brisk breezes flew over them, clapping their hands for very gladness.

7. Here, again, on this self-same ocean, we should behold large tracts, where there was neither tempest nor breeze, but a dead calm, breathless, noiseless, and, were it not for that swell of the sea which never rests, motionless. Here we should see a cluster of green islands, set, like jewels, in the midst of its bosom; and there we should see broad shoals and gray rocks, fretting the billows and threatening the mari

ner.

8. "There go the ships," the white-robed ships, some on this course, and others on the opposite one, some just approaching the shore, and some just leaving it; some in fleets, and others in solitude; some swinging lazily in a calm, and some driven and tossed, and, perhaps, overwhelmed by the storm; some for traffic, and some for state, and some in peace, and others, alas! in war.

9. Let us follow one, and we should see it propelled by the steady wind of the tropics, and inhaling the almost visible odors which diffuse themselves around the spice islands of the East; let us observe the track of another, and we should behold it piercing the cold barriers of the North; struggling among hills and fields of ice; contending with winter in his everlasting dominion; striving to touch that unattained, solemn, hermit point" of the globe, where ships may, perhaps, never visit, and where the foot of man, all-daring and inde. fatigable as it is, may never tread.

10. Nor are the ships of man the only travelers whom we

■ Hermit point; the North pole.