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9. He liberally recompensed all who served him. He showed a similar munificent spirit in his public works, constructing and embellishing the temples, bringing water into the capitol by a new channel, and establishing a hospital, or retreat for invalid soldiers, in the city of Colhuacan.

CHAPTER VI.

LAND DISCOVERED.— [ROGERS.]

From the voyage of Columbus.

Twice in the zenith blazed the orb of light;
No shade, all sun, insufferably bright!
Then the long line found rest-in coral groves
Silent and dark, where the sea-lion roves:-
And all on deck, kindling to life again,
Sent forth their anxious spirits o'er the main.

“O whence, as wafted from Elysiun, whence
These perfumes, strangers to the raptured sense?
These boughs of gold, and fruits of heavenly hue,
Tinging with vermeil light the billows blue?
And (thrice, thrice blessed is the eye that spied,
The hand that snatch'd it sparkling in the tide)
Whose cunning carved this vegetable bowl,
Symbol of social rites, and intercourse of soul?"
Such to their grateful ear the gush of springs,
Who course the ostrich, as away she wings;
Sons of the desert! who delight to dwell
Mid kneeling camels round the sacred well:
Who, ere the terrors of his pomp be past,

Full to the demon in the red'ning blast.

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15

The sails were furl'd: with many a melting close, 20

Solemn and slow the evening anthem rose,

Rose to the Virgin. 'Twas the hour of day,
When setting suns o'er summer seas display
A path of glory, opening in the west,

To golden climes, and islands of the blest;
And human voices, on the silent air,

Went o'er the waves in songs of gladness there!

EVENING PRAYEr at a girls' sCHOOL.-[HEMANS.]

Hush! 'tis a holy hour-the quiet room

Seems like a temple, while yon soft lamp sheds

A faint and starry radiance, through the gloom

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And the sweet stillness, down on bright young heads, 10
With all their clustering locks, untouched by care,
And bowed, as flowers are bowed with night-in prayer.

Gaze on,—'tis lovely! —childhood's lip and cheek,
Mantling beneath its earnest brow of thought—
Gaze- yet what seest thou in those fair, and meek, 15
And fragile things, as but for sunshine wrought?
-Thou seest what grief must nurture for the sky,
What death must fashion for eternity!

Oh! joyous creatures, that will sink to rest
Lightly, when those pure orisons are done,
As birds with slumber's honey-dew oppressed;
'Midst the dim folded leaves, at set of sun-
Lift up your hearts!— though yet no sorrow lies
Dark in the summer-heaven of those clear eyes;

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Though fresh within your breasts th' untroubled springs

Of hope make melody where'ere ye tread,

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And o'er your sleep bright shadows, from the wings

Of spirits visiting but youth, be spread;

Yet in those flute-like voices, mingling low,

Is woman's tenderness-how soon her woe!

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Her lot is on you-silent tears to weep,!
And patient smiles to wear! through suffering's hour,
And sunless riches, from Affection's deep,
To pour on broken reeds- -a wasted shower!
And to make idols, and to find them clay,
And to bewaill that worship-therefore pray!

Her lot is on you- to be found untired,
Watching the stars out by the bed of pain,
With a pale cheek, and yet a brow inspired,
And a true heart of hope, though hope be vain.
Meekly to bear with wrong, to cheer decay,
And oh! to love through all things-therefore pray!
And take the thought of this calm vesper time,
With its low murmuring sounds and silvery light,
On through the dark days fading from their prime,
As a sweet dew to keep your souls from blight.
Earth will forsake -oh! happy to have given
Th' unbroken heart's first fragrance unto Heaven!

HOPE. [CAMPBELL.]

Unfading Hope! when life's last embers burn,
When soul to soul, and dust to dust return
Heaven to thy charge resigns the awful hour;
Oh! then, thy kingdom comes! immortal Power!
What? though each spark of earth-born rapture fly
The quivering lip, pale cheek, and closing eye!
Bright to the soul thy scraph hands convey

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The morning dream of life's eternal day;

Then, then, the triumph and the trance begin,

And all the phenix spirit burns within!

Oh! lives there, Heaven! beneath thy dread expanse,

One hopeless, dark idolater of Chance,

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Rule I, Rem. 2.

2 Rule XXIIIRem. 4.

Content to feed, with pleasures unrefined,
The lukewarm passions of a lowly mind;
Who, mouldering earthward, 'reft of every trust,
In joyless union wedded to the dust,
Could all his parting energy dismiss,

And call this barren world' sufficient bliss?1
There live, alas! of heaven-directed mien,
Of cultured soul, and sapient eye serene,
Who hail thee, Man! the pilgrim of a day,
Spouse of the worm, and brother of the clay,
Frail as the leaf in Autumn's yellow bower,
Dust in the wind, or dew upon the flower
A friendless slave, a child without a sire,
Whose mortal life, and momentary fire,
Lights to the grave his chance created form,
As ocean wrecks illuminate the storm;
And, when the gua's tremendous flash is o'er,

\ To night and silence sink forevermore!·

Cease, every joy, to glimmer on my mind,

But leave-ob! leave the light of Hope behind!

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What though my winged hours of bliss have been,

Like angel visits, few and far between,

Her musing mood shall every pang appease,

And charm-when pleasures lose the power to please!

Yes, let each rapture, dear to nature, flee :2

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Close not the light of Fortune's stormy sea

Mirth, Music, Friendship, Love's propitious smile,
Chase every care, and charm a little while,
Ecstatic throbs the fluttering heart employ,
And all her strings are harmonized to joy!-
But why so short is Love's delighted hour?
Why fades the dew on Beauty's sweetest flower?

1 Rule XI.

* Rule XIX.

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15

10

ся

Why can no hymned charm of music heal
The sleepless woes impassion'd spirits feel?
Can fancy's fairy hands no veil create,

To hide the sad realities of fate?

Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime

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Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of Time,
Thy joyous youth began― but not to fade,—
When all the sister planets have decay'd:
When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow,

And Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below, 10
Thou, undismay'd, shalt o'er the ruins smile,
And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile!

CHAPTER VII.

COLLOQUIAL POWERS OF DR. FRANKLIN.-[WIRT.] 1. Never have I known such a fire-side companion as Dr. Franklin. Great as he was, both? as a3 statesman and a philosopher, he never shone in a light more winning than when he was seen in a domestic circle.

2. It was once my good fortune to pass two or threc weeks with him, at the house of a private gentleman, in the back part of Pennsylvania; and we were confined to the house, during the whole of that time, by the unintermitting constancy and depth of the snows.

3. But confinement could never be felt where Franklin was an inmate. His cheerfulness and his colloquial pow ers spread around him a perpetual spring. When I speak, however, of his colloquial powers, I do not mean to awaken any notion analagous to that which Boswell has given us, when he so frequently mentions the colloquial powers of Dr. Johnson.

RXXI, Rem. 10. 2R XXIII, Rem. 6. 3R. I, Rem. 3. NOTE.

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