the next effort was quite successful. I now dashed on, for better or worse, till in one half hour I had covered the whole page. In the afternoon a similar copy was set, and I dashed on again, as if I had taken so much writing by the job, and my only object was to save time. Now and then there was quite a reputable mark; but, alas for him whose perception of the beautiful was particularly delicate, should he get a glimpse of these sloughs" of ink! 53 element of the On the fourth, 10. The third morning, my copy was the first 10 m and n, or what in burlesque is called a hook. I had the last half of the same letters, or the trammel; and indeed they were the similitūdes of hooks and trammels, forged in a country plenteous in iron, and by the youngest apprentice at the hammer and anvil. In this way I went through all the small letters, as they are called. Then I must learn to make the capitals, before entering on joining hand. Capital letters! 133 They were capital offences against all that is graceful, indeed decent, yea EI tolerable, in that art which is so capable of beau tiful forms and proportions. 11. I came next to joining hand, about three weeks after my commencement; and joining hand indeed it was! It seemed as if my hooks and trammels were overheated in the forge, and were melted into one another; the shapeless masses so clung together at points where they ought to have been separate,90 and so very far were they from all resemblance to conjoined yet distinct and well-defined characters. 12. Thus I went on, a perfect little prodigal in the expenditure of paper, ink, pens, and time. The first winter I splashed two, and the next three writing-books with inky puddle, in learning coarse hand; and, after all, I had gained not much in penmanship, except a workmanlike assurance and celerity of execution, such as is natural to an old hand at the business. BURTON. XXIV. THE LIFE-BOAT. 1. QUICK! man the life-bōat! See yon bark, There's a rock ahead, the fog is dark, Her main'-mast is gone, but she still drives on 2. Quick! man the life-boat! Hark! the gun 3. Quick! man the life-boat! See-the crew Are battling with the wave; And one there stands, and wrings his hands, For his wife and child, through the tempest wild, The life-boat! Man the life-boat! 4. Speed, speed the life-boat! Off she goes! Has human lives within her; And dearer than gold is the wealth untold On, life-boat! Speed thee, life-boat! 5. Hurrah! the life-boat dashes on, But, cheered by hope, the seamen cope With the billows single-handed: They are all in the boat!-hurrah! they're afloat! And now they are safely landed, By the life-boat! Cheer the life-boat! 1. WHAT can surpass, in festal magnificence, a clear winter morning, when all things are firm with the cold? The early sunbeams play upon the glittering frost. The crystal icicles, like pend'ulous diamonds, adorn every branch. Hills, valleys, and plains are robed in a pure attire of snow, upon the delicate and EI THE SNOW OF WINTER. 91 icy points of which 103 the hues of the rainbow seem dancing. The once variegated 36 and wide-spreading landscape is transformed, by its white and dazzling mantle, into a scene simple and uniform, as some ex'quisite marble statue. What profound What a hush in the forest, as if the very stillness far and near! winds were frozen! 84 2. And yet it is not the universal stillness which broods over the snow-clad plains, not the icy jewels which adorn both twig and branch, not the mirror-like surface of the ice on river and lake, which are worthy of our admiring wonder; but the creative power of the Father of the universe, and the plenitude of His divine goodness. Thus did David contem'plate the wonders of nature. Ever did his adoring soul ascend from the incomprehensible grandeur of creation to the Omnipotent Creator. "Great is the Lord," he sang, "and great is His power; yea, and His wisdom is infinite." "He giveth snow like wool, and scattereth the hoar frost like ashes." "He casteth His ice ΕΙ like morsels: who is able to abide His frost?" 3. Yes, great is He, and incomprehensible, as He governs! 92 But how few are they who are sensible of the greatness and mysterious wonder displayed in the benevolent appearances of nature! And yet, each single snow-flake, as it floats down from its cloud, is a subject for wonder, and proclaims He is great, and incomprehensible, as He governs! How do these mighty masses of delicately frozen water originate in the chambers of the heavens ? 