Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

apprised of all this'; the consul beholds' it; and man lives 10! Lives'? Nay, comes into the senns in the public counsels'; observes, and marks out us' for destruction'10 !"

[merged small][merged small][graphic]

[IN the following piece a mother's anguish is portrayed in the brief ejaculations which are wrung from her by her wretched, dying condition. The first and last verses, by the narrator, are purely descriptive. The others, except the mention, by the narrator, of the time of night, at the close of the 3d, 5th, and 8th verses, require, in the reading, such a tone of increasing anguish and despair as the circumstances would naturally call forth.].

1. DARK is the night'!-How dark'! No light'! No fire'! Cold on the hearth, the last faint sparks expire'! Shivering, she watches, by the cradle side,

For him who pledged her love-last year a bride!

2. "Hark! "Tis his footstep!-'Tis past: 'tis gone!
Tick-Tick! How wearily the time crawls on!
Why should he leave me thus'? He once' was kind'!
And I believed 'twould last-how mad'!-how blind'!

3. "Rest thee, my babe'!-Rest on!-"Tis hunger's' cry'!
Sleep!-for there is no food!-The fount is dry!
Famine and cold their wearying work have done-
My heart must break!-and thou!"-The clock strikes

4.

one.

"Hush! 'tis the dice-box! Yes, he's there, he's there:
For this!-for this, he leaves me to despair!
Leaves love! leaves truth! his wife! his child!
The wanton's smile-the villain-and the sot!

For [what?

5. "Yet I'll not curse him! No! 'tis all in vain! "Tis long to wait, but sure he'll come again! And I could starve and bless him, but for you, My child!-his child!-Oh, fiend!" The clock strikes.

[two.

6. "Hark! How the sign-board creaks! The blast howls by!

Moan! Moan! A dirge swells through the cloudy sky! Ha! 'tis his knock! he comes!-he comes once more !'Tis but the lattice flaps !" Thy hope is o'er!

7. "Can he desert me thus'?

.

He knows I stay Night after night in loneliness, to pray

For his return-and yet he sees no tear!

No! no! It can not be. He will be here.

8. "Nestle more closely, dear one, to my heart!

Thou'rt cold! Thou'rt freezing! But we will not part! Husband!-I die!-Father!-It is not he!

O God! protect my child!" The clock strikes three.

9. They're gone! They're gone! the glimmering spark hath sped!

The wife and child are numbered with the dead!

On the cold hearth, outstretched in solemn rest,
The babe lay frozen on its mother's breast!
The gambler came at last-but all was o'er-
Dead silence reigned around.-The clock struck four.

[merged small][merged small][graphic]

[KARAMSIN, a distinguished Russian poet and historian: born in 1765: died in 1826. Two speakers are represented in this lesson. Those portions taken by the FIRST VOICE are to be read in a heavy, coarse, harsh, exclamatory guttural tone-the lan guage of abhorrence and dread. Those taken by the SECOND VOICE are to be read in that gentle and pure tone, which is called forth by a true Christian philosophy and

Christian resignation. The second voice is that of the lighter kind of exclamation at the beginning, gradually moderating into gentle but positive affirmation toward the close, when the mark of exclamation is omitted.]

FIRST VOICE.

1. How frightful the grave'10! how deserted and drear110! With the howls of the storm-wind-the creaks of the

bier'!

And the white bones all clattering together!

Second Voice.

2. How peaceful the grave'! its quiet how deep'10! Its zephyrs' breathe calmly', and soft' is its sleep', And flowerets perfume' it with ether'.

FIRST VOICE.

3. There riots the blood-crested worm on the dead', And the yellow skull serves the foul toad for a bed', And snakes' in its nettle weeds hiss'10 !

Second Voice.

4. How lovely', how sweet the repose of the tomb'! No tempests are there: but the nightingales come, And sing their sweet chorus of bliss.

FIRST VOICE.

5. The ravens at night flap their wings o'er the grave'! 'Tis the vulture's abode'! 'tis the wolf's dreary cave, Where they tear up the earth with their fangs'!

Second Voice.

6. There the cony at evening disports with his love, Or rests on the sod; while the turtles above, Repose on the bough that o'erhangs.

FIRST VOICE.

7. There darkness and dampness with poisonous breath,
And loathsome decay fill the dwelling of death!
The trees are all barren and bare!

Second Voice.

8. Oh, soft are the breezes that play round the tomb,
And sweet with the violet's wafted perfume,
With lilies and jessamine fair.

FIRST VOICE.

9. The pilgrim who reaches this valley of tears, Would fain hurry by, and with trembling and fears, He is launched on the wreck-covered river!

Second Voice.

10. The traveler, outworn with life's pilgrimage dreary, Lays down his rude staff, like one that is weary, And sweetly reposes forever!

LESSON XXXIV.

OBLIGATIONS OF AMERICA TO ENGLAND.

Interrogatively stated.-EDWARD EVERETT.

[EDWARD EVERETT, born in Dorchester, Mass., in 1794; graduated at Havard College in 1811; was a Unitarian preacher two years; was Professor in Harvard College; afterward President of the same; at one time edited the North American Review; was representative in Congress, afterward senator; was minister to England from 1841 to 1846; died in 1865. He was a finished scholar, and one of the most eloquent of speakers.]

1. WHAT citizen of our republic does not feel', what reflecting American does not acknowledge, the incalculable advantages derived to this land out of the deep fountains of civil, intellectual, and moral truth', from which we have drawn in England'3? What American does not feel proud that his fathers were the countrymen of Bacon', of Newton', and of Locke'3?

2. Who does not know that, while every pulse of civil liberty in the heart of the British empire beat warm and full in the bosom of our ancestors', the sobriety, the firmness, and the dignity with which the cause of free principles struggled into existence here', constantly found encouragement and countenance from the friends of liberty there13?

3. Who does not remember that, when the pilgrims went

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »