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LESSON CIII.

HYMN TO THE STARS.

1. Av! there ye shine, and there have shone
In one eternal hour of prime;
Each rolling, burningly, alone,

Through boundless space and countless time!
Ay! there ye shine! the golden dews
That pave the realms by seraphs trod;
There, through yon echoing vault diffuse
The song of choral worlds to God.

2. Ye visible spirits! bright as erst,

Young Eden's birth-night saw ye shine
On all her flowers and fountains first,
Yet sparkling from the hand divine.
Yes! bright as when ye smiled to catch
The music of a sphere so fair,
Ye hold your high immortal watch,
And gird your God's pavilion there!

3. Gold frets to dust, yet there ye are ; Time rots the diamond; there ye roll In primal light, as if each star

Enshrined an everlasting soul!

And do they not? Since yon bright throngs
One all-enlightened Spirit own,
Praised there by pure sidereal tongues,
Eternal, glorious, blest, and lone.

4. Could man but see what ye have seen, Unfold a while the shrouded past,

From all that is, to what has been,

The glance how rich, the range how vast!

The birth of time; the rise, the fall

Of empires; myriads, ages flown;

Thrones, cities, tongues, arts, worships, all
The things whose echoes are not gone!

5. And there ye shine, as if to mock
The children of an earthly sire;

The storm, the bolt, the earthquake's shock,
The red volcano's cataract fire;

Drought, famine, plague, and blood, and flame,
All nature's ills, and life's worst woes,
Are nought to you; ye smile the same,
And scorn alike their dawn and close.

6. Ay! there ye roll, emblems sublime

Of Him whose spirit o'er us moves,
Beyond the clouds of grief and crime

Still shining on the world he loves.
Nor is one scene to mortals given

That more divides the soul and sod,
Than yon proud heraldry of heaven,
Yon burning blazonry of God!

LESSON CIV.

A SUMMER SHOWER.

NORTON.

1. THE rain is o'er, how dense and bright
Yon pearly clouds reposing lie!
Cloud above cloud, a glorious sight,
Contrasting with the dark blue sky!

2. In grateful silence earth receives

The general blessing; fresh and fair,
Each flower expands its shining leaves,
As glad the common joy to share.

3. The softened sunbeams pour around
A fairy light, uncertain, pale;

The wind blows cool; the scented ground
Is breathing odors on the gale.

4. Mid yon rich cloud's voluptuous pile,
Methinks some spirit of the air
Might rest to gaze below a while,

Then turn and bathe and revel there.

5. The sun breaks forth, from off the scene
Its floating veil of mist is flung;
And all the wilderness of green

With trembling drops of light is hung.

6. Hear the rich music of that voice
Which sounds from all below, above;
She calls her children to rejoice,

And round them throws her arms of love.

LESSON CV.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE YOUNG.

HAWES.

1. READING is a most interesting and pleasant method of occupying your leisure hours. I am aware that men of business have usually little time to devote to the improvement of their minds. Their active occupations must necessarily engross their chief attention. And yet in the business of life there are many unoccupied hours, fragments of time, which, if carefully gathered up and duly improved, would afford opportunity for reading a great many useful volumes, and of acquiring much useful knowledge.

2. If there are any persons so deeply engaged in business, they can find no time to read, I would say to them, take time. It is not meet that you should spend the whole of your life as a mere beast of burden, providing only for the body, while you leave the mind, the immortal mind, to famish and starve.

3. The truth is, all men have, or may have, time enough to

read. The difficulty is they are not careful to improve it. Their hours of leisure are either idled away, or slept away, or talked away, or spent in some other manner equally vain and useless; and then they complain that they have no time for the culture of their minds and hearts. This is all wrong.

4. The infinite value of time is not realized. It is the most precious thing in the world; the only thing of which it is a virtue to be covetous, and yet the only thing of which all men are prodigal. Time is so precious that there is never but one moment in the world at once, and that is always taken away before another is given. Only take care to gather up your fragments of time, my friends, and you will never want leisure for the reading of useful books.

5. And in what way can you spend your unoccupied hours more pleasantly, than in holding converse with the wise and good through the medium of their writings? To a mind not altogether devoid of curiosity, books open an inexhaustible source of enjoyment. And it is a high recommendation of this sort of enjoyment that it always abides with us. Nothing can take it away. It is in the mind; and go where we may, if our minds are well furnished and in good order, we can never want for means of enjoyment. The grand volume of nature will always lie spread out before us; and if we know how to read its wonders, the whole world will pour at our feet its treasures, and we shall hold converse with God himself.

6. But to those who are unaccustomed to read other books, this sublime volume must of course appear an unmeaning blank. They cannot read the glorious lines of wisdom and power, of majesty and love, which the Creator has inscribed upon it. All is to them a sealed book, and they pass through the world none the wiser for all the wonders of creative power and goodness by which they are surrounded.

7. A taste for useful reading is an effectual preservation from vice. Next to the fear of God, implanted in the heart, nothing is a better safeguard to the character than the love of good books. They are handmaids of virtue and religion. They quicken our sense of duty, unfold our responsibilities,

strengthen our principles, confirm our habits, inspire in us the love of what is right and useful, and teach us to look with disgust upon what is low and groveling and vicious.

S. Knowledge is power. It is the philosopher's stone, the true alchemy that turns every thing it touches into gold. It is the scepter that gives us our dominion over nature; the key that unlocks the store houses of creation, and opens to us the treasures of the universe. And suppose you that her last victory has been won, the utmost limits of her dominion reached? Nay, my friends, she has but commenced her march.

9. Her most splendid triumphs are yet future. What new honors she has to bestow on her followers, into what new fields of conquest and of glory she will lead them, no one can tell. Her voice to all is, to rally around her standard and go forward and aid her victories, and share in the honor of her achievements. None are excluded from this high privilege. Her rewards are proffered to all, and all, though in different measures, may share in her distinctions, her blessings, and hopes.

10. The circumstances in which you are placed, as members of a free and intelligent community, demand of you a careful improvement of the means of knowledge you enjoy. You live in an age of great mental excitement. The public mind is awake, and society in general is fast rising in the scale of improvement. At the same time the means of knowledge are most abundant. They exist every where, and in the richest variety. Nor were stronger inducements ever held out to engage all classes of people in the diligent use of these means.

11. Useful talents of every kind are in great demand. The field of enterprise is widening and spreading around you; the road to wealth, to honor, to usefulness and happiness, is opened to all; and all who will, may enter upon it with the almost certain prospect of success. In this free community there are no privileged orders. Every man finds his level. If he has talents, he will be known and estimated, and rise in the respect and confidence of society.

a Alchemy; sublime chemistry.

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