Forgetting camel, life's distress,
And dragon death in the abyss,
As well as mice, the night and day,
And dost alone attention pay
To snatching berries, as they peep

From out the grave's dark fissures' deep.

FROM THE GERMAN OF RÜCKERT.

95. CHILDREN.

EAVEN lies about us in our infancy," says Wordsworth."

"HEA

And who of us that is not too good to be conscious of his own vices, has not felt rebuked and humbled under the clear and open countenance of a child?-who that has not felt his impurities foul upon him in the presence of a sinless child? These feelings make the best lesson that can be taught a man ; and tell him in a way, which all else he has read or heard never could, how paltry is all the show of intellect compared with a pure and good heart. He that will humble himself and go to a child for instruction, will come away a wiser man.

2. If children can make us wiser, they surely can make us better. There is no one more to be envied than a good-natured man watching the workings of children's minds, or overlooking their play. Their eagerness, curious about every thing, making out by a quick imagination what they see but a part of their fanciful combinations and magic inventions, creating out of ordinary circumstances and the common things which surround them, strange events and little ideal3 worlds, and these all working in mystery to form matured thought, is study enough for the most acute minds, and should teach us, also, not too officiously to regulate what we so little understand.

3. The still musing and deep abstraction' in which they sometimes sit, affect us as a playful mockery of older heads. These little philosophers have no foolish system, with all its

Fissures (fish' yerz), openings; cracks.- William Wordsworth, the distinguished English poet, born April 7th, 1770, and died April 23d, 1850. I de' al, imaginary. Ab stråc' tion, deep thought, causing disregard or forgetfulness of things around us.

pride and jargon,' confusing their brains. Theirs is the natural movement of the soul, intense with new life and busy after truth, working to some purpose, though without a noise.

4. When children are lying about seemingly idle and dull, we, who have become case-hardened by time and satiety, forget that they are all sensation, that their outstretched bodies are drinking in from the common sun and air, that every sound is taken note of by the ear, that every floating shadow and passing form come and touch at the sleepy eye, and that the little circumstances and the material world about them make their best school, and will be the instructors and formers of their characters for life.

5. And it is delightful to look on and see how busily the whole acts, with its countless parts fitted to each other, and moving in harmony.3 There are none of us who have stolen softly behind a child when laboring in a sunny corner digging a liliputian1 well, or fencing in a six-inch barn-yard, and listened to his soliloquies and his dialogues with some imaginary being, without our hearts being touched by it. Nor have we observed the flush which crossed his face when finding himself betrayed, without seeing in it the delicacy and propriety of the after man.

6. A man may have many vices upon him, and have walked long in a bad course, yet if he has a love of children, and can take pleasure in their talk and play, there is something still left in him to act upon-something which can love simplicity and truth. I have seen one in whom some low vice had become a habit, make himself the plaything of a set of riotous children with as much delight in his countenance as if nothing but goodness had ever been expressed in it; and have felt as much of kindness and sympathy toward him as I have of revolting toward another who has gone through life with all due propriety,

1 Jår'gon, senseless noise; confused talk.-2 Sa tl'e ty, excess of gratification, which excites loathing; fullness beyond desire.- Hår' mo ny, agreement; just adaptation of parts where all fit together. Lil i pù'tian, diminutive; small. Dean Swift wrote a work called "Gulliver's Travels," the design of which was to bring into ridicule the extravagant stories of travelers. In this work he describes a place called Liliput, where the inhabitants were not more than two or three inches high. Hence the word Liliputian.

with a cold and supercilious' bearing toward children, which makes them shrinking and still.

7. I have known one like the latter attempt, with uncouth condescension, to court an open-hearted child, who would draw back with an instinctive aversion; and I have felt as if there were a curse upon him. Better to be driven out from among men than to be disliked of children.

R. H. DANA.

1.

96. THE VOTARY OF PLEASURE.

•SAW a gallant youth depart

From his early home, o'er the world to roam :
With joyous eye, and bounding heart,

Did he speed along, through the mingled throng;
And he reck'd not of aught that lay in his course,
As he onward moved with the impetuous force
Of a spirit free and unrestrain'd,

That ne'er would rest till his gōal' was gain'd.

2. "Whither, O youth," a voice inquired,

With an earnest tone, and a stifled groan,
"Art bound so swift, as thou wast fired

In thy inmost mind with an impulse blind?"
"I am bound for the realm, be it far or near,"
The rover replied, as he check'd his career,
"Where pleasure is found, and mirth, and glee,
And a ceaseless flow of gayety."

