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waves rolling on the furthest shore before they were called to their reward; and then left the world, hand in hand, exulting, as they rose, in the success of their labors.

LESSON XII.

THE AMERICAN EAGLE.-THOMSON.

1. Bird of the heavens! whose matchless eye
Alone can front the blaze of day,
And, wandering through the radiant sky,
Ne'er from the sunlight turns away;
Whose ample wing was made to rise
Majestic o'er the loftiest peak,
On whose chill tops the winter skies,

Around thy nest in tempests speak;
What ranger of the winds can dare,
Proud mountain king! with thee compare;
Or lift his gaudier plumes on high
Before thy native majesty,

When thou hast ta'en thy seat alone
Upon thy cloud-encircled throne!

2. Bird of the cliffs! thy noble form

Might well be thought almost divine;
Born for the thunder and the storm,
The mountain and the rock are thine.
Bird of the sun! to thee to thee

The earliest tints of dawn are known,
And 't is thy proud delight to see

The monarch mount his gorgeous

8. Bird of Columbia!' well art thou
An emblem of our native land;

throne.

With unblenched front, and noble brow,
Among the nations doomed to stand;
Proud, like her mighty mountain woods;
Like her own rivers, wandering free;
And sending forth from hills and floods
The joyous shout of liberty!

Like thee, majestic bird! like thee

She stands in unbought majesty,
With spreading wing, untired and strong,
That dares a soaring far and long;

That mounts aloft, nor looks below,
And will not quail though tempests blow.

4 The admiration of the earth,

In grand simplicity she stands;
Like thee, the storms beheld her birth,
And she was nursed by rugged hands;
But, past the fierce and furious war,

Her rising fame new glory brings,
For kings and nobles come from far

To seek the shelter of her wings.
And, like thee, rider of the cloud,
She mounts the heavens, serene and proud,
Great in a pure and noble fame,—
Great in her spotless champion's name,
And destined in her day to be
Mighty as Rome,- more nobly free.

5. My native land! my native land!

To her my thoughts will fondly turn;

For her the warmest hopes expand,

For her the heart with fears will yearn. Oh! may she keep her eye, like thee, Proud eagle of the rocky wild,

Fixed on the sun of liberty,

By rank, by faction, unbeguiled;
Remembering still the rugged road
Our venerable fathers trod,

When they through toil and danger pressed,
To gain their glorious bequest,

And from each lip the caution fell

To those who followed, “Guard it well."

LESSON XIII.

FOREST HYMN.- BRYANT.

[See Rule 6, p. 179.]

1 The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,a

2.

And spread the roof above them,--ere he framed

The lofty vault, to gather and roll back

The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,

Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down
And offered to the Mightiest, solemn thanks
And supplication. Let me, then, at least,
Here, in the shadow of this aged wood,
Offer one hymn thrice happy, if it find
Acceptance in his ear.-

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Father, thy hand

Hath reared these venerable columns; thou

Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou didst look down

Upon the naked earth, and, forthwith, rose

All these fair ranks of trees. They, in thy sun,

Architrave, the lower division of an entablature which rests immediately on the

column.

Budded, and shook their green leaves in thy breeze,
And shot toward heaven. The century-living crow,
Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died
Among their branches, till, at last, they stood,
As now they stand, massy, and tall, and dark,
Fit shrine for humble worshipper to hold
Communion with his Maker. These dim vaults,
These winding aisles, of human pomp or pride
Report not. No fantastic carvings show,

The boast of our vain race to change the form
Of thy fair works. But thou art here,- thou fill'st
The solitude. Thou art in the soft winds

That run along the summit of these trees

In music; thou art in the cooler breath,

That, from the inmost darkness of the place,

Comes, scarcely felt; the barky trunks, the ground,

The fresh, moist ground, are all instinct with thee.

8. My heart is awed within me, when I think
Of the great miracle that still goes on,
In silence, round me,-the perpetual work
Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed
Forever. Written on thy works, I read
The lesson of thy own eternity.

Lo! all grow old and die,- but see, again,
How on the faltering footsteps of decay
Youth presses-ever gay and beautiful youth,
In all its beautiful forms. O, there is not lost
One of earth's charms; - these lofty trees

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Wave not less proudly that their ancestors
Molder beneath them.

4. Then let me often to these solitudes

Retire, and in thy presence reassure

My feeble virtue. Here its enemies,

The passions, at thy plainer footsteps shrink

And tremble, and are still. Oh! God, when thou
Dost scare the world with tempests, set on fire
The heavens with falling thunderbolts, or fill,
With all the waters of the firmament,

The swift, dark whirlwind that uproots the woods
And drowns the villages; when, at thy call,
Uprises the great deep, and throws himself
Upon the continent, and overwhelms

Its cities, who forgets not, at the sight
Of these tremendous tokens of thy power,
His pride, and lays his strifes and follies by?

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[The reader may note the questions in this piece, tell what kind they are, and how they should be read. — Rule 1, p. 77.]

1. The study of the history of most other nations, fills the mind with sentiments, not unlike those which the American traveler feels, on entering the venerable and lofty cathedral of some proud, old city of Europe. Its solemn grandeur, its vastness, its obscurity, strike awe to his heart. A thousand recol-lections of romance, and poetry, and legendary story, come thronging in upon him. He is surrounded by the tombs of the mighty dead, rich with the labors of ancient art, and emblazoned with the pomp of heraldry.

2. What names does he read upon them? Those of princes and nobles, who are now remembered only for their vices; and of sovereigns, at whose death no tears were shed, and whose memories lived not an hour in the affections of their people.

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