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Should betray thee when sorrows like clouds are arrayed "Look aloft !" to the friendship which never shall fade. Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine

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Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly, 5 Then turn, and through tears of repentant regret, "Look aloft!" to the Sun that is never to set.

Should they who are dearest, the son of thy heart,
The wife of thy bosom, in sorrow depart,

"Look aloft" from the darkness and dust of the tomb, 10 To that soil where affection is ever in bloom.

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And oh when death comes in his terrors, to cast
His fears on the future, his pall on the past,
In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart,
And a smile in thine eye, “look aloft" and depart.

LESSON XCIV.-ODE ON WAR.-WM. H. BUrleigh.

Hark! the cry of Death is ringing
Wildly from the reeking plain :
Guilty Glory, too, is flinging

Proudly forth her vaunting strain.
Thousands on the field are lying,
Slaughtered in the ruthless strife;
Wildly mingled, dead and dying
Show the waste of human life!
Christian can you idly slumber,
While this work of hell goes on?
Can you calmly sit and number
Fellow-beings, one by one,
On the field of battle falling,
Sinking to a bloody grave?
Up! the GoD of peace is calling,
Calling upon you to save!
Listen to the supplications

Of the widowed ones of earth;

Listen to the cry of nations,
Ringing loudly, wildly forth,-

Nations bruised, and crushed forever

By the iron heel of War!

GoD of mercy, wilt thou never

Send deliverance from afar?

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Yes! a light is faintly gleaming
Through the cloud that hovers o'er;
Soon the radiance of its beaming
Full upon our land will pour;
'Tis the light that tells the dawning
Of the bright millennial day,
Heralding its blessed morning
With its peace-bestowing ray.

GOD shall spread abroad his banner,
Sign of universal peace;

And the earth shall shout hosanna,
And the reign of blood shall cease.
Man no more shall seek dominion
Through a sea of human gore;
War shall spread its gloomy pinion
O'er the peaceful earth no more.

LESSON XCV.-THE LAST DAYS OF AUTUMN.-HENRY PICKERING

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Hark! to the sounding gale! how through the soul
It vibrates, and in thunder seems to roll
Along the mountains! Loud the forest moans,
And, naked to the blast, the o'ermastering spirit owns.
Rustling, the leaves are rudely hurried by,

Or in dark eddies whirled; while from on high
The ruffian Winds, as if in giant mirth,

Unseat the mountain pine, and headlong dash to earth!

With crest of foam, the uplifted flood no more
Flows placidly along the sylvan shore;

But, vexed to madness, heaves its turbid wave,

Threatening to leave the banks it whilom loved to lave:

And in the angry heavens, where, wheeling low,
The sun exhibits yet a fitful glow,

The clouds, obedient to the stormy power,

Or shattered, fly along, or still more darkly lower.
Amazement seizes all! within the vale

Shrinking, the mute herd snuff the shivering gale; The while, with tossing head and streaming mane, 20 The horse affrighted bounds, or wildly skims the plain.

Whither, with charms to Fancy yet so dear,
Whither has filed the lovely infant year?

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Where, too, the groves in greener pomp arrayed?
The deep and solemn gloom of the inspiring shade?

The verdant heaven that once the woods o'erspread,
And underneath a pensive twilight shed,

Is shrivelled all dead the vine-mantled bowers,
And withered in their bloom the beautiful young flowers

Mute, too, the voice of Joy! no tuneful bird
Amid the leafless forest now is heard ;

Nor more may ploughboy's laugh the bosom cheer, 10 Nor in the velvet glade Love's whisper charm the ear.

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But lo! the ruthless storm its force hath spent ;
And see! where sinking 'neath yon cloudy tent,
The sun withdraws his last cold, feeble ray,
Abandoning to Night his short and dubious sway

A heavier gloom pervades the chilly air!

Now in their northern caves the Winds prepare
The nitrous frost to sheet with dazzling white,
The long deserted fields at the return of light:

Or with keen icy breath they may glass o'er
The restless wave, and on the lucid floor
Let fall the feathery shower, and far and wide
Involve in snowy robe the land and fettered tide!

