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"Where now the rill, melodious, pure, and cool,

And meads, with life, and mirth, and beauty crowned! Ah! see, the unsightly slime, and sluggish pool

Have all the solitary vale embrowned;

Fled each fair form, and mute each melting sound; The raven croaks forlorn on naked spray;

And hark! the river, bursting every mound, Down the vale thunders, and with wasteful sway Uproots the grove, and rolls the shattered rocks away.

"Yet such the destiny of all on earth:

So flourishes and fades majestick man.
Fair is the bud his vernal morn brings forth,
And fostering gales awhile the nursling fan.
O smile, ye heavens, serene; ye mildews wan,*
Ye blighting whirlwinds spare his balmy prime,
Nor lessen of his life the little span.

Borne on the swift and silent wings of Time,
Old age comes on apace to ravage all the clime.
"And be it so.-
.-Let those deplore their doom
Whose hopes still grovel in this dark sojourn :
But lofty souls, who look beyond the tomb,

Can smile at Fate, and wonder how they mourn. Shall Spring to these sad scenes no more return? Is yonder wave the sun's eternal bed?

Soon shall the orient with new lustre burn, And Spring shall soon her vital influence shed, Again attune the grove, again adorn the mead.

Shall I be left forgotten, in the dust,

When Fate, relenting, lets the flower revive?
Shall Nature's voice, to man alone unjust,

Bid him, though doomed to perish, hope to live?
Is it for this fair Virtue oft must strive

With disappointment, penury, and pain?

No: Heaven's immortal spring shall yet arrive, And man's majestick beauty bloom again

Bright thro' the eternal year of love's triumphant reign."

*Though the author evidently intends this word to rhyme with man and span, yet the best authorities require it to be pronounced like the first syllable of wan-ton.

24

LESSON CXXVII.

Pairing time anticipated.—CowPER.

I SHALL not ask Jean Jaques Rousseau*
If birds confabulate or no ;

'Tis clear that they were always able
To hold discourse, at least in fable;
And even the child who knows no better,
Than to interpret by the letter,

The story of a cock and bull,

Must have a most uncommon skull.

It chanced, then, on a winter's day,
But warm and bright and calm as May,
The birds, conceiving a design,
To forestall sweet St. Valentine,
In many an orchard, copse, and grove,
Assembled on affairs of love,

And, with much twitter, and much chatter,
Began to agitate the matter.

At length a bulfinch who could boast
More years and wisdom than the most,
Entreated, opening wide his beak,
A moment's liberty to speak;
And, silence publickly enjoined,
Delivered briefly thus his mind.

"My friends! be cautious how ye treat
The subject upon which we meet;
1 fear we shall have winter yet."

A finch, whose tongue knew no control,
With golden wing and satin poll,
A last year's bird, who ne'er had tried
What marriage means, thus pert replied.

"Methinks the gentleman," quoth she, "Opposite in the apple-tree,

By his good will would keep us single
Till yonder heaven and earth shall mingle,

* It was one of the whimsical speculations of this philosopher, that all fables which ascribe reason and speech to animals, should be withheld from children, as being only vehicles of deception. But what child was ever deceived by them, or can be, against the evidence of his own senses?

Or, (which is likelier to befall)
Till death exterminate us all.
I marry without more ado:-

My dear Dick Redcap, what say you ?"

Dick heard, and tweedling, ogling, bridling,
Turning short round, strutting and sideling,
Attested, glad, his approbation

Of an immediate conjugation.
Their sentiments, so well expressed,
Influenced mightily the rest:

All paired, and each pair built a nest.

But, though the birds were thus in haste,
The leaves came on not quite so fast;
And destiny, that sometimes bears
An aspect stern on man's affairs,
Not altogether smiled on theirs.

The wind,-of late breathed gently forth-
Now shifted east, and east by north;
Bare trees and shrubs but ill, you know,
Could shelter them from rain or snow:
Stepping into their nests, they paddled,
Themselves were chilled, their eggs were addled:
Soon, every father bird and mother
Grew quarrelsome, and pecked each other,
Parted without the least regret,
Except that they had ever met,
And learned, in future to be wiser,
Than to neglect a good adviser.

MORAL.

Misses! the tale that I relate
This lesson seems to carry—
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.

LESSON CXXVIII.

