poetic sunlight,-what recollections of martial daring by flood and field,—what hallowed faith and burning zeal,—what martyr toils and martyr graves,--monuments of freedom's struggles and freedom's triumphs in moor or glen,-what ancient song echoing among the hills,-what lofty inspiration of the Bible and covenant,-in a word, what dear and hallowed memories of that " Auld lang syne," indigenous only to Scotland, though known throughout the world!

5. Beautiful is New England, resembling as she does, in many of her features, "auld Scotia's hills and dales," and moreover being much akin to her, in religious sentiment and love of freedom; so that a native of either might well be forgiven for clinging with peculiar fondness to the land of his birth, and, in certain moods of mind, preferring it to all the world beside.

6. Though far away, and even loving the place of his estrangement, he can not, if he would, altogether renounce those ties which bind him to his early home. A viewless chain which crosses ocean and continent, conveys from the one to the other that subtile, yet gracious influence, which is quicker and stronger than the lightning's gleam.

7. STERN land! we love thy woods and rocks,
Thy rushing streams, and winter glooms,
And memory, like a pilgrim gray,

Kneels at thy temples and thy tombs ;
The thoughts of these, where'er we dwell,
Come o'er us like a holy spell,

A star to light our path of tears,
A rainbow on the sky of years!

8. Above thy cold and rocky breast,

The tempest sweeps, the night-wind wails,
But virtue, peace, and love, like birds,

Are nestled 'mid thy hills and vales;

A glory o'er each plain and glen,
Walks with thy free and iron men,

And lights her sacred beacon still,

With Bennington and Bunker Hill.-G. D. PRENTICE.

LESSON CLXXIX.

THE CLOSING YEAR.

GEORGE D. PRENTICE

1. 'Tis midnight's holy hour,-and silence now Is brooding like a gentle spirit o'er

2.

3.

The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds
The bell's deep tones are swelling,-'tis the knell
Of the departed year. No funeral train

Is sweeping past; yet, on the stream and wood,
With melancholy light, the moon-beams rest
Like a pale, spotless shroud; the air is stirred
As by a mourner's sigh; and on yon cloud
That floats so still and placidly through heaven,
The spirits of the seasons seem to stand,—
Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form,
And Winter with its aged locks,—and breathe,

In mournful cadences that come abroad

Like the far wind-harp's wild and touching wail,
A melancholy dirge o'er the dead year,

Gone from the Earth forever.

"Tis a time

For memory and for tears. Within the deep,
Still chambers of the heart, a specter dim,
Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time,
Heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold
And solemn finger to the beautiful
And holy visions that have passed away,
And left no shadow of their loveliness
On the dead waste of life. That specter lifts
The coffin-lid of Hope, and Joy, and Love,

And, bending mournfully above the pale,

Sweet forms, that slumber there, scatters dead flowers
O'er what has passed to nothingness.

The year

Has gone, and, with it, many a glorious throng

Of happy dreams. Its mark is on each brow,
Its shadow in each heart. In its swift course,
It waved its scepter o'er the beautiful,—
And they are not. It laid its pallid hand
Upon the strong man,-and the haughty form.
Is fallen, and the flashing eye is dim.
It trod the hall of revelry, where thronged
The bright and joyous,-and the tearful wail
Of stricken ones, is heard where erst the song
And reckless shout resounded.

It passed o'er

The battle-plain, where sword, and spear, and shield,
Flashed in the light of mid-day,—and the strength
Of serried hosts, is shivered, and the grass,
Green from the soil of carnage, waves above
The crushed and moldering skeleton. It came,
And faded like a wreath of mist at eve;
Yet, ere it melted in the viewless air,

It heralded its millions to their home

In the dim land of dreams.

Remorseless Time!

Fierce spirit of the glass and scythe !-what power

Can stay him in his silent course, or melt

His iron heart to pity? On, still on,

He presses, and forever.

