LESSON XXXI. The Cottage of the Hills.-ANON. How sweetly 'neath the pale moonlight, 'Twas morning;-and the glorious sun And there lay one, upon whose brow, 'Neath, poetically, for beneath. Cot, poetically for cottage. Constancy, perpetuity, unalterable continuance. Hollow-hearted, false, deceitful, hypocritical. Bird. Why speak to this bird ? By the lightning. How did this assist in seeing? Mountain-torrent, torrent raging down the moun tain. Wild wave, boisterous wave. Torn, pulled up, rent away. .Shrill, clear, piercing sound. Shriek, cry of sudden danger, wail. Angel form, deliverance, poetical figure. Mountain spirits, poetic personages having no real existence. The expression is of pagan origin. Glorious. What does this denote when applied to the sun ? Work. How is death here represented ? Shattered cliff, broken rocks. Ruin, destruction, remains, fragments, destroy. Age. How made to appear ? Wintry snow. What can this mean applied to a per son? Clenched, fastened, united, closed. Fragment. How did this indicate strong health ? Curled, twisted, withered. Upturned eye, a look of agony. Torrent's path. Does this personify the torrent ? Too pure, too sacred for its wrath, The kiss, upon its pale cheek sealed, LESSON ΧΧΧΙΙ. Anger inconsistent with a Spirit of Prayer. -TAYLOR. Prayer is an action, and state of intercourse, and desire exactly contrary to the character of anger. Prayer Wrath, vengeance, anger. Sacred, consecrated, inviolable. Frozen. What does the word intend? Sealed, imprinted, enclosed, fixed. Quenchless, lasting, ever-burning. From what de rived ? Sire, father, progenitor. .Conqueror's. Who was the conqueror ? Averted, turned away. Why was the eye averted ? Repast, refreshment, dinner. "Repast" does not make good rhyme with "passed:" why not? Banquet, make a feast, eat. Dared not. Why did he not dare to do it ? .Sphere, orb, world, planet. .Withering, causing to wither, deadening. Slumbered. What is often called sleep, or slumber? Ne'er, never, contracted in poetry. Why contracted ? Stranger hands, hands of strangers. -Bore, conveyed, carried, endured. -Close, conclusion, end. Last repose. What is this? Brief, short, transient. Cottage. Explain the figure here used, and tell me in what writing it is most frequent. Gathering, collecting, thickening. Faintly, feebly, dimly, from faint. Gleam, shine for a moment. Flit, fly away. What time of the day is represented in this piece ? What is anger? Give an example. Intercourse, fellowship, communion, acquaintance. Desire, longing, earnest expectation. is an action of likeness to the Holy Ghost, the spirit of gentleness, and dove-like simplicity. Prayer is an imitation of the holy Jesus, whose spirit is meek up to the greatness of the most eminent example; and a conformity to God, whose anger is always just and marches slowly, and is without transportation, and often hindered, and never hasty, and is full of mercy. Prayer is the peace of our spirit, the stillness of our thoughts, the seat of meditation, the rest of our cares, and the calm of our tempest. Prayer is the issue of a quiet mind, of untroubled thoughts, it is the daughter of charity, and the sister of meekness; and he that prays to God with an angry spirit, that is with a troubled and discomposed spirit, is like him, that retires into a battle to meditate, and sets up his closet in the out-quarters of an army, and chooses a frontier garrison to be wise in. Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer, and therefore is contrary to that attention, which presents our prayer in a right time to God. For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upwards, singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven and climb above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconstant, descending more at every breath of the tempest, than it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings; till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over, and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as if it had learned music, and motion from an angel, as he passed sometimes through the air in his ministeries here below. So was the prayer of a good man, when his duty met with the infirmities of a sinful being, and anger was its instrument, and the instrument became stronger than the prime agent and raised a tempest and overruled the man; and then his prayer was broken, and his thoughts were troubled, and his words went up towards a cloud, and his thoughts pulled them back again, and made them without intention; and the good man sighs for his infirmity, but must be content to lose the prayer, and he must recover it when his anger is removed, and his spirit is becalmed, made even like the brow of Jesus, |