nature, be reserved for high and eminent occasions; yet that system is essentially defective which leaves no room for their production. They are important, both from their immediate advantage and their remoter influence. They often save, and always illustrate, the age and nation in which they appear. They raise the standard of morals; they arrest the progress of degeneracy; they diffuse a lustre over the path of life. Monuments of the greatness of the human soul, they present to the world the august image of Virtue in her sublimest form, from which streams of light and glory issue to remote times and ages; while their commemoration, by the pen of historians and poets, awakens in distant bosoms the sparks of kindred excellence. LESSON XXXV. Uses of Poetry.-U. S. L. GAZEtte. SCIENCE arranges, with the aid of demonstrative reason, what things the senses discover, and makes herself acquainted with the various existences in the visible universe, and learns how they are connected together; and here her work ends, and must end. It is then that Poetry calls upon the imagination to tell whence that sun gets his floods of light to bathe the world in beauty, and whence that warmth comes to awaken the universal life around us, and what hand sowed the burning stars in the abyss, and rolled around them countless earths;—and it is for her that the tempest lets loose the wind, and heaves up the ocean with instructive sublimity; and the sunlight touches the green hills and gilds the evening clouds with beauty that has a voice; the busy insects and breathing flowerets, the singing brooks, and the sweet music of the summer wind upon its living harps, all, all speak to her, with utterance most distinct, with lessons most momentous. Poetry is not fiction, nor foreign from the realities of life, nor barren of strong motives and high hopes. Most true it is, that she is but the record of the imagination; but it is no less true, that the imagination helps strongly to produce, and to support, all those truths which dignify our sensual existence. Man was made to begin his being upon earth, and to bend for a while to its labors, and to bear its sorrows, and help his brethren to toil and to endure; and, therefore, his sensual nature and faculties-to take cognizance of existing things, and to reason about them-were given to him. But, even while on earth, he was to look beyond it: time was to be connected with eternity, that it might be well spent; and imagination was given him to bear away his thoughts from scenes where the shadows of sin and death are resting, to a world where there is no darkness. LESSON XXXVI. The Teaching of Jesus.-BowRING. How sweetly flowed the gospel's sound, From heaven he came of heaven he spoke— Come, wanderers, to my Father's home; Decay, then, tenements of dust! LESSON XXXVII. Centennial Hymn.-PIERPONT. [Sung in the Old South Meeting-house, Boston, on the Centennial Birthday of WASHINGTON.] To Thee, beneath whose eye Each circling century Obedient rolls, Our nation, in its prime, And trusted, in "the time When, from this gate of heaven,* And where thy saints had prayed, Nor was our fathers' trust, Thou Mighty One and Just, Then put to shame : *The Old South church was taken possession of by the British, while they held Boston, and converted into barracks for the cavalry, the pews being cut up for fuel, or used in constructing stalls for the horses. "Up to the hills" for light And, from yon guardian height,* There, like an angel form, Stood WASHINGTON ! Clouds broke and rolled away; Foes fled in pale dismay; Wreathed were his brows with bay, When war was done. God of our sires and sons, Our country bless; And, like the brave and wise Of by-gone centuries, Show that true greatness lies LESSON XXXVIII. Frost.-MISS HANNAH F. GOULD. THE Frost looked forth, one still, clear night, I will not go on like that blustering train, * From his position on "Dorchester Heights," that overlook the town, General Washington succeeded in compelling the British forces to evacuate Boston. Then he went to the mountain, and powdered its crest ; A coat of mail, that it need not fear He went to the windows of those who slept, Most beautiful things. There were flowers and trees, But he did one thing that was hardly fair: Shall tchick,' to tell them I'm drinking!" LESSON XXXIX. Funeral in a new Colony.-MRS. SIGOURNEY. AROUND the forest-skirted plain A few rude cabins spread, Came forth with drooping head. |