He, too, was struck, and day by day 8. O God! it is a fearful thing 9. He faded, and so calm and meek, 10. And then the sighs he would suppress The accursed breath of dungeon dew, BYRON. LESSON CXLVII. 1 THE PRISONER OF CHILLON.-CONTINUED. 1. WHAT next befell me then and there, I know not well,-I never knew,— First came the loss of light and air, And then of darkness too. There were no stars,-no earth,—no time,— Which neither was of life nor death. 2. A light broke in upon my brain,— It was the carol of a bird; It ceased, and then it came again, The sweetest song ear ever heard ; But through the crevice where it came A lovely bird with azure wings, And song that said a thousand things, And seemed to say them all for me! 3. I sometimes deemed that it might be 4. A kind of change came in my fate; I know not what had made them so, My brothers' graves without a sod. 5. I made a footing in the wall,- Who loved me in a human shape, But I was curious to ascend 6. I saw them, and they were the same, 7. The fish swam by the castle wall, ་ The darkness of my dim abode, 8. At last men came to set us free, I asked not why, and recked not where: I learned to love despair. And thus, when they appeared at last, 9. With spiders I had friendship made, LESSON CXLVIII. INSUFFICIENCY OF NATURAL RELIGION. COLLYER. 1. Ir natural religion is a sufficient revelation, and no other is necessary, it has been written with a sunbeam upon all lands, -it has been inscribed from the beginning of the creation upon the face of the glorious orb of day. But what is the re 66 wor sult? What has natural religion effected, in any, in every age ?-in any, in every country? "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork;" but "the world by wisdom knew not God;" they shiped and served the creature more than the Creator;" they fell down to the hosts of heaven; or "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." 2. Now call for Natural Religion, and she shall answer you from the depths of the forest and the summits of the mountains; from the sea, and from the shore; from the crowded city, and the uncultivated desert; from the hut of the savage, and the dome of the monarch;-everywhere her altars are planted, and her worship maintained. Her influence and her footsteps may be traced on the face of the whole earth, in barbarous rites, revolting superstitions, and disgusting obscenities; in all the forms of idolatry, from the feathered gods of the islands of the south-sea, to the misshapen logs of Africa, up to the three hundred and thirty-three thousand deities of philosophic India. 3. Would you see her in her own person? Bid her come forth,-she appears "in garments rolled in blood;" "the battle of the warrior with confused noise," rages around her; her children drop into the fires, kindled to her honor; human victims are slaughtered on the altars raised to her praise, or crushed beneath the ponderous car, upon which she sits enthroned. Around her, dying cries and agonizing shrieks mingle with loud acclamations and frantic songs; her look withers the country, and depopulates the city. 4. This is natural religion, and not as she came from the hands of God, the witness of his eternal power and Godhead, but as she is deformed by the passions of men, and debased by their corruptions; not as "the image of the invisible Creator," but as the idol of the fallen and depraved creature. Yet this is natural religion, stained with gore, and foul with crimes, not depicted by fancy, but demonstrated by fact,-by facts drawn from all climes and from all generations. |