sun, at the same distance, were larger, it would light the whole world, but it would consume it with its heat. If it were smaller, the earth would be all ice, and could not be inhabited by men.
What compass has been stretched from heaven to earth and taken such just measurements? The changes of the sun make the variety of the seasons, which we find so delightful.
The Hand that guides this glorious work must be as 10 skilful as it is powerful, to have made it so simple, yet so effectual; so constant and so beneficent.
LESSON CLXXV.-CRESCENTIUS.-Miss Landon.
I looked upon his brow,-no sign
Of guilt or fear was there;
He stood as proud by that death-shrine,
As even o'er despair
He had a power; in his eye
There was a quenchless energy,
A spirit that could dare
The deadliest form that death could take,
And dare it for the daring's sake.
He stood, the fetters on his hand,—
He raised them haughtily;
And had that grasp been on the brand,
It could not wave on high
With freer pride than it waved now.
Around he looked with changeless brow
On many a torture nigh,-
The rack, the chain, the axe, the wheel,
And, worst of all, his own red steel.
I saw him once before; he rode
Upon a coal-black steed,
And tens of thousands thronged the road,
And bade their warrior speed.
His helm, his breastplate, were of gold,
And graved with many a dint, that told
Of many a soldier's deed;
The sun shone on his sparkling mail,
And danced his snow-plume on the gale.
But now he stood, chained and alone,
The headsman by his side;
The plume, the helm, the charger gone;
The sword, that had defied
The mightiest, lay broken near,
And yet no sign or sound of fear
Came from that lip of pride;
And never king or conqueror's brow
Wore higher look than his did now.
He bent beneath the headsman's stroke,
With an uncovered eye:
A wild shout from the numbers broke
Who thronged to see him die.
It was a people's loud acclaim,
The voice of anger and of shaine,
A nation's funeral cry,—
Rome's wail above her only son,
Her patrio-and her latest one.
LESSON CLXXVI. —ADDRESS TO THE OCEAN.-Barry Cornwall. O thou vast Ocean! ever-sounding sea!
Thou symbol of a drear immensity!
Thou thing that windest round the solid world
Like a huge animal. hich, downward hurled
5 From the black clouds, lies weltering and alone,
Lashing and writhing till its strength be gone.
Thy voice is like the thunder; and thy sleep
Is like a giant's slumber, loud and deep.
Thou speakest in the east and in the west
10 At once; and on thy heavily laden breast
Fleets come and go, and shapes that have no life
Or motion, yet are moved and meet in strife.
The earth hath naught of this; nor chance nor change
Ruffles its surface; and no spirits dare
15 Give answer to the tempest-waken air;
But o'er its wastes, the weakly tenants range
At will, and wound his bosom as they go.
Ever the same, it hath no ebb, no flow;
But in their stated round the seasons come
20 And pass like visions to their viewless home,
And come again and vanish: the young Spring
Looks ever bright with leaves and blossoming,
And winter always winds his sullen horn,
And the wild Autumn with a look forlorn
Dies in his stormy manhood; and the skies
Weep, and flowers sicken when the summer flies.
5 Thou only, terrible Ocean, hast a power,
A will, a voice; and in thy wrathful hour,
When thou dost lift thine anger to the clouds,
A fearful and magnificent beauty shrouds
Thy broad green forehead. If thy waves be driven 10 Backwards and forwards by the shifting wind,
How quickly dost thou thy great strength unbind,
And stretch thine arms, and war at once with heaven!
Thou trackless and immeasurable main !
On thee no record ever lived again
15 To meet the hand that writ it; line nor lead
Hath ever fathomed thy profoundest deeps,
Where happily the huge monster swells and sleeps,
King of his watery limit, who, 't is said,
Can move the mighty ocean into storm.-
20 Oh! wonderful thou art, great element :
And fearful in thy spleeny humors bent,
And lovely in repose: thy summer form
Is beautiful; and when thy silver waves
Make music in earth's dark and winding caves,
25 I love to wander on thy pebbled beach,
Marking the sunlight at the evening hour,
And hearken to the thoughts thy waters teach,—
"Eternity, Eternity, and power."
