calm dignity of Jesus, are fine; but the face of John," as he stands just behind Thomas, and looks upon his rash act, is one to remember always. It seems to me the very personification of forbearance. He submits calmly that Thomas should do it, should satisfy himself, but yet he is exceedingly sorrowful. 10. There is no surprise in his countenance; he knows human frailty; he is not astonished at unbelief or hardness of heart; but it seems, at the same time, as if his own heart were broken at the spectacle. There is not the slightest rebuke in his beautiful countenance; but such a union of indulgence and sorrow, as one might well pray for, at that altar, to be awakened in his mind when he stands by the evil and erring. 11. A walk in St. Peter's is something by itself; a thing not to be had, nor anything like it, anywhere else in the world. The immensity of the place; its immense, unequaled magnificence; the charming temperature of the air, preserved the same the year round, by the vastness of the mass of masonry; the incense-breathing walls; for there is literally an odor of sanctity always here, from the daily burning of incense; the rich, beautiful, variegated marble columns; the altars, the Combs on every side, the statues, the paintings, the fine medallions, in marble, of the heads of saints and fathers of the church, which are set into the sides of the columns in great numbers; then the arches on arches that present themselves to the view in every direction; and, if the walk be toward evening, the music of the vesper hymn, now swelling in full chorus upon the ear, and then dying away, as the music changes, or the walk leads you near the chapel whence it proceeds, or farther from it; all this, with the gathering shadows of approaching evening, the shadows slowly gathering in arch and dome, makes a walk in St. Peter's like nothing else! 12. Among the most beautiful things in Rome are its fountains, and among the most striking things are its obelisks. a John; another of the apostles. b Medallion; the representation of a medal in painting or sculpture. c Ves'per hymn; a hymn sung at the evening service of Catholic churches. The fountains in front of St. Peter's especially, are really glorious. They rise thirty or forty feet into the air, and come down in a shower. The quantity of water thrown up is so great, and the streams as they spring out from the basin are made so to diverge, that they present the appearance of two trees, one on each side of the piazza. 13. The fountains are partly resolved into drops and mist, and a rainbow may always be seen in the direction opposite the sun. Every time one sees them, they seem a new mystery and beauty; and when the sky is so fair, so glorious a thing, that you feel almost (as you do some days) as if you could kneel down and worship it, they appear like a cloud of incense, pure, bright, resplendent, offered up to that supernal splendor and purity. 14. As to these Egyptian obelisks, of polished granite, pointing up to the sky from almost every square and open space in Rome, and with that handwriting of mysterious and yet unexplained characters upon their sides, what could be more striking? The antiquities of Rome are young by their side. Some of them were built by Sesostris," between three and four thousand years ago. They saw ages of empire and glory before Rome had a being. 15. They are also in the most perfect preservation. So beautifully polished, and entirely free from stain, untouched by the storms of thirty-five centuries, it seems as if they had not lost one of their particles, since they came from the quarries of Egypt. That very surface, we know, has been gazed upon by the eyes of a hundred successive generations. 16. Speak, dread monitors! as ye point upward to heaven; speak, dark hieroglyphic symbols! and tell us, are ye not yet conscious, when conscious life has been flowing around you for three thousand years? Methinks it were enough to penetrate the bosom of granite with emotion, to have witnessed what ye have witnessed. Methinks that the stern and inex a Egyptian obelisks; four-sided pyramids, brought from Egypt by Roman emperors, The largest one in Rome is 179 feet high. b Sesostris (Ses-os'tris ;) a king of ancient Egypt. orable mystery, graven upon your mighty shafts, must break silence, to tell that which it hath known of weal and woe, of change, disaster, blood, and crime. LESSON LXXX. ODE TO ART. 1. WHEN, from the sacred garden" driven, And crossed the wanderer's sunless path. 2. 'Twas Art! sweet Art! new radiance broke, 3. She led him through the trackless wild, 4. Earth's thousand tribes of living things, 5. In fields of air he writes his name, And treads the chambers of the sky; a Sacred garden; the garden of Eden. LESSON LXXXI. TO THE CONDOR. [The learner may scan the first stanza of the following piece, and note the words in which the metrical and customary accents conflict. See note under Metrical Accent, p. 71.] 1. WONDROUS, majestic bird! whose mighty wing Powerful to soar in strength and pride on high, 2. Proud nursling of the tempest, where repose Dost thou in silence, breathless and alone, 3. The mountain's frozen peak is lone and bare, Far o'er its frowning summit; and the plain 4. The limits of thy course no daring eye Has marked; thy glorious path of light on high Is trackless and unknown; The gorgeous sun thy quenchless gaze may share ; Thou art, with him, alone. 5. Imperial wanderer! the storms that shake Beyond the bolt, beyond the lightning's gleam, : Basking forever in the unclouded beam,- 6. And thus the soul, with upward flight like thine, Yet meaner cares oppress its drooping wings, 1. LESSON LXXXII. THE LEAF. GOODRICH. It came with spring's soft sun and showers, It flourished on the same light stem, It drank the same clear dews with them. The crimson tints of summer morn, That gilded one, did each adorn; The breeze, that whispered light and brief But its companions passed away, The leaf now yielded to the blast, And on the rushing stream was cast; Far, far it glided to the sea, And whirled and eddied wearily, Till suddenly it sank to rest, And slumbered on the ocean's breast. |