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of an immense artificial bridge thrown over a tremendous chasm, but, on nearer approach, is seen to be a wall of nature's own masonry, formed of vast and rugged bodies of solid rock, piled on each other as if in the giant sport of the architect. Its sides are, in some places, covered with trees of a considerable size; and the passenger, who has a head steady enough to look down the precipice, may see the aeries of birds of prey beneath his feet. The path across is so narrow, that it can not admit of two persons passing alongside`; and, indeed, none but natives, accustomed to the scene from infancy, would attempt the dangerous route at all, though it saves a circuit of three miles. Yet it sometimes happens, that two travelers meet in the middle, owing to the curve formed by the pass preventing a view from either side, and, when this is the case, one is obliged to lie down, while the other crawls over his body.

5. One day, shortly after the incident we have mentioned, a highlander was walking fearlessly along the pass; sometimes bending over to watch the flight of wild birds that built below, and sometimes pushing a fragment from the top, to see it dashed against the uneven sides, and bounding from rock to rock, until the echo of its rebound died in faint and hollow murmurs at the bottom. When he had gained the highest part of the arch, he observed another coming leisurely up on the opposite side, and being himself of the patrician order, called out to him to halt and lie down. The person, however, disregarded the command, and the highlanders met, face to face, on the summit.

6. They were Grant and Macpherson; the two hereditary enemies, who would have gloried and rejoiced in mortal strife with each other, on a hill-side. They turned deadly pale at this fatal rencounter. "I was first at the top," said Macpherson, "and called out first. Lie down, that I may pass over in peace`." "When the Grant prostrates himself before Macpherson," answered the other, "it must be with the sword driven through his body." "Turn back, then," said Macpherson, "and repass as you came." "Go back yourself, if you like it," replied Grant; "I will not be the first of my name to turn before the Macpherson."

7. This was their short conference, and the result ex

actly as each had anticipated. They then threw their bonnets over the precipice`, and advanced, with a slow and cautious pace, closer to each other. They were both unarmed; and, stretching their limbs like men preparing for a desperate struggle, they planted their feet firmly on the ground, compressed their lips, knit their dark brows, and, fixing fierce and watchful eyes on each other, stood there, prepared for the onset.

8. They both grappled at the same moment; but being of equal strength, were unable for sometime to shift each other's position, and remained standing fixed on a rock with suppressed breath, and muscles strained to the "top of their bent," like statues carved out of the solid stone. At length, Macpherson, suddenly removing his right foot, so as to give him a greater purchase, stooped his body, and bent his enemy down with him by main strength, till they both leaned over the precipice, looking downward into the terrible abyss. The contest was as yet doubtful, for Grant had placed his foot firmly on an elevation at the brink, and had equal command of his enemy; but, at this moment, Macpherson sank slowly and firmly on his knee`, and while Grant suddenly started back, stooping to take the supposed advantage, he whirled him over his head into the gulf below. Macpherson himself fell backward, his body hanging partly over the rock`; a fragment gave way beneath him, and he sank further, till, catching with a desperate effort at the solid stone above, he regained his footing.

9. There was a pause of death-like stillness, and the bold heart of Macpherson felt sick and faint. At length, as if compelled unwillingly by some mysterious feeling, he looked down over the precipice. Grant had caught, with a death-gripe, by the rugged point of a rock; his enemy was almost within his reach! his face was turned upward, and there was in it horror and despair; but he uttered no word or cry. The next moment, he loosed his hold`; and the next, his brains were dashed out before the eyes of his hereditary foe. The mangled body disappeared among the trees ́, and its last heavy and hollow sound arose from the bottom. Macpherson returned home an altered man. He purchased a commission in the army, and fell in the wars of the Peninsula.

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FELICIA HEMANS was born in Liverpool, England, in 1793, and educated in Wales, that region of mountainous scenery. At the age of thirteen, her first poems were published. At nineteen, she was married to Capt. Hemans, but the union was unhappy, and they separated. She died at Dublin, at the house of her brother, in 1835. Her poems are full of pathos, tenderness, and beauty.

1. CHILD, amid the flowers at play,
While the red light fades away';
Mother, with thine earnest eye,
Ever following silently';
Father, by the breeze at eve
Call'd thy harvest work to leave ́;
Pray! Ere yet the dark hours be,
Lift the heart, and bend the knee`.

