And knceling on the sticks, she pray'd 13. She pray'd, her withered hand uprearing, 14. He went complaining all the morrow, His face was gloom, his heart was sorrow, That day he wore a riding coat, 15. 'Twas all in vain, a useless matter, 16. No word to any man he utters, LESSON CVI. The Three Warnings.-MRS. THRALE. 1. THE tree of deepest root is found That love of life increased with years 2. This great affection to believe, Which all confess, but few perceive, If old assertions can't prevail, Be pleased to hear a modern tale. 3. When sports went round, and all were gay On neighbor Dobson's wedding-day, Death called aside the jocund groom With him into another room; And looking grave, "You must," says he, 4. "With you! and quit my Susan's side! 5. Yet, calling up a serious lookHis hour-glass trembled while he spoke,"Neighbor," he said, "farewell! no more Shall Death disturb your mirthful hour: And farther to avoid all blame Of cruelty upon my name, To give you time for preparation, In hopes you'll have no more to say, Well pleased, the world will leave." 6. What next the hero of our tale befell, But, while he viewed his wealth increase,- Brought on his eightieth year. 7. And now, one night, in musing mood, As all alone he sate, The unwelcome messenger of fate Once more before him stood. Half killed with anger and surprise, "Tis six-and-thirty years at least, 8. "So much the worse!" the clown rejoined: "To spare the aged would be kind : Besides, you promised me three warnings, Which I have looked for nights and mornings." "I know," cries Death, "that, at the best, 1 seldom am a welcome guest; But don't be captious, friend, at least: And sure, to see one's loves and friends, Yet there's some comfort, still," says Death: I warrant you hear all the news." 10. "There's none," cries he; "and if there were, -so ends my tale. LESSON CVII. The Dervis and the Two Merchants.-LACON. 1. THE ignorant have often given credit to the wise, for powers that are permitted to none, merely because the wise have made a proper use of those powers that are permitted to all. 2. The little Arabian tale of the dervis, shall be the comment of this proposition. A dervis was journeying alone in the desert, when two merchants suddenly met him; "You have lost a camel," said he to the merchants; "indeed we have," they replied: 3. "Was he not blind in his right eye, and lame in his left leg?" said the dervis; "he was," replied the merchants; "had he not lost a front tooth?" said the dervis," he had," ́ rejoined the merchants; "and was he not loaded with honey on one side and wheat on the other?"-"most certainly he was," they replied, "and as you have seen him so lately, and marked him so particularly, you can, in all probability, conduct us unto him.”. 4. "My friends," said the dervis, "I have never seen your camel, nor ever heard of him but from you.' ""A pretty story, truly," said the merchants, "but where are the jewels which formed a part of his cargo?" "I have neither seen your camel, nor your jewels," repeated the dervis. 5. On this, they seized his person, and forthwith hurried him before the cadi,* where, on the strictest search, nothing could be found upon him, nor could any evidence whatever be adduced to convict him, either of falsehood or theft. 6. They were then about to proceed against him as a sorcerer, when the dervis, with great calmness, thus addressed the court: "I have been much amused with your surprise, and own that there has been some ground for your suspicions; I have lived long, and alone; I can find ample scope for observation, even in a desert. 7. "I knew that I had crossed the track of a camel that had strayed from its owner, because I saw no mark of any human footstep on the same route; I knew that the animal was blind of one eye, because it had cropped the herbage only on one side of its path: and I perceived that it was lame in one leg, from the faint impression that particular foot had produced on the sand; I concluded, that the animal had lost one tooth, because wherever it had grazed, a small tuft of herbage was left uninjured, in the centre of its bite. 8. "As to that which formed the burden of the beast, the busy ants informed me that it was corn on the one side, and the clustering flies, that it was honey on the other." LESSON CVIII. On the Present and Future State.-ADDISON. 1. A LEWD young fellow seeing an aged hermit go by him barefoot, "Father," says he," you are in a very miserable condition, if there is not another world." "True, son," said the hermit; "but what is thy condition if there is ?"-Man is a creature designed for two different states of being, or rather for two different lives. His first life is short and transient; his second permanent and lasting. 2. The question we are all concerned in, is this-In which of these two lives is it our chief interest to make ourselves happy? Or, in other words--Whether we should endeavour to secure to ourselves the pleasures and gratifications of a life which is uncertain and precarious, and at its utmost length, of a very inconsiderable duration; or to secure to ourselves the pleasures of a A Turkish magistrate. |