The World, Or, First Lessons in Astronomy and Geology: In Connection with the Present and Past Condition of Our Globe

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M. C. Younglove and Company, 1848 - Astronomy - 324 pages
 

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Page 39 - He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend Was moving toward the shore : his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast ; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views, At evening, from the top of Fesole, Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
Page 142 - And missing thee, I walk unseen On the dry smooth-shaven green. To behold the wandering moon, Riding near her highest noon. Like one that had been led astray Through the heaven's wide pathless way, And oft, as if her head she bowed, Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Page 115 - Hush'd in deep silence, sleep ye when 'tis calm ? When from the pallid sky the sun descends, With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb Uncertain wanders, stain'd ; red fiery streaks Begin to flush around.
Page 157 - AT summer eve, when Heaven's ethereal bow Spans with bright arch the glittering hills below. Why to yon mountain turns the musing eye, "Whose sunbright summit mingles with the sky ? Why do those cliffs of shadowy tint appear More sweet than all the landscape smiling near ?— 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain in its azure hue.
Page 97 - As one who, long in populous city pent, Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air, Forth issuing on a summer's morn to breathe Among the pleasant villages and farms Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight ; The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine, Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound...
Page 255 - OF chance or change, 0 let not man complain, Else shall he never, never cease to wail ; For, from the imperial dome, to where the swain Rears the lone cottage in the silent dale, All feel the assault of Fortune's fickle gale...
Page 113 - Tis pleasant, by the cheerful hearth, to hear Of tempests and the dangers of the deep, And pause at times, and feel that we are safe ; Then listen to the perilous tale again, And with an eager and suspended soul, Woo terror to delight us.
Page 292 - For the winds and the waves are absent there, And the sands are bright as the stars that glow In the motionless fields of upper air ; There, with its waving blade of green, The sea-flag streams through the silent water, And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter.
Page 292 - There with a light and easy motion, The fan-coral sweeps through the clear deep sea; And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean Are bending like corn on the upland lea: And life, in rare and beautiful forms, Is sporting amid those bowers of stone, And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of storms Has made the top of the wave his own...
Page 135 - And wait the approaching sign to strike, at once, Into the general choir. Even Mountains, Vales, And Forests seem, impatient, to demand The promised sweetness. Man superior walks Amid the glad Creation, musing praise, And looking lively gratitude. At last, The Clouds consign their treasures to the fields, And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow, In large effusion, o'er the freshened world. The stealing Shower is scarce to patter heard, By such as wander...

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