Thus shut the varied scene! and thus, in turn,
O Autumn! thou within thine ample urn

Sweep'st all earth's glories. Ah, for one brief hour,
Spare the soft virgin's bloom and tender human flower!

LESSON XCVI.-MAN

-N. Y. EVENING POST.

The human mind,—that lofty thing!
The palace and the throne,
Where reason sits a sceptred king,
And breathes his judgment tone.
Oh! who with silent step shall trace
The borders of that haunted place.
Nor in his weakness own
That mystery and marvel bind
That lofty thing, the human mind!

The human heart,-that restless thing'
The tempter and the tried;

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The joyous, yet the suffering,-
The source of pain and pride;
The gorgeous thronged, the desolate,
The seat of love, the lair of hate,-
Self-stung, self-deified!

Yet do we bless thee as thou art,
Thou restless thing, the human heart!
The human soul,-that startling thing!
Mysterious and sublime!

The angel sleeping on the wing
Worn by the scoffs of time,-
The beautiful, the veiled, the bound,
The earth-enslaved, the glory-crowned,
The stricken in its prime!

From heaven in tears to earth it stole,
That startling thing,-the human soul!
And this is man:-Oh! ask of him,
The gifted and forgiven,-

While o'er his vision, drear and dim,
The wrecks of time are driven;
If pride or passion in their power,
Can chain the time, or charm the hour,
Or stand in place of heaven?

He bends the brow, he bows the knee,-
"Creator, Father! none but thee !"

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LESSON XCVII.-PASSAGE DOWN THE OHIO.-JAMES K.

PAULDING.

As down Ohio's ever-ebbing tide,
Oarless and sailless, silently they glide,

How still the scene, how lifeless, yet how fair,
Was the lone land that met the strangers there!
No smiling villages, or curling smoke,

The busy haunts of busy men bespoke;

No solitary hut the banks along,

Sent forth blithe Labor's homely, rustic song;
No urchin gambolled on the smooth white sand,
Or hurled the skipping-stone with playful hand,
While playmate dog plunged in the clear blue wave,
And swam, in vain, the sinking prize to save.
Where now are seen, along the river side,
Young busy towns, in buxom painted pride,

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And fleets of gliding boats with riches crowned,
To distant Orleans or St. Louis bound,
Nothing appeared but nature unsubdued,
One endless, noiseless woodland solitude,
Or boundless prairie, that aye seemed to be
As level and as lifeless as the sea;

They seemed to breathe in this wide world alone,
Heirs of the Earth, the land was all their own!

'T was evening now: the hour of toil was o'er,
Yet still they durst not seek the fearful shore,
Lest watchful Indian crew should silent creep,
And spring upon and murder them in sleep;
So through the livelong night they held their way,
And 't was a night might shame the fairest day;
So still, so bright, so tranquil was its reign,

They cared not though the day ne'er came again.
The moon high wheeled the distant hills above,
Silvered the fleecy foliage of the grove,
That, as the wooing zephyrs on it fell,
Whispered, it loved the gentle visit well:
That fair-faced orb alone to move appeared,
That zephyr was the only sound they heard.
No deep-mouthed hound the hunter's haunt betraye
No lights upon the shore or waters played,
No loud laugh broke upon the silent air,
To tell the wanderers man was nestling there.
All, all was still, on gliding bark and shore,
As if the earth now slept to wake no more.

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LESSON XCVIII.-SPIRIT OF BEAUTY.-RUFUS DAWE

The Spirit of Beauty unfurls her light,
And wheels her course in a joyous flight,
I know her track through the balmy air,
By the blossoms that cluster and whiten there;
She leaves the tops of the mountains green,
And gems the valley with crystal sheen.

At morn, I know where she rested at night,
For the roses are gushing with dewy delight;
Then she mounts again, and around her flings
A shower of light from her purple wings,
Till the spirit is drunk with the music on high,
That silently fills it with ecstasy!

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