THE RAZOR-SELLER.

The following is a fine reading exercise, and pains should be taken to give it the same de gree of naturalness that we should expect if the original scene had been acted before our eyes.

1.

A fellow in a market town,

Most musical, cried razors up and down,
And offered twelve for eighteen pence,
Which certainly seemed wondrous cheap,
And for the money quite a heap,

As every man would buy, with cash and sense.

2. A country bumpkin the great offer heard—
Poor Hodge, who suffered by a broad black beard,

That seemed a shoe-brush stuck beneath his nose-

With cheerfulness the eighteen pence he paid,

And proudly to himself, in whispers, said,
"This rascal stole the razors, I suppose'.

3. "No matter if the fellow be a knave,
Provided that the razors shave';

It certainly will be a monstrous prize."
So home the clown, with his good fortune, went,
Smiling in heart and soul, content,

And quickly soap'd himself to ears and eyes.
4. Being well lathered from a dish or tub,
Hodge now began with grinning pain to grub,
Just like a hedger cutting furze :

"Twas a vile razor!-then the rest he tried-
All were impostors-"Ah!" Hodge sigh'd,

"I wish my eighteen pence within my purse."
5. Hodge sought the fellow-found him—and begun :
"P'rhaps, Master Razor-rogue', to you 'tis fun',

That people flay themselves out of their lives':
You rascal! for an hour have I been grubbing,
Giving my crying whiskers here a scrubbing,
With razors just like oyster' knives.
Sirrah'! I tell you, you're a knave',
To cry up razors that can't shave'."

6. "Friend," quoth the razor-man, "I'm not a knave:
As for the razors you have bought',

Upon my soul' I never thought'

That they would shave'."

"Not think they'd shave' !" quoth Hodge, with wondering eyes,
And voice not much unlike an Indian yell;

"What were they made for, then, you dog?" he cries:

“Made'!” quoth the fellow, with a smile—“TO SELL."

JOHN WOLCOTT (PETER PINDAR).

PART X.

FIRST DIVISION OF GEOLOGY.

[This subject is continued in the Sixth Reader.]

Behold! a new kind of medals, much more important and incomparably more ancient than those of the Greeks and the Romans.-KNORR'S Monuments.

1. It is from the "Medals of Creation"-the fossil remains of plants and animals scattered throughout the rocky strata of the globe-that we are enabled to read that wonderful portion of our earth's history which reaches back even into chaos itself, myriads of ages before the creation of man. These are the electrotypes of nature-faithful records, which there is no conflicting testimony to invalidate, and which no criticism can gainsay.

2. It is believed by most geologists that the earth was at one time a molten mass, surrounded by an atmosphere filled with dense gases and vapors; and that, as the outer portions cooled, forming the rocks and the dry land, the vapors, condensing and falling in showers, formed springs, rivers, and the waters of the ocean. This is the geological theory of the gradual calling of order out of chaos, after the great work of creation had been completed.

3. It is maintained that this view of the early condition of our globe, and of the successive changes that subsequently occurred in it during thousands and perhaps millions of years prior to the creation of man, does not at all conflict with the scriptural account of the creation. The scriptural account,

U

as paraphrased by a modern commentator, would read thus: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was desolate. Afterward, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters;" thus allowing the possibility of even millions of years between the first act of creative power and the six days' work of arranging the universe. 4. Different opinions long prevailed among the learned with regard to the nature, the extent of time, and the date of the six days' work of creation, for the Bible gives us no explanation on these points; but by most of the learned of the present day, and by all eminent geologists, the "six days" are understood to be indefinite periods of time, as it is said that, with the Almighty, "a thousand years are to be reckoned but as one day." It seems reasonable to suppose that they may have been prophetic periods looking into the past, and seen in vision by the inspired historian. "The Creation" has been chosen as a theme for august description by the poet Milton, and it likewise forms the subject of Haydn's grandest oratorio.

LESSON II.-RAPHAEL'S ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION.

