LESSON XXXI.

THE HARMONY OF NATURE.

"The wood, the mountain, and the barren waste, the craggy rock, the river, and the lake, are never searched in vain; each has its peculiar inhabitants, that enliven the scene and please the philosophic eye."-MONTAGUE.

1. IN full accordance with the sentiments of the author we have quoted above, we have often wandered in the recesses of our woods and the passes of far-stretching and craggy mountains, searched around our wild or beautiful lakes and our precipitous sea-coasts, and we have never been disappointed.

2. If we did not always meet with some species new to our collection, we found fresh facts to record of those we already possessed; and we delighted in the landscape enlivened by the airy creatures whose structure we had been examining, and whose habits we could there survey so freely. What would be the landscape without its living inhabitants? The luxuriance of vegetation, varying with beautiful flowers and rich foliage, has indeed charms quiet and seducing, but not such as fully satisfy the mind.

3. In the depth of the forest, or on the mountain's top, ere break of day had awakened their various tenants, and in some of our beautiful mornings of mid-year, we have seen how deeply tinted seemed the green of the foliage, and how chaste and blended were the tints on the nearly barren rock; how lovely the sylvan flowers appeared, showing their freshest blossoms amid the soft and matted growth beneath, and how exquisite the structure of the moss or lichen within our reach; how calm, clear, and serene the air, how deep the shadows; but how complete the quiet, how still the silence!

4. There is something in the gradual change from darkness to daylight in places such as these, which, while it is pleasing and agreeable to witness, leaves a deep and impressive feeling as of something wanting, not to be dispelled by the richest or most attractive vegetation. Soon, however, the stillness is broken, the various creatures go to their usual occupations, the scene is at once enlivened, the void is filled, and the harmony of Nature is complete.

SIR WM. JARDINE.

LESSON XXXII.

BIRDS OF THE SEA.

1. BIRDS of the sea, they rejoice in
storms;

On the top of the waves you may
see their forms;

They run and dive, and they whirl and fly,
Where the glittering foam-spray breaks on high;
And against the force of the strongest gale,
Like phantom1 ships, they soar and sail.

PARK BENJAMIN.

Of gunner's hopes, vast flocks of wild ducks stretch;2
Far as the eye can glance on either side,
In a broad space and level line they glide;
All in their wedge-like figures from the north,
Day after day, flight after flight, go forth.

3. In-shore their passage tribes of seagulls urge,3 And drop for prey within the sweeping surge; Oft in the rough opposing blast they fly

Far back, then turn, and all their force apply,

While to the storm they give their weak complaining cry, Or clap the sleek white pinion to the breast,

And in the restless ocean dip for rest.

CRABBE.

1 PHAN'-TOM, unreal; existing in appearance only.

ar-|

STRETCH, Sail away in long lines.
URGE, push their way.

THE STORMY PETREL (Procellaria Pelagica).

1. THIS is the bird that sweeps over the sea-
Fearless, and rapid, and strong is he;

He never forsakes the billowy roar
To dwell in calm on the tranquil shore,
Save when his mate, from the tempest's shocks,
Protects her young in the splintered rocks.

2. Up and down! up and down!

From the base of the wave to the billow's crown, And amidst the flashing and feathery foam,

The Stormy Petrel finds a home

A home, if such a place may be,

For her who lives on the wide, wide sea,
On the craggy ice, in the frozen air,
And only seeketh her rocky lair1

To warm her young, and teach them to spring
At once o'er the waves on their stormy wing!

3. All over the ocean, far from land,

Where the storm-king rises, dark and grand,

The mariner2 sees the Petrel meet

The fathomless3 waves with steady feet,

And a tireless wing, and a dauntless breast,
Without a home or a hope of rest.

4. O'er the deep! o'er the deep!

Where the whale, and the shark, and the swordfish sleep:

Outflying the blast and the driving rain,

The Petrel telleth her tale-in vain;

For the mariner curseth the warning bird,

Which bringeth him news of the storm unheard!

Ah! thus does the prophet of good or ill
Meet hate from the creatures he serveth still:
Yet he never falters: so, Petrel, spring

Once more o'er the waves on thy stormy wing!

5. So, 'mid the contest and toil of life,

My soul, when the billows of rage and strife
Are tossing high, and the heavenly blue
Is shrouded by vapors of sombre hue—
Like the Petrel, wheeling o'er foam and spray,
Onward and upward pursue thy way!

1 LAIR, resting-place.

2 MAR'-I-NER, seaman; a sailor.

14 DÄUNT'-LESS, bold; fearless.

5 SHROUD'-ED, covered; concealed.

3 FATH'-OM-LESS, the depth of which can not 6 SŎM ́-BRE, dull; cloudy; gloomy. be measured.

NOTE. The first, third, and fifth verses of the foregoing are by Park Benjamin, and the second and fourth by B. W. Proctor. The several changes in metre render it a difficult but useful reading exercise.

1.

2.

LESSON XXXIV.

TO A WATER-FOWL.

WHITHER, midst falling dew,

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far, through the rosy depths, dost thou pursue

Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler's1 eye

Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,

Thy figure floats along.

Seek'st thou the plashy2 brink

Of weedy lake, or marge3 of river wide,
Or where the rocky billows rise and sink
On the chafed1 ocean's side?

There is a Power whose care

Teaches thy way along that pathless coast-
The desert and illimitable5 air—

Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned,

At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere;
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end;

Soon shalt thou find a summer, home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend
Soon o'er thy sheltered nest.

Thou'rt gone! the abyss of heaven

Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart
Deeply has sunk the lesson thou hast given,

And shall not soon depart.

He who, from zone to zone,

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone

Will lead my steps aright.

1 FOWL-ER, one who hunts wild fowls.

2 PLASH'-Y, watery.

9 MÄRGE, for margin.

14 CHAFED, Worn by the waves.
5 IL-LIM'-IT-A-BLE, boundless.
6 A-BYSS', boundless space.

BRYANT.

BIRDS OF PASSAGE BY NIGHT.
I hear the beat of their pinions fleet,
As from the land of snow and sleet
They seek a southern sea:
I hear the cry of their voices high,
Falling dreamily through the sky,

But their forms I can not see.

LONGFELLOW.