stars, that were now out in thousands, clear, bright, and sparkling over the unclouded sky. Those who had lain down for an hour or two in bed, could scarcely be said to have slept; and when, about morning, little Margaret awoke, an altered creature, pale, languid, and unable to turn herself on her lowly bed, but with meaning in her eyes, memory in her mind, affection in her heart, and coolness in all her veins, a happy group were watching the first faint smile that broke over her features; and never did one who stood there forget that Sabbath morning, on which she seemed to look round upon them all with a gaze of fair and sweet bewilderment, like one half conscious of having been rescued from the power of the grave. LESSON LXXIV. The Grave Stones,-A Fragment.-JAMES GRAY. THE grass is green and the spring floweret blooms, Over a kindred grave. Ay-and the song The merry singer is the living link Of many a thousand years of death gone by, The remnant of a moment, spared by him This globe is but our fathers' cemetery The sun, and moon, and stars that shine on high, Thus spurned, degraded, trampled, and oppress'd, The su erous in speech, in action prompt and bold, I wandered on, scay in the heaven serene, Till I was seated on Alas! I knew the sweetness in the scene, little at the glorious day, She was one of a lovely That oft had clung around mes the billows rise, Of flowers, the fairest of them the skies; It was a new-made grave, and the gre king slaves Had reared the stone, her monument of fame. Bereft of all for whom he wished to live. *Kythe or kithe; Show, used here as a neuter verb: The oldest English poets use it actively. "Ne kithe hire jalousie."-Chaucer. stars, that were now out in thousands, clear, bright, and sparkling over the unclouded sky. Those who had lain down for an hour or two in bed, could scarcely be said to have slept; and when, about morning, little Margaret awoke, an altered creature, pale, languid, and unable to turn herself on her lowly bed, but with meaning in her eyes, memory in her mind, affection in her heart, and coolness in all her veins, a happy group were watching the first fair smile that broke over her features; and never did one stood there forget that Sabbath morning, on which seemed to look round upon them all with a gaze of ƒ sweet bewilderment, like one half conscious of hav rescued from the power of the grave. vest; ast. t sorest LESSON LXXIVfeels! om was my trust, The Grave Stones,-A Fragffection did burn? homes in the dust, THE grass is green any over their urn: And the tree blo Affection can sooth but its votaries an hour, Doomed soon in the flames that it raised to depart; Let the storms of adversity lower; 'tis in vain— Tho' friends should forsake me, and foes should combine-- For far o'er the regions of doubt and of dreaming, And bright through the tempest the rainbow is streaming, Thus spurned, degraded, trampled, and oppress'd, The negro-exile languished in the west, With nothing left of life but hated breath, And not a hope except the hope in death, To fly for ever from the Creole-strand, And dwell a freeman in his father's land. Lives there a savage ruder than the slave? -Cruel as death, insatiate as the grave, False as the winds that round his vessel blow, Remorseless as the gulf that yawns below, is he who toils upon the wafting flood, It Christian broker in the trade of blood: Ofisterous in speech, in action prompt and bold, Tha uys, he sells, he steals, he kills, for gold. He fiion, when sky and ocean, calm and clear, Not colund his bark, one blue unbroken sphere; To enforcing dolphins sparkle through the brine, Dooms and m circles o'er the waters shine; Lands interseauty in the heaven serene, Abhor each othing sweetness in the scene, Make enemies of g at the glorious day, Like kindred drops Thus man devotes his loiter on their way. And, worse than all, and most the skies; As human nature's broadest, foulest blot, king slaves Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat I had much rather be myself the slave, stars, that were now out in thousands, clear, bright, and sparkling over the unclouded sky. Those who had lain down for an hour or two in bed, could scarcely be said to have slept; and when, about morning, little Margaret awoke, an altered creature, pale, languid, and unable to turn herself on her lowly bed, but with meaning in her eyes, memory in her mind, affection in her heart, and coolness in all her veins, a happy group were watching the first fain' smile that broke over her features; and never did one w stood there forget that Sabbath morning, on which seemed to look round upon them all with a gaze of f sweet bewilderment, like one half conscious of havi rescued from the of the grave. power avels, op The Grave Stones,-A Fragffecund him lay at rest, hoheir father's breast; ound their bed; THE grass is grefer cottage blazed; the victims fled; The negro, spoiled of all that nature gave— That ruled his sinews, and repress'd his soul. |