FOOTSTEPS OF ANGELS. Then the forms of the departed He, the young and strong, who cherished They, the holy ones and weakly, And with them the being beauteous, With a slow and noiseless footstep And she sits and gazes at me Uttered not, yet comprehended, O, though oft depressed and lonely, Such as these have lived and died! 1. What better soul? 219 LONGFELLOW. 2. Something tautological in this line? IX. A NAME IN THE SAND. "MAN that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." Psalm ciii. 15, 16. ALONE I walked the ocean strand; And so, methought, 'twill shortly be Will sweep across the place, And yet, with Him who counts the sands Inscribed against my name, Of all this mortal part has wrought; HANNAH F. GOULD. X. THE LAST MINSTREL. "SUFFICIENTLY provided for within, they (poets in the olden time) had need of little from without; the gift of imparting lofty emotions, and glorious images to men, in melodies and words that charmed the ear, and fixed themselves inseparably on whatever they might touch, of old enraptured the world, and served the gifted as a rich inheritance. At the courts of kings, at the tables of the great, under the windows of the fair, the sound of them was heard, while the ear and the soul were shut for all beside; and men felt, as we do when THE LAST MINSTREL. 221 delight comes over us, and we pause with rapture if, among the dingles we are crossing, the voice of the nightingale starts out, touching and strong. They found a home in every habitation of the world, and the lowliness of their condition but exalted them the more. The hero listened to their songs, and the conqueror of the earth did reverence to a poet; for he felt that, without poets, his own wild and vast existence would pass away like a whirlwind, and be forgotten for ever."- Goethe's Wilhelm Meister. THE way was long, the wind was cold, Old times were changed, old manners gone, Had called the harmless art a crime. 1. What are tresses? 2. What is meant by border chivalry? 3. Historical allusion? SIR W. SCOTT. 4. Who are here referred to, and how far is the accusation just? 5. The ellipsis in this line? XI. A COMPARISON. "THE life of every individual may be compared to a river rising in obscurity, increasing by the accession of tributary streams, and, after flowing through a longer or shorter distance, losing itself in some common receptacle. The lives of individuals also, like the course of rivers, may be more or less extensive, but will all vanish and disap pear in the gulf of eternity. Whilst a stream is confined within its banks, it fertilizes, enriches, and improves the country through which it passes; but if it deserts its channel it becomes injurious and destructive, a sort of public nuisance, and, by stagnating in lakes and marshes, its exhalations diffuse pestilence and disease around. Some glide away in obscurity and insignificance; whilst others become celebrated, traverse continents, give names to countries, and assign the boundaries of empires. Some are tranquil and gentle in their course, whilst others, rushing in torrents, dashing over precipices, and tumbling in waterfalls, become objects of terror and dismay. But however diversified their character or their direction, all agree in having their course short, limited, and determined: soon they fall into one capacious receptacle; their waters eventually mix in the waves of the ocean. Thus human characters, however various, have one common destiny; their course of action may be greatly diversified, but they all lose themselves in the ocean of eternity." -Robert Hall. Both speed their journey with a restless stream; And a wide ocean swallows both at last. Though each resemble each, in every part, A difference strikes at length the musing heart; - XII. THE HARPER. COWPER. "WHO from his own experience cannot bear testimony to the good qualities of the dog! It has been somewhere said, and with truth, that man is the god of the dog, for to man he looks up with reverence and affection, and the praise of his master is his richest reward. Is this instinctive attachment of the dog to man an acquired feeling? or is it an original impulse implanted in its nature, by the all wise Creator, for man's benefit, so that, in the primitive condition of society, he might have a friend and assistant, all important in the chace, and in the extirpation of wild beasts, which, ere he can settle in the land and found a colony, he must drive to a distance or destroy?"- Knight's Museum of Animated Nature. Compare the following adjectives: Parse the following, and put them into sentences (both as nouns and verbs when necessary): On the green banks of Shannon, when Sheelah was nigh, 2 No harp like my own could so cheerily play, When at last I was forced from my Sheelah to part, When the road was so dark, and the night was so cold, 1. What is I the nom, to? 2. What other form has this adverb? CAMPBELL. 3. Is there any difference between a winter's day and a wintry day? XIII. TO A BEE. "EVERY thing in these little animals (bees) should excite our wonder. The construction of their limbs, so regular and so well adapted to their mode of life; the care which they take of their young; the art with which they build their cells; their activity, industry, and intel |