30 Who holds these weighty volumes of snow, under which the branches of the trees are broken, and many huts are hidden from sight; volumes which in the aggregate weigh many thousand tons, yet which float with feathery lightness, long invisible, in the expanse of the heavens, in order that they may not sink to earth till the proper time, and then so softly as to be rendered harmless, and which give a nourishing warmth to the seeds of the fields, the food of the ensuing year for man and beast? 91 4. If we examine with minuteness the falling snow, we shall observe, particularly if the air be calm, that each flake consists of a number of exceedingly delicate particles of ice, which are united together with wonderful regularity. Thus they usually form little, six-cornered, and finely-united stars, the half-transparent crystals of which are exquisitely pointed. Now they resemble fur with its regularly shooting points; now they assume the form of feathers; and now they may be likened unto fi'brous flowers, as if of braid and moss. So extremely delicate are these heavenly images, that the gentlest breeze severs them, and gives them another form. 5. With whatever penetration man may contem'plate, and with whatever ingenuity he may endeavor to account for the origin, in the heights of the atmosphere, of these myriads of starry crystals, of inimitable beauty and wondrous shape, there must ever remain to the inquirer an unanswerable how? ZSCHOKKE. 1. It was New Year's night. An agëd man was standing at a window.94 He mournfully raised his eyes towards the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface of a clear, calm lake. Then he cast them on the earth, where 103 few more helpless beings than himself were moving towards their inevitable goal -the tomb.45 Already he had passed sixty of the stages which lead to it, and he had brought from his journey nothing but errors and remorse. His health was destroyed, his mind unfurnished, his heart sorrowful, and his old age devoid of comfort. 59 2. The days of his youth rose up in a vision before him; and he recalled the solemn moment when his father had placed him at the entrance of two roads, one leading into a peaceful, sunny land, covered with a fertile harvest, and resounding with soft, sweet songs; while the other conducted the wanderer into a deep, dark cave, whence there was no issue, where poison flowed instead of water, and where serpents hissed and crawled. 3. He looked towards the sky, and cried out, in his anguish, “O, youth, return! O, my father, place me once more at the crossway of life, that I may choose the better road!" But the days of his youth had passed away, and his parents were with the departed. He saw wandering lights float over dark marshes and then disappear. "Such," he said, "were the days of my wasted life!" He saw a star EI shoot from Heaven, and vanish in darkness athwart the church-yard. "Behold an emblem of myself!" he exclaimed; and the sharp arrows of unavailing remorse struck him to the heart. ΕΙ 66 4. Then he remembered his early companions, who had entered life with him, but who, having trod the paths of virtue and industry, were now happy and honored on this New Year's night. The clock in the high church-tower struck, and the sound, falling on his ear, recalled the many tokens of the love of his parents for him, their erring son; the lessons they had taught him; the prayers they had offered up in his behalf. Overwhelmed with shame and grief, he dared no longer look towards THE BLIND STREET-FIDDLER. 93 that Heaven where they dwelt. His darkened eyes dropped tears, and, with one despairing effort, he cried aloud, “Come back, my early days! Come back!" 5. And his youth did return; for all this had been but a dream, visiting his slumbers on New Year's night. He was still young; his errors only were no dream. He thanked God fervently that time was still his own; that he had not yet entered the deep, dark cavern, but that he was free to tread the road leading to the peaceful land where sunny harvests wave. 6. Ye who still linger on the threshold of life, doubting which path to choose, remember that when years shall be passed, and your feet shall stumble on the dark mountain,93 you will cry bitterly, but cry in vain, “O, youth, return! O, give me back my early days!" RICHTER.EI XXVII. -THE PRESENT 91 TIME. 1. OF Memory many a poet sings; And Hope hath oft inspired the rhyme; 2. Let the past guide, the future cheer, While youth and health are in their prime; That awful point- the present time! 3. Fulfil the duties of the day. The next may hear thy funeral-chime; XXVIII.-THE BLIND STREET-FIDDLER. 1. AN Orpheus! EI an Orpheus! - he works on the crowd; 2. What an eager assembly! what an empire is this! 3. That ĕrrand-bound 'prentice 141 was passing in haste |