Her ever-during gates-harmonious sound-
On golden hinges moving, to let forth

The King of Glory, in his powerful Word

And Spirit coming to create new worlds.

On heavenly ground they stood; and, from the shore,
They viewed the vast, immeasurable abyss,
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains to assault
Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole.

2. "Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace!"
Said then the omnific Word; "your discord end!"
Nor stayed, but, on the wings of cherubim

Uplifted, in paternal glory rode

Far into chaos, and the world unborn;

For chaos heard his voice: him all his train

Followed in bright procession, to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.

3. Then stayed the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centred, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure,

MILTON.

And said, "Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just circumference, oh world!"
4. Thus God the heaven created, thus the earth,
Matter unformed and void; darkness profound
Covered the abyss; but on the watery calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass:

then founded, then conglobed
Like things to like, the rest to several place
Disparted, and between spun out the air;
And earth, self-balanced, on her centre hung.
5. "Let there be light," said God; and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep, and, from her native east,
To journey through the airy gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud; for yet the sun
Was not: she in a cloudy tabernacle

6.

Sojourned the while. God saw the light was good,
And light from darkness, by the hemisphere,
Divided: light the day, and darkness night,
He named.

Thus was the first day, even and morn:
Nor passed uncelebrated, nor unsung

By the celestial choirs, when orient light

Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;

Birthday of heaven and earth: with joy and shout

The hollow universal orb they filled,

And touched their golden harps, and, hymning, praised
God and his works: Creator him they sung,
Both when first evening was, and when first morn.

LESSON III.-CHARACTER OF THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF

THE EARTH.

1. GEOLOGY is the science which treats of the materials that compose the earth, and of the organic remains which they contain. According to Sir Charles Lyell, "Geology is the science which investigates the successive changes that have taken place in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature; it inquires into the causes of these changes, and the influences which they have exerted in modifying the surfaceand external structure of our planet."

2. The earth has not always existed in its present condition, and geology gives us a view of its history during a period of unknown length-not only thousands, but perhaps millions of years-long before the creation of man. It appears that, during this time, the earth underwent many

changes; that beds or strata of rock were formed during successive ages at the bottom of the seas by the gradual wearing away of rocks on land, through atmospheric agencies and the action of water, and their deposition on the bed of the ocean in the form of mud, and sand, and gravel; that these strata were sometimes thrown up by subterranean forces; and that hills and valleys were thus formed, and the sea and land often made to change places. But what is more wonderful than all this, and that which gives the study of geology peculiar interest, we have abundant proof that while these operations were going on, there arose a succession of plants and animals, beginning with those of simplest form, often widely different from any now in existence, and advancing to those of higher character, until those nearest the present races appeared.

3. All this wonderful history has been learned in the following manner. From the present appearances of mountain chains, and chasms, and from artificial excavations, geologists have been enabled, after an almost incredible amount of labor and research, directed by the light of science, to rearrange, measure, and examine the different formations called stratified rocks, which are supposed to reach, when unbroken, to the depth of about ten miles below the surface; below which, and of an unknown depth, are the unstratified masses, which show from their position, and the crystalline arrangement of their parts, the action of heat, and an origin earlier in point of time. All but the lower or first formed class of the stratified rocks are found to contain the remains of plants and animals, generally in a fossil state, nearly all of which (except those in the very uppermost strata), to the number of more than thirty thousand species, were different from any that now exist.

4. It is surprising how much may be learned of the structure and habits of animals from a few fossil remains. It is stated that, so mathematically exact are the proportions between the different parts of an animal, "from the character of a single limb, and even of a single tooth or bone, the forms and proportions of the other bones, and the condition of the entire animal, may be inferred. Hence, not only the frame-work of the fossil skeleton of an extinct animal, but also the character of the muscles by which each bone was moved, the external form and figure of the body, the food, and habits, and haunts, and mode of life of creatures that ceased to exist before the creation of the human race, can, with a high degree of probability, be ascertained."