Keep. My lord, the winter now creeps on apace. Ed. Glanced to the up-risen sun! Ay, such fair morns, When every bush doth put its glory on, Like a gemmed bride! your rustics now And early hinds, will set their clouted feet Through silver webs, so bright and finely wrought Their careless way, unheeding. Alas, how many glorious things there be Keep. Yes, good my lord, the cold chill year advances, Therefore I pray you, let me close that wall. Ed. I tell thee no, man; if the north air bites, Ed. Bring him, I pray thee, when thou comest again, He wags his tail, and looks up to my With the assured kindness of one face LESSON CLXXX. A Summer Evening Meditation.-MRS. BARBAULD. The dazzled sight, but with mild maiden beams New strung in heaven, lifts high its beamy horns, The shadows spread apace; while meeked-eyed Eve, Through the Hesperian gardens of the west, How deep the silence, yet how loud the praise! A tongue in every star, that talks with man, Has closed his golden eye, and, wrapt in shades, On fancy's wild and roving wing I sail, From the green borders of the peopled earth, Of Jupiter, whose huge gigantic bulk Dances in ether like the lightest leaf; To the dim verge the suburbs of the system, Where cheerless Saturn 'midst his watery moons, Girt with a lucid zone, in gloomy pomp, Sits like an exiled monarch: fearless thence But Ŏ thou mighty Mind! whose powerful word Have the broad eye-lids of the morn beheld thee? Support thy throne? Oh! look with pity down LESSON CLXXXI. The blind Preacher: Extract from a Letter of the British Spy.-WIRT. I HAVE been, my dear S RICHMOND, OCTOBER 10, 1803. on an excursion through the counties which lie along the eastern side of the Blue Ridge. A general description of that country and its inhabitants may form the subject of a future letter. For the present, I must entertain you with an account of a most singular and interesting adventure, which I met with, in the course of the tour. It was one Sunday, as I travelled through the county of Orange, that my eye was caught by a cluster of horses tied near a ruinous, old, wooden house, in the forest, not far from the road side. Having frequently seen such objects before, in travelling through these states, I had no difficulty in understanding that this was a place of religious worship. Devotion alone should have stopped me, to join in the duties of the congregation; but I must confess, that curiosity, to hear the preacher of such a wilderness, was not the least of my motives. On entering, I was struck with his preternatural appearance. He was a tall and very spare old man; his head, which was covered with a white linen cap, his shrivelled hands, and his voice, were all shaking under the influence of a palsy; and a few moments ascertained to me that he was perfectly blind. The first emotions which touched my breast, were those of mingled pity and veneration. But how soon were all my feelings changed! The lips of Plato were never more worthy of a prognostic swarm of bees, than were the lips of this holy man! It was a day of the administration of the săcrament; and his subject, of course, was the passion of our Savior. I had heard the subject handled a thousand times I had thought it exhausted long ago. Little did I suppose, that in the wild woods of America, I was to meet with a man whose eloquence would give to this topic a new and more sublime pathos, than I had ever before witnessed. As he descended from the pulpit, to distribute the mystic symbols, there was a peculiar, a more than human solemnity in his air and manner, which made my blood run cold, and my whole frame shiver. He then drew a picture of the sufferings of our Savior; his trial before Pilate; his ascent up Calvary; his crucifixion; and his death. I knew the whole history; but never, until then, had I heard the circumstances so selected, so arrānged, so colored! It was all new: and I seemed to have heard it for the first time in my life. His enunciation was so deliberate, that his voice trembled on every syllable; and every heart in the assembly trembled in unison. His peculiar phrases had that force of description, : that the original scene appeared to be, at that moment, acting before our eyes. We saw the very faces of the Jews the staring, frightful distortions of malice and rage. We saw the buffet: my soul kindled with a flame of indignation; and my hands were involuntarily and convulsively clinched. But when he came to touch on the patience, the forgiving meekness of our Savior; when he drew, to the life, his blessed eyes streaming in tears to heaven; his voice breathing to God, a soft and gentle prayer of pardon on his enemies, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"-the voice of the preacher, which had all along faltered, grew fainter, and fainter, until, his utterance being entirely obstructed by the force of his feelings, he raised his handkerchief to his eyes, and burst into a loud and irrepressible flood of grief. The effect is inconceivable. The whole house resounded with the mingled groans, and sobs, and shrieks of the congregation. It was some time before the tumult had subsided, so far as to permit him to proceed. Indeed, judging by the usual, but fallacious standard of my own weakness, I began to be very uneasy for the situation of the preacher. For I could not conceive, how he would be able to let his audience down from the height to which he had wound them, without impairing the solemnity and dignity of his subject, or perhaps shocking them by the abruptness of the fall. Butno: the descent was as beautiful and sublime, as the elevation had been rapid and enthusiastic. The first sentence, with which he broke the awful silence, was a quotation from Rousseau : "Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ, like a God!" I despair of giving you any idea of the effect produced by this short sentence, unless you could perfectly conceive the whole manner of the man, as well as the peculiar crisis in the discourse. Never before, did I completely understand what Demosthenes meant by laying such stress on delivery. You are to bring before you the venerable figure of the preacher his blindness, constantly recalling to your recollection old Homer, Ossian, and Milton, and associating with his performance, the melancholy grandeur of their geniuses; you are to imagine that you hear his slow, solemn, well-accented enunciation, and his voice of affecting, trembling melody: you are to remember the pitch of passion and enthusiasm to which the congregation were raised; and then, |