2.

3.

4.

Within its terrible embrace, the all

That eye could see of ocean. There arose,
Forth from the infinite of waters, sounds
Confused, appalling; from the dread lee-shore
There came a heavier swell, a lengthened roar,
Each moment deeper, rolling on the ear

With most portentous voice. Rock howled to rock,
Headland to headland, as the Atlantic flung
Its billows shoreward; and the feathery foam
Of twice ten thousand broken +surges, sailed
High o'er the dim-seen land. The startled gull,
With scream prophetic, sought his savage cliff,
And e'en the bird that loves to sail between
The ridges of the sea, with hurried wing,
Flew from the blast's fierce onset.

One-far off,

One hapless ship was seen upon the deep,
Breasting the western waters. Nothing lived
Around her; all was desert; for the storm
Had made old ocean's realm a solitude,
Where man might fear to roam. And there she sat,
A lonely thing amid the gathering strife,
With +pinions folded-not for rest,-prepared
To struggle with the tempest.

And it came,

As night abruptly closed; nor moon nor star
Looked from the sky, but darkness deep as that
Which reigned over the primeval +chaos, wrapped
That fated bark, save when the lightning hissed
Along the bursting billow. Ocean howled
To the high thunder, and the thunder spoke
To the rebellious ocean, with a voice

So terrible, that all the rush and roar

Of waves were but as the meek +lapse of rills,
To that deep, everlasting peal, which comes
From thee, Niagara, wild flinging o'er

Thy steep, the waters of a world. Anon,

The lightnings glared more fiercely, burning round
The glowing offing, with unwonted stay,
As if they lingered o'er the dark tabyss,
And raised its vail of horror, but to show

Its wild and tortured face. And then, the winds
Held oft a momentary pause,

As spent with their own fury; but they came
Again with added power; with shriek and cry,
Almost unearthly, as if on their wings,
Passed by the spirit of the storm.

They heard,

Who rode the midnight mountain-wave; the voice
Of death was in that cry unearthly. Oft,

In the red battle had they seen him stride
The glowing deck, scattering his burning hail,
And breathing liquid flame, until the winds,
The very winds grew faint, and on the waves
Rested the columned smokes; but on that night
He came with tenfold terrors; with a power
That shook at once heaven, earth; his ministers
Of vengeance round him, the great wind, the sea,
The thunder, and the fatal flash! Alas!
Day dawned not on the mariner; ere morn,
The lightning lit the seaman to his grave,
And the fierce sea-dog feasted on the dead!

CARRINGTON.

LESSON CXCVIII.

SCALE OF ANIMAL EXISTENCE.

1. THOUGH there is a great deal of pleasure in contemplating the material world, by which I mean that system of bodies, into which nature has so curiously wrought the mass of dead matter, with the several relations which those bodies bear to one another; there is still, methinks, something more wonderful and surprising in contemplations on the world of life, by which I mean all those animals with which every part of the universe is furnished. The material world is only the shell of the universe: the world of life are its inhabitants.

2. If we consider those parts of the material world which lie the nearest to us, and are therefore subject to our observation and inquiries, it is amazing to consider the infinity of animals with which it is stocked. Every part of matter is peopled; every green leaf swarms with inhabitants. There is scarce a single humor in the body of man, or of any other animal, in which our glasses do not discover myriads of living creatures. The surface of animals is also covered with other animals, which are in the same manner the basis of other animals, that live upon it; nay, we find in the most solid bodies, as in marble itself, innumerable cells and cavities, that are crowded with such imperceptible inhabitants, as are too little for the naked eye to discover. other hand, if we look into the more bulky parts of nature, we see the seas, lakes, and rivers, teeming with numberless kinds of living creatures; we find every mountain and marsh, wilderness and wood, plentifully stocked with birds and beasts, and every part of matter affording proper necessaries and conveniences for the liveli hood of multitudes which inhabit it.

On the

3. The author of the "Plurality of Worlds," draws a very good argument from this consideration, for the peopling of every planet: as indeed, it seems very probable, from the analogy of reason, that if no part of matter, which we are acquainted with, lies waste and useless, those great bodies, which are at such a distance from us, should not be desert and unpeopled, but rather that they should be furnished with beings adapted to their respective situations.

