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Prodigious, amazing, monstrous; from prodigy. Exceeded, surpassed, was superior to, went beyond.

Extravagance, prodigality, expensiveness, excess. Compression, act of pressing together; from com

press.

Suffocation, stoppage of breath, act of choaking.

Desolating, destructive, devastating, fatal.

Æolus, fabled god of the winds, who confined them in a cave.

Rebellion, from rebel, revolt, insurrection.
Precipice, headlong steep, perpendicular fall.

Desperation, despair, desponding; from desper

ate.

River. What is it made to appear to be?

Abandoned, betrayed, forsaken, given up.
Shorn, cut off. What is the sun made ?

Beams. How could they be said to be shorn ?

Multitudinous, manifold, numerous.

Spell hue, shed a silvery hue;-hew, hew down the

tree.

Ever-humid, always moist, ever wet.

Steadily, for a long time, unwaveringly.

-Guard, protect, defend, limitation, men on watch.
Forced, propelled, driven out by violence.

Averted, turned away, put by.

Vehement, vé-hè'ment, violent, forcible.

Exposed, laid open, made liable.

Condensed, made thick, grown close and weighty.
Rapidity, velocity, swiftness; from rapid.

Precipitated, thrown headlong, hastened without preparation.

Innumerable, without number, numberless.

.Eels. What kind of fish are they?

Saloon, så-loon', spacious parlor, chief apartment.

Enormous, huge, very large, unwieldy.

Gothic, ancient order of architecture.

Ribs, side bones. What does this word make the

place ?

Rottenness, cariosity, putrefaction.

Groan. Explain the whole figure.

:

is projected, with incalculable intensity, a silvery flood, in which the sun seems to dance like a fire-fly. Beneath, is a chasm of death; an anvil, upon which the hammers of the cataract beat, with unsparing and remorseless might; an abyss of wrath, where the heaviest doom might find new torment, and howl unheard.

We had now penetrated to the inmost recess. A pillar of the precipice juts directly out into the sheet, and beyond it no human foot can step but to immediate annihilation. The distance from the edge of the falls, to the rock, which arrests our progress, is said to be fortyfive feet, but I do not think this has ever been accurately ascertained. The arch under which we passed, is evidently undergoing a rapid decay at the bottom, while the top, unwasted, juts out like the leaf of a table. Consequently a fall must happen, and, judging from the appearance, may be expected every day; and this is probably the only real danger in going beneath the sheet. We passed to our temporary home, through the valley which skirts the upper stream, among gilded clouds and rainbows, and wild flowers, and felt, that we had experienced a consummation of curiosity; that we had looked upon that, than which earth could offer nothing to the eye or heart of man, more awful or more magnifi

cent.

LESSON LVIII.

Niagara. BRAINARD.

The thoughts are strange, which crowd into my brain,
While I look upward to thee. It would seem
As if God poured thee from his hollow hand,
And hung his bow upon thine awful front,
And spoke in that loud voice which seemed to him.
Who dwelt in Patmos for his Savior's sake,
The sound of many waters; and thy flood
Had bidden chronicle the ages back,
And notch his centuries in the eternal rocks..
Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we,
Who hear this awful questioning; O what

:

Projected, made imminent, extended out.
Incalculable, immeasurable; from calculate.
Dance. How is the sun made to dance?

Chasm of death, chasm into which it would be death
to fall.

Hammer and Anvil. What image do we have now?
Abyss of wrath. What is the meaning?

Recess, retirement, secession, retreat.

Juts, extends itself, projects.

Immediate, instant, present with regard to time.
.Annihilation, death, destruction, nothingness.

Arrests, stops, seizes, takes up.

Ascertained, found out, known to be true.
Evidently, verily, manifestly; from evident.
Undergoing, suffering; of what is it compounded?
Unwasted, undecayed, not mouldered.

-Appearance, aspect, demeanor.
Temporary, lasting only for a time.
Skirts, bounds, extends by the side of.

