Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

THE RIVER OF LIFE.

I.

THE more we live, more brief appear
Our life's succeeding stages;
A day to childhood seems a year,
And years like passing ages.

[blocks in formation]

But as the careworn cheek grows wan,
And sorrow's shafts fly thicker,
Ye stars, that measure life to man,
Why seem your courses quicker?

4.

When joys have lost their bloom and breath,

And life itself is vapid,

Why, as we reach the Falls of Death,
Feel we its tide more rapid ?

5.

It may be strange-yet who would change
Time's course to slower speeding,

When one by one our friends have gone
And left our bosoms bleeding?

6.

Heaven gives our years of fading strength
Indemnifying fleetness;

And those of youth, a seeming length,
Proportioned to their sweetness.

1. Explain the last verse of the poem.

Campbell.

2. Form nouns from the adjectives brief, smooth, quick, rapid happy, eternal.

3. Parse the first two lines of the last verse.

Cur'-rant, the fruit so called.

Cur'-rent, the stream or flow of a

river.

In-dem'-ni-fy-ing, making up for.

of.

Mea'-sure, mark the time or length

Pro-por'-ti-on-ed, adapted to, corresponding to.

Suc-ceed'-ing, following each other.

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING.

YHEN the plains of India were burnt up by a long continuance of drought, Hamet and Raschid, two neighbouring shepherds, faint with thirst, stood at the common boundary of their grounds, with their flocks and herds panting round them, and in extremity of distress prayed for water.

2. On a sudden the air was becalmed, the birds ceased to chirp, and the flocks to bleat. They turned their eyes every way, and saw a being of mighty stature advancing through the valley, whom they knew to be the Genius of Distribution. In one hand he held the sheaves of plenty, and in the other the sabre of destruction.

[graphic]

3. The shepherds stood trembling, and would have retired before him; but he called to them with a voice gentle as the breeze that plays in the evening among the spices of Sabæa :

4. "Fly not from your benefactor, children of the dust! I am come to offer you gifts, which only your folly can make vain. You here pray for water, and water I will bestow; let me know with how much you will be satisfied: speak not rashly; consider, that of whatever can be enjoyed by the body, excess is no less dangerous than scarcity. When you remember the pain of thirst, do not forget the danger of suffocation. Now, Hamet, tell me your request."

5. "O Being, kind and beneficent," says Hamet, "let thine eyes pardon my confusion. I entreat a little brook, which in summer shall never be dry, and in winter never overflow." "It is granted," replies the Genius; and immediately he opened the ground with his sabre, and a fountain bubbling up under their feet, scattered its rills over the meadows; the flowers renewed their fragrance, the trees spread a greener foliage, and the flocks and herds quenched their thirst.

6. Then turning to Raschid the Genius invited him likewise to offer his petition. "I request," says Raschid, "that thou wilt turn the Ganges through my grounds, with all his waters and all their inhabitants."

7. Hamet was struck with the greatness of his neighbour's sentiments, and secretly repined in his

heart, that he had not made the same petition before him; when the Genius spoke, "Rash man, be not insatiable! remember to thee that is nothing which thou canst not use; and how are thy wants greater than the wants of Hamet?

8. Raschid repeated his desire, and pleased himself with the mean appearance that Hamet would make in the presence of the proprietor of the Ganges. The Genius then retired towards the river, and the two shepherds stood awaiting the event.

9. As Raschid was looking with contempt upon his neighbour, on a sudden was heard the roar of torrents, and they found, by the mighty stream, that the bounds of the Ganges were broken. The flood rolled forward into the lands of Raschid, his plantations were torn up, his flocks overwhelmed, he was swept away before it, and a crocodile devoured him. Dr. Johnson. "The Rambler."

Sabaa was the name anciently given to Arabia Felix, or Yemen, famous for its perfumes, spices and precious stones. The principal city, the queen of which was said to have visited Solomon, was called Saba, or Sheba.

A crocodile. During droughts crocodiles bury themselves in the mud and there remain until the rain falls. The double-crested or Indian crocodile is very dangerous to man.

1. Give the names of all the reptiles you can think of.

2. Give names of nouns whose plural ends in -ves, as sheaves.

3. Parse: "The flood rolled forward into the lands of Raschid."

Ben-ef'-i-cent, doing good, bountiful.
Bound'-a-ry, border, limit.
Con-tin'-u-ance, duration, continued

stay.

Croc'-od-ile, the water reptile so

called.

In-sa'-ti-a-ble, not to be satisfied.
Pro-pri'-e-tor, owner.

ON ETTRICK FOREST'S MOUNTAINS DUN.

I.

ON Ettrick forest's mountains dun,

'Tis blythe to hear the sportsman's gun,
And seek the heath-frequenting brood
Far through the noonday solitude;
By many a cairn and trenchèd mound,
Where chiefs of yore sleep lone and sound,
And springs, where gray-haired shepherds tell
That still the fairies love to dwell.

2.

Along the silver streams of Tweed,

'Tis blythe the mimic fly to lead,
When to the hook the salmon springs,
And the line whistles through the rings;
The boiling eddy see him try,

Then dashing from the current high,
Till watchful eye and cautious hand
Have led his wasted strength to land.

3.

'Tis blythe along the midnight tide,
With stalwart arm the boat to guide;
On high the dazzling blaze to rear,
And heedful plunge the barbed spear;
Rock, wood, and scaur, emerging bright,
Fling on the stream their ruddy light,
And from the bank our land appears
Like Genii, armed with fiery spears.

« PředchozíPokračovat »