The proud bird,

The condor of the Andes, that can soar

Through heaven's unfathomable depths, or brave

The fury of the northern Hurricane,

And bathe his plumage in the thunder's home,

Furls his broad wings at nightfall, and sinks down
To rest upon his mountain crag,-but Time
Knows not the weight of sleep or weariness,
And night's deep darkness has no chain to bind.
His rushing pinions.

Revolutions sweep

O'er earth, like troubled visions o'er the breast

Of dreaming sorrow,-cities rise and sink
Like bubbles on the water,-fiery isles
Spring blazing from the Ocean, and go back
To their mysterious caverns,--Mountains rear
To heaven their bald and blackened cliffs, and bow
Their tall heads to the plain,-new Empires rise,
Gathering the strength of hoary centuries,
And rush down like the Alpine avalanche,
Startling the nations,--and the very stars,
Yon bright and burning blazonry of God,
Glitter a while in their eternal depths,
And, like the Pleiad, loveliest of their train,
Shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away
To darkle in the trackless void,-Yet, Time,
Time, the tomb-builder, holds his fierce career,
Dark, stern, all-pitiless, and pauses not
Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path,
To sit and muse, like other conquerors
Upon the fearful ruin he has wrought.

LESSON CLXXX.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. RICHELIEU and MAZARINE were celebrated French statesmen.

2. CECILS were eminent English statesmen, who lived in the sixteenth century.

3. THE EARL OF CHATHAM, or WILLIAM PITT, one of the most illustrious statesmen of England, ruled his country solely by the superiority of his genius. In eloquence he was not surpassed by any of his countrymen Integrity and patriotism were united in him with indefatigable industry and sagacity. He particularly became distinguished as a friend and advocate of the American colonies, and strongly deprecated the coërcive measures of his country toward them.

4. AMBHICTYONS were deputies from the different Grecian states, who composed the general assembly, which regulated certain general affairs. It was established by AMPHICTYON.

5. ACHEANS were the inhabitants of ACHAIA, one of the Grecian states. The ACHEAN LEAGUE was formed by a few cities for the maintenance of their security and independence.

6. LYCIANS were the inhabitants of LYCIA, a province of Asia Minor.

Twenty-seven cities of Lycia formed a confederated Republic, with a CON GRESS which regulated the general public concerns, and a PRESIDENT, called Lyciarch, or Governor of Lycia.

7. WILLIAM PRESCOTT was a distinguished Revolutionary officer. He was the commander of the American soldiers at the battle of Bunker Hill. 8. WARREN was a Major-General in the Revolutionary army, of distinguished learning and ability. In the Battle of Bunker Hill, he joined the Americans as a volunteer to encourage them, and was killed.

9. FABIUS, one of the greatest Generals of ancient Rome, saved his -country, when threatened with ruin after the Romans had been defeated by the Carthaginians under Hannibal.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

JARED SPARKS.

1. In many respects the history of North America differs from that of every other country, and in this difference it possesses an interest peculiar to itself, especially for those whose lot has been cast here, and who look back with a generous pride to the deeds of ancestors, by whom a nation's existence has been created, and a nation's glory adorned. The acts of the Revolution derive dignity and interest from the character of the actors, and the nature and magnitude of the events.

2. In all great political revolutions, men have arisen, póssessed of extraordinary endowments, adequate to the exigency of the time. It is true, that such revolutions, or any remarkable and continued exertions of human power, must be brought to pass by corresponding qualities in the agents; but whether the occasion makes the men, or the men the occasion, may not always be ascertained with exactness. In either case, however, no period has been adorned with examples more illustrious, or more perfectly adapted to the high destiny awaiting them, than that of the American Revolution.

3. Statesmen were at hand, who, if not skilled in the art of governing empires, were thoroughly imbued with the principles of just government, intimately acquainted with the history of former ages, and, above all, with the condition, sentiments, feelings of their countrymen. If there were no Richelieus nor Mazarines,' no Cecils nor Chathams,3 in America, there were men, who, like Themistocles, knew how to raise a small state to glory and greatness.