2. Nothing is proof against the general curse
Of vanity, that seizes all below.
The only ainaranthine flower on earth
Is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth.

3. But what is truth? 'twas Pilate's question put

To Truth itself, that deigned him no reply.
And wherefore ? will not God impart his light
To them that ask it? – Freely-'tis his joy,
His glory, and his nature to impart.
But to the proud, uncandid, insincere,
Or negligent inquirer, not a spark.

4. What's that which brings contempt upon a book,

And him that writes it, though the style be neat,
The method clear, and argument exact ?
That makes a minister in holy things
The joy of many, and the dread of more,
His name a theme for praise and for reproach?
That while it gives us worth in God's account,
Depreciates and undoes us in our own?

5. What pearl is it that rich men cannot buy,

That learning is too proud to gather up,
But which the poor and the despised of all,
Seek and obtain, and often find unsought ?
Tell me, and I will tell thee, what is truth.

6. Well — one at least is safe. One sheltered hare

Has never heard the sanguinary yell
Of cruel man, exulting in her woes.
Innocent partner of my peaceful home,
Whom ten long years' experience of my care
Has made at last familiar, she has lost
Much of her vigilant instinctive dread,

Not needful here, beneath a roof like mine. 7. Yes - thou mayst eat thy bread, and lick the hand

That feeds thee; thou mayst frolic on the floor
At evening, and at night retire secure
To thy straw couch, and slumber unalarmed

For I have gained thy confidence, have pledged
All that is human in me, to protect
Thine unsuspecting gratitude and love.
If I survive thee, I will dig thy grave,
And when I place thee in it, sighing, say,
I knew at least one hare that had a friend.

8. In colleges and halls, in ancient days,

When learning, virtue, piety, and truth
Were precious, and inculcated with care,
There dwelt a sage called Discipline. His head
Not yet by time completely silvered o'er,
Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth,
But strong for service still, and unimpaired.

9. His eye was meek and gentle, and a smile

Played on his lips, and in his speech was heard
Paternal sweetness, dignity and love.
The occupation dearest to his heart
Was to encourage goodness. He would stroke
The head of modest and ingenuous worth
That blushed at its own praise, and press the youth
Close to his side that pleased him. Learning greve
Beneath his care, a thriving, vigorous plant ;
The mind was well informed, the passions held
Subordinate, and diligence was choice.

10. If e'er it chanced, as sometimes chance it must,

That one among so many overleaped
The limits of control, his gentle eye
Grew stern, and darted a severe rebuke;
His frown was full of terror, and his voice
Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe
As left him not, till penitence had won
Lost favor back again, and closed the breach.

11. But Discipline, a faithfud servant long,

Declined at length into the vale of years ;
A palsy struck his arm, his sparkling eye
Was quenched in rheums of age, his voice unstrung,
Grew tremulous, and moved derision more
Than reverence, in perverse rebellious vouth.

12. So colleges and halls neglected much

Their good old friend, and Discipline at sength
O’erlooked and unemployed, fell sick and died.
Then study languished, emulation slept,
And virtuc fled. The schools became a scene
Of solemn farce, where ignorance in stilts,
Ilis cap well lined with logic not his own,
With parrot tongue performed the scholar's part,
Proceeding soon a graduated dunce.

13. Whom call we gay? That honor has been long

The boast of mere pretenders to the name
The innocent are gay- the lark is gay
That drics his feathers saturate with dew
Beneath the rosy cloud, while yet the beams
Of day-spring overshoot his humble nest.

14. The peasant too, a witness of his song,

Himself a songster, is as gay as he.
But save me from the gayety of those,
Whose head-aches nail them to a noon day bed;
And save me too from theirs, whose haggard eyeo
Flash desperation, and betray their pangs
For property stripped off by cruel chance ;
From gayety that fills the bones with pain,
The mouth with blasphemy, the heart with wo.

15. He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,

And all are slaves besides. There is not a chain,
That hellish foes confederate for his harm,
Can wind around him, but he casts it off,
With as much ease as Samson his green withes.
He looks abroad into the varied field
Of Nature, and though poor, perhaps, compared
With those whose mansions glitter in his sight,
Calls the delightful scenery all his own.

16. His are the mountains, and the valleys his,

And the resplendent rivers. His to enjoy,
With a propriety that none can feel,
But who, with filial confidence inspired,
Can list to heaven an unpresumptuous eye,
And smiling, say— My father made them all.

ERRORS. .. 1. granslur for grandeur. 5. gether for gather. 6. heera for hcard. 8. bouns for bounds. 13. in'cent for innocent. 16. unpresumchus for unpresumptuous.

QUESTIONS. What is the Rule over this Lesson? How do you distinguish blank verse from other poetry?

2. Should there be a pause after curse ? 6. What pause is after well? How long should it be? 9. Should the voice pause at smile ? 13. Should the voice pause at the end of the first line ?

GENERAL RULES

FOR READING THE SACRED SCRIPTURES.

Rule 1. While you are reading the Sacred Scriptures you should consider that they are the Word of the Lord, and must, therefore, be read with great attention and seriousness, and also more slowly than other writings.

RULE 2. Consider that what you read, is given by the Lord to teach you, as well as the persons who hear you read.

RULE 3. Read as though you were seriously and meekly telling your hearers what the Scripture says to you and to them

RULE 4. Be careful that you do not read the words of the Scriptures as though they were your own words. In reading other writings we are allowed to speak as though we were in the place of the writer, or as though the composition were our own : but in reading the Word of the Lord, we should read in the manner directed in Rule 3.

RULE 5. When you find proper names that you do not certainly know how to pronounce, always look in a Dictionary. You will find a table of the Scripture Proper Names near the end of almost every Dictionary; and it is very wrong to mispronounce them, when you can so easily learn to pronounce them correctly.

RULE 6. Read the Bible as though it were not divided into verses. If you stop, and let your voice fall at the end of every verse, you will frequently do it where there is not a period, nor the end of a sentence.

RULE 7. When references are made in writing to the Books, Chapters, and Verses of the Bible, it is commonly done by numbers ; and the Roman Letters stand for Chapters, and the Arabic Figures stand for Verses. Thus : Gen. XII. 15, signifies Genesis, twelfth chapter, fifteenth verse, I. Kings XVII. signifies First Book of Kings, seventeenth chapter.