Fingal's battle with the spirit of Loda.-OSSIAN. MORNING rose in the east; the blue waters rolled in light Fingal bade his sails to rise, and the winds came rustling

"It may not be improper here to observe, that the accent ought always to be placed on the last syllable of Fingâl.”—M'Pherson's note to Fingal, B. I.

from their hills. Inistore rose to sight, and Carric-thura's mossy towers. But the sign of distress was on their top: the green flame edged with smoke. The king of Morven struck his breast: he assumed, at once, his spear. His darkened brow bends forward to the coast: he looks back to the lagging winds. His hair is disordered on his back. The silence of the king is terrible.

Night came down on the sea: Rotha's bay received the ship. A rock bends along the coast with all its echoing wood. On the top is the circle of Loda, and the mossy stone of power. A narrow plain spreads beneath, covered with grass and aged trees, which the midnight winds, in their wrath, had torn from the shaggy rock. The blue course of a stream is there: and the lonely blast of ocean pursues the thistle's beard. The flame of three oaks arose: the feast is spread around: but the soul of the king is sad for Carric-thura's battling chief.

The wan cold moon rose in the east. Sleep descended on the youths. Their blue helmets glitter to the beam: the fading fire decays. But sleep did not rest on the king: he rose in the midst of his arms, and slowly ascended the hill to behold the flame of Sarno's tower.

The flame was dim and distant; the moon hid her red face in the east. A blast came from the mountain, and bore, on its wings, the spirit of Loda. He came to his place in his terrours, and he shook his dusky spear. His eyes appear like flames in his dark face; and his voice is like distant thunder. Fingal advanced with the spear of his strength, and raised his voice on high.

"Son of night, retire: call thy winds and fly: Why dost thou come to my presence, with thy shadowy arms? Do I fear thy gloomy form, dismal spirit of Loda? Weak is thy shield of clouds: feeble is that meteor, thy sword. The blast rolls them together, and thou thyself dost vanish. Fly from my presence, son of night! call thy winds and fly !" "Dost thou force me from my place," replied the hollow voice : "The people bend before me. I turn the battle in the field of the valiant. I look on the nations and they vanish: my nostrils pour the blast of death. I come abroad on the winds: the tempests are before my face. But my dwelling is calm, above the clouds; the fields of my rest are pleasant."

"Dwell then in thy calm field," said Fingal, "and let Comhal's son be forgot. Do my steps ascend, from my hills, inte

thy peaceful plains? Do I meet thee, with a spear, on thy cloud, spirit of dismal Loda? Why, then, dost thou frown on Fingal? Or shake thine airy spear? But thou frownest in vain: I never fled from mighty men. And shall the sons

of the wind frighten the king of Morven! No: he knows the weakness of their arms."

"Fly to thy land," replied the form: "receive the wind and fly. The blasts are in the hollow of my hand: the course of the storm is mine. The king of Sora is my son, he bends at the stone of my power. His battle is around Carricthura; and he will prevail. Fly to thy land, son of Comhal, or feel my flaming wrath."

He lifted high his shadowy spear; and bent forward his terrible height. But the king, advancing, drew his sword; the blade of dark-brown Luno. The gleaming path of the steel winds through the gloomy ghost. The form fell shapeless into air, like a column of smoke, which the staff of the boy disturbs, as it rises from the half-extinguished furnace.

The spirit of Loda shrieked, as, rolled into himself, he rose on the wind. Inistore shook at the sound. The waves heard it on the deep: they stopped, in their course, with fear the companions of Fingal started, at once; and took their heavy spears. They missed the king; they rose with. rage all their arms resound.

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The moon came forth in the east. The king returned in the gleam of his arms. The joy of his youths was great; their souls settled, as a sea from a storm. Ullin raised the song of gladness. The hills of Inistore rejoiced. The flame of the oak arose; and the tales of heroes are told.

LESSON CXXIX.

Death of Carthon.—Ossian's address to the Sun.-THE SAME, THE battle ceased along the field, for the bard had sung the song of peace. The chiefs gathered round the falling Carthon, and heard his words, with sighs. Silent they leaned on their spears, while Balclutha's hero spoke. His hair sighed in the wind, and his words were feeble.

"King of Morven," Carthon said, "I fall in the midst of my course. A foreign tomb receives, in youth, the last of Reuthamir's race. Darkness dwells in Balclutha and

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