2. Traveler, in the stranger's land,
Far from thine own household band";
Mourner, haunted by the tone
Of a voice from this world gone';
Captive, in whose narrow cell
Sunshine hath not leave to dwell";
Sailor, on the darkening sea";
Lift the heart, and bend the knee.

3. Warrior, that from battle won,
Breathest now at set of sun";
Woman, o'er the lowly slain,
Weeping on his burial plain";
Ye that triumph ́, ye that sigh ́,
Kindred by one holy tie;

Heaven's first star alike ye see`,

Lift the heart, and bend the knee`.

XXI. PROSPECTS OF THE CHEROKEES.

In this lesson, the inflections belonging to interrogative sentences may be noticed.

1. WHITHER are the Cherokees to go? What are the benefits of the change? What system has been matured for their security? What laws for their government`?

These questions are answered only by gilded promises in general terms; they are to become enlightened and civilized husbandmen. They now live by the cultivation of the soil and the mechanical arts. It is proposed to send them from their cotton fields, their farms and their gardens, to a distant and unsubdued wilderness; to make them tillers of the earth`; to remove them from their looms, their workshops, their printing-press, their schools and churches, near the white settlements, to frowning forests, surrounded with naked savages, that they may become enlightened and civilized!

2. We have pledged to them our protection; and, instead of shielding them where they now are, within our reach, under our own arm, we send these natives of a southern clime to northern regions, among fierce and warlike barbarians. And what security do we propose to them? A new guaranty! Who can look an Indian in the face, and say to him, "We and our fathers, for more than forty years, have made to you the most solemn promises; we now violate and trample upon them all; but offer you in their steadanother guaranty!"

3. Will they be in no danger of attack from the primitive inhabitants of the regions to which they emigrate"? How can it be otherwise? The official documents show us the fact, that some of the few who have already gone, were involved in conflict with the native tribes, and compelled to a second removal.

4. How are they to subsist? Has not that country now as great an Indian population as it can sustain"? What has become of the original occupants? Have we not already caused accession to their numbers, and been compressing them more and more? Is not the consequence inevitable, that some must be stinted in the means of subsistence? Here too we have the light of experience. By an official communication from Governor Clark, the superintendent of Indian affairs, we learn that the most powerful tribes, west of the Mississippi, are, every year, so distressed by famine, that many die for want of food. The scenes of their suffering are hardly exceeded by the sieges of Jerusalem and Samaria. There might be seen the miserable mother, in all the tortures

which hunger could inflict, giving her last morsel for the sustenance of her child, and then fainting, sinking, and actually dying of starvation! And the orphan! no one can spare it food: it is put alive into the grave of the parent, which thus closes over the quick and the dead. And this is not a solitary instance only, "The living child is. often buried with the dead mother.'

5. I know, to what I expose myself. To feel any solicitude for the fate of the Indians, may be ridiculed as false philanthropy and morbid sensibility. Others may boldly say, "Their blood be upon us," and sneer at scruples, as weakness unbecoming the stern character of a politician. If, in order to become a politician, it be necessary to divest the mind of the principles of good faith. and moral obligation, and harden the heart against every touch of humanity, I confess that I am not-and by the blessing of heaven, will never be-a politician.

6. We can not wholly silence the monitor within us. It may not be heard amid the clashing of the arena`; in the tempest and convulsions of political contentions; but its still small voice will speak to us, when we meditate alone at even-tide`; in the silent watches of the night; when we lie down and when we rise up, from a solitary pillow; and in that dread hour, when,-"not what we have done for ourselves ́, but what we have done for others," will be our joy and strength; when, to have secured, even to a poor and despised Indian, a spot of earth upon which to rest his aching head; to have given him but a cup of cold water` in charity, will be a greater treasure, than to have been the conquerors of kingdoms, and lived in luxury upon the spoils.

REMARK.-It will be observed that the words "Indian" and "water" in the last paragraph, receive the falling inflection as a mark of emphasis. There is also, in the same paragraph, an example of the inflections belonging to a series of members, and also to antithesis, which subjects will be more particularly noticed hereafter.

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