A tree that's ever in the bloom,
Whose fruit is never ripe;

A wish for joys that never come,-
Such are the hopes of Life.

Second Speaker.

A dark, inevitable night,

A blank that will remain ;
A waiting for the morning light,
When waiting is in vain;
A gulf where pathway never led,
To show the deep beneath;

A thing we know not, yet we dread,-
That dreaded thing is Death.
Third Speaker.

The vaulted void of purple sky,
That everywhere extends,
That stretches from the dazzled eye,
In space that never ends;
A morning whose uprisen sun
No setting e'er shall see,

A day that comes without a noon,-
Such is Eternity.

LESSON XII.

THE WORLD.-J. E. L.

FIRST CHILD-SECOND CHILD.

How beautiful the world is!

First Child. The green earth covered with flowers-the trees laden with rich blossoms-the blue sky, the bright water, and the golden sunshine. The world is, indeed, beautiful, and He who made it must be beautiful.

Second Child. It is a happy world. Hark! how the merry birds sing-and the young lambs-see! how they gambol on the hill-side. Even the trees wave and the brooks ripple in gladness. Yon Eagle-Ah! how joyously he soars up to the glorious heavens-the bird of liberty, the bird of America.

First Child. Yes;

"His throne is on the mountain top;
His fields the boundless air;
And hoary peaks, that proudly prop
The skies-his dwellings are.

"He rises like a thing of light,
Amid the noontide blaze;

The midway sun is clear and bright-
It cannot dim his gaze."

Second Child. It is happy-I see it and hear it all about me-nay, I feel it-here, in the glow, the eloquent glow of my own heart. He who made it must be happy.

First Child. It is a great world. Look off to the mighty ocean when the storm is upon it; to the huge mountain, when the thunder and the lightnings play over it; to the vast forest-the interminable waste,-the sun, the moon, and the myriads of fair stars, countless as the sands upon the sea-shore. It is a great, a magnificent world, and He who made it,-Oh! He is the perfection of all loveliness, all goodness, all greatness, all gloriousness!

LESSON XIII.

THE LAND OF THE BLEST.-MRS. ABDY

FATHER-CHILD.

Child.

DEAR Father, I ask for my mother in vain,

Has she sought some far country her health to regain ;
Has she left our cold climate of frost and of snow,
For some warm sunny land where the soft breezes blow ?
Father.

Yes, yes, gentle boy, thy loved mother has gone

To a climate where sorrow and pains are unknown;
Her spirit is strengthened, her frame is at rest,

There is health, there is peace, in the Land of the Blest.
Child.

Is that land, my dear Father, more lovely than ours-
Are the rivers more clear, and more blooming the flowers;

Does Summer shine over it all the year long-
Is it cheered by the glad sounds of music and song?

Father.

Yes, the flowers are despoiled not by winter or night,
The well-springs of life are exhaustless and bright;
And by exquisite voices sweet hymns are addressed
To the Lord who reigns over the Land of the Blest.
Child.

Yet that land to my mother will lonely appear,
She shrunk from the glance of a stranger, while here;
From her foreign companions I know she will flee,
And sigh, dearest Father, for you and for me.

Father.

My darling, thy mother rejoices to gaze

On the long-severed friends of her earliest days;
Her parents have there found a mansion of rest,

And they welcome their child to the Land of the Blest.

Child.

How I long to partake of such meetings of bliss!
That land must be surely more happy than this;
On you, my kind Father, the journey depends,-
Let us go to my mother, her kindred, and friends.

Father.

Not on me, love; I trust I may reach that bright clime,
But in patience I stay till the Lord's chosen time,
And must strive, while awaiting his gracious behest,
To guide thy young steps to the Land of the Blest.

Thou must toil through a world full of dangers, my boy
Thy peace it may blight and thy virtue destroy;
Nor wilt thou, alas! be withheld from its snares
By a mother's fond counsels, a mother's fond prayers.

Yet fear not the God whose direction we crave,
Is mighty to strengthen, to shield, and to save;
And his hand may yet lead thee, a glorified guest,
To the home of thy mother, the Land of the Blest.

THESE Figures are designed to exhibit positions of the hands and arms which a boy may very properly assume, when he is the addressed or listening party in a dialogue. To stand, when not speaking, always with the hands down by the side, after the manner of the first Figure, on page 267, however easily and neatly managed, could not produce other than a monotonous and unpolished effect. The first of the three Figures is represented with the left arm a kimbo, the hand resting on the belt at the point of the hip, with the fingers pressed inward upon the palm; the second has both arms a kimbo, with the hands clasping the hips, having the fingers in front; the third Figure presents the arms folded,-the arms are crossed, and enclose each other, the fingers of the right hand holding the left arm, and the left hand passing under the right arm. This arrangement of the arms may be reversed at the pleasure of the speaker. These positions should not be assumed or changed without discretion; directed by propriety, they are becoming and graceful; they do not give to the speaker an air of false consequence, or affectation-they are appropriate and manly.

LESSON XIV.

FIRST SPEAKER-SECOND SPEAKER.

First Speaker.

MAN is the proud and lofty pine,

That frowns on many a wave-beat shore;

Second Speaker.

Woman, the young and tender vine,
Whose curling tendrils round it twine,
And deck its rough bark sweetly o'er.

First Speaker.

Man is the rock, whose towering crest
Nods o'er the mountain's barren side;

Second Speaker.

Woman, the soft and mossy vest,
That loves to clasp its sterile breast,
And wreathe its brow with verdant pride.

First Speaker.

Man is the cloud of coming storm,
Dark as the raven's murky plume,

Second Speaker.

Save where the sunbeam, light and warm,
Of woman's soul-of woman's form,
Gleams brightly through the gathering gloom.

First Speaker.

Yes, 'tis to lovely woman given,

To soothe our griefs, our woes allay—
To heal the heart by misery riven-
Change earth into an embryo heaven-
And drive life's fiercest cares away.

LESSON XV.

STRANGER AND CHILD.—MRS. HEMANS.

Stranger.

WHY wouldst thou leave me, oh! gentle child?
Thy home on the mountain is bleak and wild,
A straw-roofed cabin with lowly wall-
Mine is a fair and pillared hall,

Where many an image of marble gleams,
And the sunshine of picture forever streams.