5

10

15

Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,

And a resolute endeavor

Now now to sit. or never,

By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!

What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!

How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour

On the bosom of the palpitating air!

Yet the ear it fully knows,

By the twanging

And the clanging,

How the danger ebbs and flows;

Yet the ear distinctly tells,

In the jangling

And the wrangling,

How the danger sinks and swells,

20 By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells,

Of the bells,

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells

In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

Runic relating to the runes or mysterious characters of the old Norse language.eu'phony: melodious sound.

IMMORTAL LIFE

THEODORE PARKER

THEODORE PARKER (1810-1860) was a distinguished New England scholar, preacher, lecturer, and reformer. He was famous for the courage and honesty of his thought and speech, and for the strength and purity of his character.

I would not slight this wondrous world. I love its 5 day and night. Its flowers and its fruits are dear to me. I would not willfully lose sight of a departing cloud. Every year opens new beauty in a star, or in a purple gentian fringed with loveliness.

The laws, too, of matter seem more wonderful the more 10 I study them, in the whirling eddies of the dust, in the curious shells of former life buried by thousands in a grain of chalk, or in the shining diagrams of light above my head. Even the ugly becomes beautiful when truly seen. I see the jewel in the bunchy toad.

15

The more I live, the more I love this lovely world; feel more its Author in each little thing-in all that's great. But yet I feel my immortality the more. In childhood the consciousness of immortal life buds forth feeble, though full of promise. In the man it unfolds its 20 fragrant petals, his most celestial flower, to mature its seed throughout eternity.

The prospect of that everlasting life, the perfect justice yet to come, the infinite progress before us, cheer and

comfort the heart. Sad and disappointed, full of selfreproach, we shall not be so forever. The light of heaven breaks upon the night of trial, sorrow, sin; the somber clouds which overhung the east, grown purple now, tell 5 us the dawn of heaven is coming in.

Our faces, gleamed on by that, smile in the newborn glow; we are beguiled of our sadness before we are aware. The certainty of this provokes us to patience; it forbids us to be slothfully sorrowful. It calls us to 10 be up and doing.

There is small merit in being willing to die; it seems almost sinful in a good man when the world needs him here so much. It is weak and unmanly to be always looking and sighing voluptuously for that. But it is of 15 great comfort to have in your soul a sure trust in immortality; of great value here and now to anticipate time, and live to-day the eternal life.

This we may all do. The joys of heaven will begin as soon as we attain the character of heaven and do its 20 duties. That may begin to-day. It is everlasting life to know God, -to have his spirit dwelling in you,yourself at one with Him. Try that, and prove its worth.

Justice, usefulness, wisdom, religion, love are the best 25 things we hope for in heaven. They are the best things of earth. Think no outlay of goodness and piety too great. You will find your reward begin here. As much

goodness and piety, so much heaven. Men will not pay you-God will; pay you now; pay you hereafter and forever.

the jewel in the toad: see Shakespeare's "As You Like It," Act II, Scene 1, line 13. The old belief was that a precious stone was to be found in a toad's head. — somber : literally, under the shade.—provoke: stimulate, It is in its secondary meaning that to provoke is to make angry.

arouse.

ODE TO DUTY

WORDSWORTH

Stern Daughter of the Voice of God!
O Duty! if that name thou love
Who art a light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove;
Thou, who art victory and law
When empty terrors overawe;

From vain temptations dost set free;

And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity!

There are who ask not if thine eye

Be on them; who, in love and truth,
Where no misgiving is, rely

Upon the genial sense of youth:

Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot

Who do thy work, and know it not:

Oh! if through confidence misplaced

They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them

cast.

Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,

When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security.

And they a blissful course may hold
Even now, who, not unwisely bold,
Live in the spirit of this creed;

Yet seek thy firm support, according to their need.

I, loving freedom, and untried;
No sport of every random gust,
Yet being to myself a guide,

Too blindly have reposed my trust:
And oft, when in my heart was heard
Thy timely mandate, I deferred

The task, in smoother walks to stray;

But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may.

Through no disturbance of my soul,

Or strong compunction in me wrought,
I supplicate for thy control;

But in the quietness of thought: