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that which is to come," for men can not put themselves beyond the reach of hope and heaven, so long as they treasure up this one command, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." DR. SPRING.

LESSON CLXV.

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

1. WHEN +marshaled on the nightly plain,
The glittering host +bestud the sky;
One star alone, of all the train,

Can fix the sinner's wandering eye.
Hark! hark! to God the chorus breaks,
From every host, from every gem;
But one alone, the Savior speaks,
It is the star of Bethlehem.

2. Once, on the raging seas I rode ;

The storm was loud, the night was dark,
The ocean yawned, and rudely blow'd

The wind that tossed my +foundering bark.
Deep horror then my vitals froze,

Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem;
When suddenly a star arose,

It was the star of Bethlehem.

3. It was my guide, my light, my all,

It bade my dark forebodings cease,
And through the storm and danger's thrall,
It led me to the port of peace.

Now, safely moor'd, my perils o'er,
I'll sing, first in night's diadem,
Forever and forever more,

The star, the star of Bethlehem.

H. K. WHITE.

LESSON CLXVI.

WHAT IS TIME?

1. I ASKED an aged man, a man of cares,
Wrinkled, and curved, and white with hoary hairs;
"Time is the warp of life," he said, "oh tell
The young, the fair, the gay, to weave it well."

2. I asked the ancient, venerable dead,
Sages who wrote, and warriors who bled;
From the cold grave, a hollow murmur flowed,
"Time sowed the seed we reap in this abode !"

3. I asked the dying sinner, ere the tide

Of life had left his veins; "Time!" he replied:
"I've lost it! Ah, the treasure!" and he died.

4. I asked a spirit lost; but oh, the shriek
That pierced my soul! I shudder while I speak!
It cried, "A particle! a speck! a mite
Of endless years, duration +infinite!"

5. I asked my Bible; and, methinks, it said,
"Time is the present hour; the past is filed;
Live! live today! tomorrow never yet
On any human being rose or set."

6. I asked old Father Time himself, at last;
But in a moment, he flew swiftly past,

His chariot was a cloud, the +viewless wind
His noiseless steeds, which left no trace behind.

7. I asked the mighty Angel who shall stand

One foot on sea, and one on solid land;

66

'I now declare, the mystery is o'er;

Time was," he cried, "but Time shall be no more!"

MARSDEN.

LESSON CLXVII.

FOLLY OF INTOXICATION.

CASSIO and IAGO.

WHAT! are you hurt, lieutenant?

Cassio. Past all surgery.

Iago.

Iago.

Cas.

Marry, Heaven forbid !

Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation! Iago, my reputation!

Iago. As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound: there is more sense in that than in reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without deserving. What, man! there are ways to recover the general again. Sue to him, and he's yours.

Cas. I will rather sue to be despised. Drunk! and squabble! swagger! swear! and discourse fustian with one's own shadow! Oh, thou tinvincible spirit of wine! if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil.

Iago. What was he that you followed with your sword? What had he done to you?

Cass. I know not.

Iago. Is 't possible?

Cas. I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. Oh, that men should put an enemy into their mouths to steal away their brains: that we should, with joy, gayety, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!

Iago. Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus recovered?

Cas. It has pleased the devil, Drunkenness, to give place to the devil, Wrath; one imperfection shows me another, to make me frankly despise myself.

Tago. Come, you are too severe a moralizer. As the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen; but since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.

Cas. If I ask him for my place again, he will tell me I am a drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! Every + inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingre

dient is a devil.

Iago. Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no more against it. And, good lieutenant, I think, you think I love you.

Cas. I have well approved it, sir. I, drunk!

Iago. You, or any man living, may be drunk at some time, man. I tell you what you shall do. Our general's wife is now the general. Confess yourself freely to her; +importune her help to put you in your place again. She is of so free, so apt, so kind, so blessed a disposition, she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested. This broken joint between you and her husband, entreat her to splinter; and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before.

Cas. You advise me well.

Iago. I protest in all the sincerity of love and honest kindness. Cas. I think it freely, and betimes in the morning, I will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me. Iago. You are in the right.

the watch.

Cas. Good night, honest Iago.

Good night, lieutenant, I must go to

SHAKSPEARE.