3. I saw that youthful form once more,

When the goal was gain'd, and its end attain'd :
I knew its brief pursuit was o'er,

From its alter'd mien, and its faded sheen.3

Ah! the bounding heart, and the joy-beaming eye,
Were succeeded by tears, and the deep-drawn sigh.

1 Supercilious (su per sil' yus), proud; haughty; overbearing.—2 Gdal, end; final purpose.-3 Sheen, brightness; splendor.

Of beauty, and manly pride, and grace,
There scarcely linger'd a single trace.

4. "Oh, what," the voice inquired again,

"Hath wrought this change, so sad and stränge? Didst thou at length, O youth, obtain,

In its full measure, thy heart's fond treasure?
Didst thou gain the realm where the pleasures of sense
In profusion' flow, unrestrain'd and intense ??

Didst thou reach the sphere where mirth and glee
Are blended with ceaseless gayety?"

5. "Too soon," exclaim'd the stricken form,
With downcast eye, and a bitter sigh,
"While hope was young, and passion warm,

Did my ardent soul reach the fatal goal.

Ah! my spirit hath been with the giddy throng,
And shared in the revel, the cup, and the song.
But its tone is gone; 'tis stricken now;—
The curse of pleasure is on my brow."

CHARLES H. LYON,

97. JUDGE NOT.

ANY years since, two pupils of the University of Warsaw3 were passing through the street in which stands the column of King Sigismund, round whose pedestals may be seen seated a number of women selling fruit, cakes, and a variety of eatables, to the passers-by. The young men paused to look at a figure, the oddity of which attracted their attention.

2. This was a man apparently between fifty and sixty years of age. His coat, once black, was worn threadbare; his broad hat overshadowed a thin, wrinkled face; his form was greatly

1Profusion (pro fù' zun), great abundance.—2 In tênse', strained close; violent; earnest.-3 War' saw, the capital of the kingdom of Poland, a dependency of Russia.- Sigismund, the name of three kings of Poland. Sigismund III., surnamed De Vasa, born 1566, and died 1632.Pêd' es tal, that on which any thing stands.

emaciated,' yet he walked with a firm and rapid step. He stopped at one of the stalls beneath the column, purchased a half-penny worth of bread, ate part of it, and putting the remainder into his pocket, pursued his way toward the palace of the lieutenant of the kingdom, who, in the absence of the Czar, Alexander, exercised royal authority in Poland.

3. "Do you know that man?" asked one student of the other. “I do not; but, judging from his costume', and mournful countenance, I should guess him to be an undertaker." "Wrong, my friend; he is Stanislaus Staszic."

4. "Staszic!" exclaimed the student, looking after the man, who was then entering the palace. "How can a mean, wretchedlooking man, who stops in the middle of the street to buy a morsel of bread, be rich and powerful?” 'Yět, so it is," replied his companion; "under this unpromising exterior3 is hidden one of our most influential ministers, and one of the most illustrious men of Europe."

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5. The man whose appearance contrasted so strongly with his social position, who was as powerful as he seemed insignificant, as rich as he appeared poor, owes all his fortune to himself—to his labors, and to his genius. Of low extraction, he left Poland while young, in order to acquire learning. He passed some years in the Universities of Leipsic and Gottingen,' continued his studies in the College of France, under Brisson and D'Aubanton; gained the friendship of Buffon; visited the Alps and the Apennines; and finally returned to his native land, stored with rich and varied learning.

1 Emaciated (e ma' shat ed), thin; wasted.- Czar (zår), emperor of Russia. This word is probably from Cæsar, a title given to the emperors of Rome. Ex tè' ri or, outward appearance.-'Social position, rank or standing in society.— Extraction (eks tråk' shun), source; birth; origin.—® Leipsic (lip' sik), the second city of Saxony, and one of the chief seats of commerce in Germany. The university, founded 1409, with a library of 110,000 volumes, and about 100 professors and private teachers, is attended by above 900 students.-Gottingen (get' ting en), a town of Hanover, capital of the principality of Gottingen. Its university, founded 1734, was, down to 1831, the chief of the German universities, and the number of its students, from 1822 to 1826, averaged 1481, annually. In 1845, it had only 633 students.-- Buffon, an eminent naturalist, born in 1707, and died in 1788.

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