THE STREET MUSICIAN; OR, POWER OF MUSIC. When, looking eagerly around, So, stooping down from hawthorn top, "Did you admire my lamp," quoth he, The songster heard this short oration, Hence jarring sectaries1 may learn That brother should not war with brother, But sing and shine by sweet consent, Those Christians best deserve the name,2 Of him that creeps and him that flies. 1. Sectaries, what? 265 COWPER. 2. What name? III. THE STREET-MUSICIAN; OR, THE POWER OF MUSIC. "ONE of the most pure and innocent pleasures which we can enjoy we owe to music. It possesses the power of charming our ears, soothing our passions, affecting our hearts, and influencing our propensi ties. How often has music dissipated our gloom, quickened the vital spirits, and ennobled our sentiments! An art so pleasing and useful well deserves our attention; and calls upon us to employ it to the glory of our beneficent Creator."-Sturm. AN Orpheus!' an Orpheus!-he works on the crowd, What an eager assembly! what an empire is this! That errand-bound 'prentice was passing in haste— The porter sits down on the weight which he bore ; That tall man, a giant in bulk and in height, Mark that cripple,—but little would tempt him to try Now, coaches and chariots! roar on like a stream; WORDSWORTH. 1. Who was Orpheus? 2. What is meant by stops on the fret? fret? | 3. Souls, what case? ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. 267 IV. ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE. "FOR the first few years of our terrestrial apprenticeship, we have not much work to do; but, boarded and lodged gratis, are set down mostly to look about us over the workshop and see others work, tili we have understood the work a little and can handle this or that."Carlyle. Derivations. Etymology. YE distant spires, ye antique towers! And ye that from the stately brow Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among, His silver-winding way. Ah, happy hills, ah, pleasing shade, Where once my careless A stranger yet to pain! childhood strayed, I feel the gales that from ye blow A momentary bliss bestow, As waving fresh their gladsome wing, My weary soul they seem to soothe, To breathe a second spring. Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen The paths of pleasure trace, The captive linnet which enthral? To chase the rolling circle's speed, While some on earnest business bent, 'Gainst graver hours that bring constraint To sweeten liberty: Some bold adventurers disdain And unknown regions dare descry; Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed, And lively cheer, of vigour born; Alas! regardless of their doom, Yet see how all around them wait And black misfortune's baleful train. Ah! show them where in ambush stand, To seize their prey, the murd'rous band, Ah! tell them they are men! These shall the fury passions tear,5 And Shame that skulks behind; That inly gnaws the secret heart; THE FLIGHT OF TIME. Ambition this shall tempt to rise, The stings of falsehood those shall try, That mocks the tear it forced to flow; Lo, in the vale of years beneath The painful family of death, More hideous than their queen : To each his sufferings; all are men, The tender for another's pain, The unfeeling for his own. Yet ah! why should they know their fate? And happiness too swiftly flies; 1. The establishment to which Eton owes all its importance is its College, founded by Henry VI. in 1440. That monarch, by whom it was liberally endowed, intended it principally for the education of" poor and indigent boys" destined for the Church. 2. Why in vain ? 269 GRAY. 3. The exact meaning of careless here? 4. What is less pleasing when possessed? 5. "I do not know that anv poet, ancient or modern, has given so complete a picture of the passions in so short a compass."-Wakefield. 6. What queen? V. THE FLIGHT OF TIME. "WHATEVER We see on every side, reminds us of the lapse of time and the flux of life. The day and night succeed each other; the rotation of seasons diversifies the year; the sun rises, attains the meridian, declines, and sets; and the moon every night changes its form."Johnson. |