LESSON CLXXVII.—THE URSA MAJOR.-HENRY WARE, JUN.
With what a stately and majestic step
That glorious Constellation of the North
Treads its eternal circle! going forth
Its princely way amongst the stars in slow
And silent brightness. Mighty one, all hail!
I joy to see thee on thy glowing path
Walk, like some stout and girded giant,―stern,
Unwearied, resolute, whose toiling foot
Disdains to loiter on its destined way.
The other tribes forsake their midnight track,
And rest their weary orbs beneath the wave.
But thou dost never close thy burning eye,
Nor stay thy steadfast step. But on, still on,
While systems change, and suns retire, and worlds
Slumber and wake, thy ceaseless march proceeds.
5 The near horizon tempts to rest in vain.
Thou, faithful Sentinel, dost never quit
Thy long appointed watch; but, sleepless still,
Dost guard the fixed light of the universe,
And bid the North forever know its place.
Ages have witnessed thy devoted trust,
Unchanged, unchanging. When the sons of God
Sent forth that shout of joy, which rang through heaven,
And echoed from the outer spheres that bound
The illimitable universe,-thy voice
15 Joined the high chorus; from thy radiant orbs
The glad cry sounded, swelling to His praise
Who thus had cast another sparkling gem,
Little, but beautiful, amid the crowd
Of splendors that enrich his firmament.
20 As thou art now, so wast thou then, the same.
Ages have rolled their course, and Time grown gray;
The earth has gathered to her womb again,
And yet again, the myriads that were born
Of her, uncounted, unremembered tribes.
25 The seas have changed their beds,—the eternal hills
Have stooped with age,-the solid continents
Have left their banks, and man's imperial works,
The toil, pride, strength of kingdoms, which had flung
Their haughty honors in the face of Heaven,
30 As if immortal,-have been swept away,-
Shattered and mouldering, buried and forgot.
But time has shed no dimness on thy front,
Nor touched the firmness of thy tread; youth, strength,
And beauty, still are thine,-as clear, as bright,
35 As when the Almighty Former sent thee forth,
Beautiful offspring of his curious skill,
To watch earth's northern beacon, and proclaim
The eternal chorus of Eternal Love.
I wonder as I gaze. That stream of light,
40 Undimmed, unquenched,-just as I see it now,—
Has issued from those dazzling points, through years
That go back far into eternity.
Exhaustless flood! forever spent, renewed
Forever! Yea, and those refulgent drops,
Which now descend upon my lifted eye,
5 Left their far fountain twice three years ago.
While those winged particles,-whose speed outstrips
The flight of thought, were on their way, the earth
Compassed its tedious circuit round and round,
And in the extremes of annual change, beheld
10 Six autumns fade, six springs renew their bloom.
So far from earth those mighty orbs revolve;
So vast the void through which their beams descend!
Yea, glorious lamps of God! He may have quenched
Your ancient flames, and bid eternal night
15 Rest on your spheres; and yet no tidings reach
This distant planet. Messengers still come
Laden with your far fire, and we may seem
To see your lights still burning; while their blaze
But hides the black wreck of extinguished realms,
20 Where anarchy and darkness long have reigned.
Yet what is this, which, to the astonished mind,
Seems measureless, and which the baffled thought
Confounds?
A span, a point, in those domains,
Which the keen eye can traverse. Seven stars
25 Dwell in that brilliant cluster, and the sight
Embraces all at once; yet each from each
Recedes as far as each of them from earth.
And every star from every other burns
No less remote.
From the profound of heaven, Untravelled even in thought, keen piercing rays Dart through the void, revealing to the sense Systems and worlds unnumbered. Take the glass, And search the skies. The opening skies pour down 35 Upon your gaze, thick showers of sparkling fire,Stars, crowded, thronged, in regions so remote That their swift beams,-the swiftest things that be,Have travelled centuries on their flight to earth. Earth, Sun, and nearer Constellations! what
40 Are ye, amid this infinite extent
And multitude of God's most infinite works?
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