4. There are some living creatures which are raised but just above dead matter, as the sponge and coral. Others have an additional sense of hearing; others, of smell; and others, of sight. It is wonderful to observe, by what a gradual progress the world of life advances through a prodigious variety of species, before a creature is formed that is complete in all its senses; and even among these, there is such a different degree of perfection in the sense which one animal enjoys beyond what appears in another, that, though the senses in different animals are distinguished by the same common denomination, they seem almost of a different nature. If, after this, we look into the several perfections of cunning and sagacity, or what we generally call instinct, we find them rising after the same manner, imperceptibly one above another, and receiving additional improvements, according to the species in which they are planted.

+

5. This progress in nature is so very gradual, that the most perfect of an inferior species, comes very near to the most imperfect of that which is immediately above it. The whole chasm of

nature, from a plant to a man, is filled up with divers kinds of creatures, rising one over another, by such a gentle and easy ascent, that the little transitions and deviations from one species to another, are almost insensible. This intermediate space is so well husbanded and managed, that there is scarce a degree of + perception, which does not appear in some one part of the world of life. Is the goodness, or wisdom of the Divine Being, more manifested in this, his proceeding?

6. There is a consequence, besides those I have already mentioned, which seems very naturally deducible from the foregoing considerations. If the scale of being rises, by such a regular progress, so high as man, we may, by a parity of reason, suppose that it still proceeds gradually through those beings which are of a superior nature to him; since there is an infinitely greater space for different degrees of perfection between the Supreme Being and man, than between man and the most despicable insect. The evidence of this variety of beings above, as well as below us, ingeniously carried out by Mr. Locke, in the following extract:

is

7. "That there should be more species of intelligent creatures above us, than there are of sensible and material below us, is

probable to me from hence; that in all the visible *corporeal world, we see no chasms, or no gaps. All, quite down from us, the descent is by easy steps, and a continued series of things, that in each remove, differ very little, one from the other. There are fishes that have wings, and are not strangers to the airy region; and there are some birds that are inhabitants of the water, whose blood is as cold as that of fishes, and their flesh so like in taste, that the scrupulous are allowed them on fish days.

8. "There are animals so near of kin both to birds and beasts, that they are in the middle between both; +amphibious animals link the terrestrial and aquatic together; seals live on land and at sea, and porpoises have the warm blood and entrails of a hog. There are some brutes that seem to have as much knowledge and reason, as some that are called men; and the animal and vegetable kingdoms are so nearly joined, that if you will take the lowest of one, and the highest of the other, there will scarce be perceived any great difference between them; and so on, till we come to the lowest and the most inorganical parts of matter, we shall find, everywhere, that the several species are linked together, and differ but in almost insensible degrees.

9. "And when we consider the infinite power and wisdom of the maker, we have reason to think that it is suitable to the magnificent harmony of the universe, and the great design and infinite goodness of the architect, that the species of creatures should also, by gentle degrees, ascend upward from us, toward his infinite perfection, as we see they gradually descend from us downward: and, if this be probable, we have reason, then, to be persuaded, that there are far more species of creatures above us, than there are beneath; we being in degrees of perfection much more remote from the infinite being of God, than we are from the lowest state of being, and that which approaches nearest to nothing. And yet of all those distinct species, we have no clear, distinct ideas.”

10. In this system of being, there is no creature so wonderful in its nature, and which so much deserves our particular attention, as man, who fills up the middle space between the animal and intellectual nature, the visible and invisible world. So that he, who in one respect is associated with angels and archangels, and who may look upon a being of infinite perfection as his father, and the highest order of spirits as his brethren, may, in another respect, say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister.

SPECTATOR.

LESSON CXCIX.

GOD SEEN IN ALL THINGS.

1. THOU art, O God! the life and light
Of all this wondrous world we see;
Its glow by day, its smile by night,
Are but reflections caught from thee.
Where'er we turn, thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine.
2. When day, with farewell beam, delays
Among the golden clouds of even,
And we can almost think we gaze

Through opening vistas into heaven;
Those hues that make the sun's decline
So soft, so radiant, Lord! are thine.

3. When night, with wings of starry gloom,
O'ershadows all the earth and skies,
Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume
Is sparkling with unnumbered +dyes;
That sacred gloom, those fires divine,
So grand, so countless, Lord! are thine.

4. When youthful spring around us breathes,
Thy spirit warms her fragrant sigh;
And every flower, that summer wreathes,
Is born beneath thy kindling eye.
Where'er we turn, thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine.

MOORE.

LESSON CC.

RESOLUTION OF RUTH.

"And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee for whither thou goest, I will go: and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."

1. FAREWELL? O no! it may not be;

My firm resolve is heard on high:
I will not breathe farewell to thee,
Save only in my dying sigh.