Gilded, tinged with gold, brilliant, sparkling.

/ Rainbows. What produced these?

Consummation, from consummate, completion, per

fection.

Curiosity, desire of seeing, inclination to inquiry.
Awful, terrible, fearful, tremendous; from awe.
Magnificent, grand, sublime, wonderful, vast.

Strange, unusual, magnificent, unaccustomed.

Brain, head, seat of intellect, matter contained in the
skull.

Look upward. Why does the writer look upward ?
Hollow hand, see Isaiah, 40:12.

His bow, rainbow, Genesis 9:13.

Patmos, Island were St. John was banished.
Sound of many waters, Revelation 1: 15.
Chronicle, record, make account of.
Back, past, preceding.

Notch, note down, mark by notches.
-Centuries, hundred years, sên'tshu-ries.
Deep calleth unto deep. Psalm 42: 7.
Questioning, question, and response.

Are all the stirring notes that ever rang
From war's vain trumpet, by thy thundering sides?
Yea, what is all the riot man can make
In his short life to thy unceasing roar!
And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to Him
Who drowned a world, and heaped the waters far
Above its loftiest mountains ? A light wave,
That breaks and whispers of its Maker's might.

LESSON LIX.

Importance of Decision of Character. - FOSTER.

Without decision of character, a human being with powers at best but feeble, is indeed a pitiable atom, the sport of divers and casual impulses. It is a poor and disgraceful thing, not to be able to reply, with some de. gree of certainty, to the simple questions, What will you be? What will you do?

A little acquaintance with mankind, will supply numberless illustrations of the importance of this character.

In many instances, when a determination is adopted, it is frustrated by indecision. A man, for example, resolves to make a journey to-morrow, which he is not under an absolute necessity to make, but the inducements appear this evening so strong, that he does not think it possible he can hesitate in the morning. In the morning, however, these inducements have unaccountably lost much of their force. Like the sun, that is rising at the same time, they appear dim through a mist; and the sky lowers, or he fancies that it lowers, the fatigue appears formidable; and he lingers uncertain, till an advanced hour determines the question for him, by the certainty, that it is now too late to go.

A man without decision, can never be said to belong to himself; since, if he dared to assert that he did, the puny force of some cause, about as powerful, you would have supposed as a spider, may capture the hapless boaster the very next moment, and triumphantly show the futility of the determinations by which he was to have proved the independence of his understanding and his

Stirring, thrilling, inspiring, exciting.
Riot, noise, confusion, unlawful assembly.
Unceasing, constant, everlasting; from cease.
Babbler, idle talker, teller of secrets.

Drowned a world. When was the world drowned ?

Light wave. What reason for calling Niagara a light wave?

What figure of speech is used through all this piece ?

Powers, faculties, qualities.

A pitiable atom, contemptible cypher, object of commiseration.

Divers, various, diverse, different.

Casual, accidental.

Impulses, motives, ideas, impressions from other bod

ies.

Simple, easy, short, unequivocal.

Mankind, the human race, the human species.

Illustrations, examples, facts to explain.

Frustrated, set aside, disappointed, made nugatory.

Spell journey, necessity, character.

Inducements, motives, impulses.

Unaccountably, in a manner that cannot be explained.

Force, urgency, importance.

What is a comparison? For what purpose introduced? By what words generally? Are they stronger than similes? Is this comparison an appropriate one? See app.

Lowers, loů' ůrz, looks gloomy, looks sullen, is cloud

ed.

Formidable, fearful, dreadful.

Is this conduct of the undecided man foolish ?

Belong to himself, do what he pleases, be under his own control.

Puny, weak, insignificant, helpless.

About, almost, nearly.

Capture, seize, take in its net. What is the allusion here?

Hapless, unhappy, wretched, miserable.

Triumphantly, victoriously.

Futility, emptiness, vanity.

Independence, fearlessness, boldness, freedom from doubt.

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