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fancy, at others rushing into the thick of battle, and again writing the most inspiring religious poetry; a many sided genius who unfortunately is read less now than formerly.

He was a particular friend of Lord Byron, though unlike him in many ways. He is perhaps best known by some of his songs, which were formerly popular, such as "Oft in the Stilly Night" and the "Last Rose of Summer."

THOU ART, O GOD

This also is one of the great religious poems or hymns of the language. Its inspiration is drawn from the beauties of nature.

Thou art, O God, the life and light
Of all this wondrous world we see;
Its glow by day, its smile by night,
Are but reflections caught from Thee.
Where'er we turn, Thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are Thine!

When Day, with farewell beam, delays
Among the opening clouds of Eden,
And we can always think we gaze,
Through golden vistas into Heaven
Those hues, that make the Sun's decline
So soft, so radiant, LORD! are Thine.

When Night, with wings of starry gloom,
O'ershadows all the earth and skies,
Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume
Is sparkling with unnumber'd eyes
That sacred gloom, those fires divine,
So grand, so countless, LORD! are Thine.

When youthful Spring around us breathes,
Thy spirit warms her fragrant sigh;
And every flower the Summer wreathes
Is born beneath that kindling eye.
Where'er we turn, Thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are Thine.

THOMAS MOORE.

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY

Which of these three hymns do you like best? Which is the most "singable"? Which the most "devotional"? Which appeals most strongly to the religious feelings? Which treats the most definitely of conduct? Which uses the finest figures of speech?

Would you say that Pope's hymn has more to do with conduct than the others, while they have more religious sentiment than Pope's? Memorize at least one stanza of each.

In reading aloud such poems as these what kind of voice should be used?

DONALD G. MITCHELL (IK MARVEL)

(1822-1908)

Mr. Mitchell is one of the minor writers of America, chiefly because he wrote comparatively little. What he wrote is all worth reading. Some have called him a literary descendant of Irving. He has much of the same charm. His best known book, Reveries of a Bachelor, is a classic for the young, from which the following selection is taken.

RAIN IN THE GARRET

In reading this prose poem bear in mind that the author is representing an older person looking back upon the pleasures of childhood.

It is an old garret with big brown rafters; and the boards between are stained darkly with the rainstorms of fifty years. And as the sportive April shower quickens its flood, it seems as if its torrents 5 would come dashing through the shingles upon you, and upon your play. But it will not; for you know that the old roof is strong, and that it has kept you, and all that love you, for long years, from the rain

and from the cold; you know that the hardest storms of winter will only make a little oozing leak, that 10 trickles down the brown stains-like tears.

You love that old garret roof; and you nestle down under its slope with a sense of its protecting power that no castle walls can give to your maturer years. Aye, your heart clings in boyhood to the roof tree 15 of the old family garret with a grateful affection and an earnest confidence that the after years -whatever may be their successes, or their honors can never re-create. Under the roof tree of his home the boy feels SAFE: and where in the whole 20 realm of life, with its bitter toils and its bitterer temptations, will he feel safe again?

But this you do not know. It seems only a grand old place, and it is capital fun to search in its corners, and drag out some bit of quaint old furniture, with 25 a leg broken, and lay a cushion across it, and fix your reins upon the lion's claws of the feet, and then

- gallop away! And you offer sister Nelly a chance, if she will be good; and throw out very patronizing1 words to little Charlie, who is mounted 30 upon a much humbler horse, -to wit, a decrepit nursery chair, -as he of right should be, since he is three years your junior.

I know no nobler forage ground for a romantic, venturesome, mischievous boy, than the garret of 35 an old family mansion on a day of storm. It is a

'Patronizing, " talking down," as a superior.

perfect field of chivalry. The heavy rafters, the dashing rain, the piles of spare mattresses to carouse upon, the big trunks to hide in, the old white coats 40 and hats hanging in obscure corners, like ghosts,

are great! And it is so far away from the old lady who keeps rule in the nursery, that there is no possible risk of a scolding for twisting off the fringe of the rug. There is no baby in the garret to wake up. 45 There is no "company" in the garret to be disturbed by the noise. There is no crotchety old Uncle, or Grandma, with their everlasting "Boys, boys!" and then a look of such horror!

There is great fun in groping through a tall barrel of 50 books and pamphlets, on the lookout for startling pictures; and there are chestnuts in the garret drying, which you have discovered on a ledge of the chimney; and you slide a few into your pocket, and munch them quietly, giving now and then 55 one to Nelly, and begging her to keep silent, for you have a great fear of its being forbidden fruit.

Old family garrets have their stock, as I said, of castaway clothes of twenty years gone by; and it is rare sport to put them on; buttoning in a pillow 60 or two for the sake of good fullness; and then to trick out Nelly in some strange shaped headgear, and old fashioned brocade petticoat caught up with pins; and in such guise 1 to steal cautiously downstairs, and creep slyly into the sitting room, - half

1 Guise, dress, fashion.