LESSON CLXVIII.

DEATH AND THE DRUNKARD.

1. His form was fair, his cheek was health;
His word a bond, his purse was wealth;
With wheat his field was covered o'er,
Plenty sat smiling at his door.

His wife, the fount of ceaseless joy;
Now laughed his daughter, played his boy;
His library, though large, was read
Till half its contents decked his head.

At morn, 't was health, wealth, pure delight,
"T was health, wealth, peace, and bliss at night.
I wished not to disturb his bliss;

'T is gone! but all the fault is his.

2. The social glass I saw him seize,
The more with +festive wit to please,
Daily increase his love of cheer;
Ah, little thought he I was near!
Gradual indulgence on him stole,
Frequent became the midnight bowl.
I, in that bowl, the headache placed,
Which, with the juice, his lips embraced.
Shame next I mingled with the draught:
Indignantly he drank, and laughed.

3. In the bowl's bottom, bankruptcy
I placed; he drank with tears and glee.
Remorse did I into it pour;

He only sought the bowl the more.
I mingled, next, joint torturing pain;
Little the more did he refrain.
The dropsy in the cup I mixed;
Still to his mouth the cup was fixed.
My emissaries thus in vain

I sent, the mad wretch to restrain.

4. On the bowl's bottom, then, myself
I threw; the most abhorrent +elf
Of all that mortals hate or dread;
And thus in horrid whispers said,
"Successless ministers I've sent,
Thy hastening ruin to prevent;
Their lessons naught; then here am I;
Think not my threatenings to defy.
Swallow this, this thy last will be,
For with it, thou must swallow me."

5. Haggard his eyes, upright his hair,
Remorse his lips, his cheeks despair;
With shaking hands the bowl he clasp'd,
My meatless limbs his carcass grasp'd
And bore it to the church-yard, where
Thousands, ere I would call, repair.

6. Death speaks; ah, reader, dost thou hear?
Hast thou no lurking cause to fear?
Has not o'er thee the sparkling bowl,
Constant, commanding, sly control?
Betimes reflect, betimes beware,
Though ruddy, healthful now, and fair;
Before slow reason lose the sway,
Reform; postpone another day,
You soon may mix with common clay.

ANONYMOUS.

LESSON CLXIX.

CHOICE OF HERCULES.

1. WHEN Hercules was in that part of his youth, in which it was natural for him to consider what course of life he ought to pursue, he one day retired into a desert, where the silence and the solitude of the place very much favored his meditations. As he was musing on his present condition, and very much perplexed in himself on the state of life which he should choose, he saw two women of larger stature than ordinary, approaching him.

2. One of them had a very noble air and graceful + deportment; her beauty was natural and easy, her person clean and unspotted, her eyes cast toward the ground with an agreeable reserve, her motion and behavior full of modesty, and her raiment as white as snow. The other had a great deal of health and floridness in her countenance, which she had helped with an artificial white and red; and she endeavored to appear more graceful than ordinary in her mien, by a mixture of affectation in all her gestures. She had a wonderful confidence and assurance in her looks, and all the variety of colors in her dress, that she thought were the most proper to show her complexion to advantage. She cast her eyes upon herself, then turned them on those that were present, to see how they liked her, and often looked on the figure she made in her own shadow. Upon her approach to Hercules, she stepped before the other lady, who came forward with a regular, composed carriage, and, running up to him, accosted him after the following manner:

+

3. "My dear Hercules, I find you are very much divided in your thoughts upon the way of life, that you ought to choose: be my friend, and follow me; I will lead you into the possession of pleasure, and out of the reach of pain, and remove you from all the noise and disquietude of business. The affairs of either war or peace shall have no power to disturb you. Your whole employment shall be to make your life easy, and to entertain every sense with its proper gratifications. +Sumptuous tables, beds of roses, clouds of perfumes, concerts of music, crowds of beauties, are all in readiness to receive you. Come along with me into this region of delights, this world of pleasure, and bid farewell forever to care, to pain, to business." Hercules, hearing the lady talk after this manner, desired to know her name; to which she answered, "My friends and those who are well acquainted with me, call me Happiness but my enemies and those who would injure my reputation, have given me the name of Pleasure."

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