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LESSON LXXVI.76

SUMMER EVENING.

1. THE summer day has closed; the sun is set: Well have they done their office, those bright hours The latest of whose train goes softly out

2.

3.

In the red west. The green blade of the ground
Has risen, and herds have cropped it; the young twig
Has spread its plaited +tissues to the sun;
Flowers of the garden and the waste have blown,
And withered; seeds have fallen upon the soil
From bursting cells, and, in their graves, await
Their resurrection.

Insects from the pools

Have filled the air awhile with humming wings,
That now are stilled forever; painted moths
Have wandered the blue sky, and died again;
The mother-bird hath broken for her brood
Their prison-shells, or shoved them from their nest,
Plumed for their earliest flight.

In bright alcoves,

In woodland cottages with earthy walls,

In

noisome cells of the tumultuous town,

Mothers have clasped with joy the new-born babe.
Graves by the lonely forest, by the shore

Of rivers and of ocean, by the ways

Of the thronged city, have been hollowed out,

And filled, and closed. This day hath parted friends,
That ne'er before were parted; it hath knit
New friendships; it hath seen the maiden plight
Her faith, and trust her peace to him who long

Hath wooed; and it hath heard, from lips which late
Were eloquent of love, the first harsh word,
That told the wedded one her peace was flown.

4. Farewell to the sweet sunshine! one glad day
Is added now to childhood's merry days,
And one calm day to those of quiet age;
Still the fleet hours run on; and, as I lean
Amid the thickening darkness, lamps are lit
By those who watch the dead, and those who twine
Flowers for the bride. The mother from the eyes
Of her sick infant shades the painful light,
And sadly listens to his quick-drawn breath.

W. C. BRYANT.

LESSON LXXVII. Y

THE SNOW-FLAKE.

1. "Now if I fall, will it be my lot
To be cast in some low and cruel spot?
To melt or sink unseen or forgot?

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And then will my course be ended?" 'T was thus a feathery Snowy-Flake said, As down through the measureless space it strayed, Or, as half by dalliance, half afraid,

It seemed in mid air suspended.

2. "Oh, no," said the Earth, "thou shalt not lie,
Neglected and lone, on my lap to die,
Thou fine and delicate child of the sky:

For thou wilt be safe in my keeping;

But then, I must give thee a lovelier form:
Thou 'It not be a part of the wintry storm,
But revive when the sunbeams are yellow and warm,
And flowers from my bosom are peeping;

3. "And then thou shalt have thy choice to be
Restored in the lily that decks the +lea,
In the jessamine bloom, the anemone,

Or aught of thy spotless whiteness;
To melt and be cast in a glittering bead,
With the pearls that night scatters over the mead,
In the cup where the bee and the fire-fly feed,
Regaining thy dazzling brightness;

4. "To wake, and be raised from thy transient sleep, Where Viola's mild blue eye shall weep;

In a tremulous tear or a diamond leap

In a drop from the unlocked fountain;

Or leaving the valley, the meadow, and heath,
The streamlet, the flowers, and all beneath,
To go and be worn in the silvery wreath,
Encircling the brow of the mountain.

5. "Or wouldst thou return to a home in the skies,
To shine in the Iris,* I'll let thee arise,
And appear in the many and glorious dyes;
A pencil of sunbeams is blending.

But true, fair thing, as my name is Earth,
I'll give thee a new and vernal birth,
When thou shalt recover thy primal worth,
And never regret descending."

6. "Then I will drop," said the trusting Flake;
"But bear it in mind, that the choice I make,
Is not in the flowers nor the dew to awake,

*The rainbow.

Nor the mist that shall pass with the morning:
For things of thyself, they expire with thee;
But those that are lent from on high, like me,
They rise, and will live, from thy dust set free,
To the regions above returning.

7. "And if true to thy word, and just thou art,
Like the spirit that dwells in the holiest heart,
+ Unsullied by thee, thou wilt let me depart,
And return to my native heaven;

For I would be placed in the beautiful bow,
From time to time in thy sight to glow,
So thou may'st remember the flake of Snow,
By the promise that God hath given."

MISS GOULD.

LESSON LXXVIII. Y S

IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS.

1. THE place in which the impeachment of Warren Hastings was conducted, was worthy of such a trial. It was the great hall of William Rufus; the hall, which had resounded with acclamations, at the inauguration of thirty kings the hall, which had witnessed the just sentence of Bacon, and the just absolution of Somers; the hall, where the eloquence of Stafford had for a moment awed and melted a victorious party inflamed with just resentment, the hall, where Charles had confronted the High Court of Justice, with the placid courage which half redeemed his fame.

2. Neither military nor civil pomp was wanting. The avenues were lined with grenadiers. The streets were kept clear by cavalry. The peers, robed in gold and ermine, were marshaled by heralds. The judges, in their +vestments of state, attended to give advice on points of law. The long galleries were crowded by such an audience as has rarely excited the fears or emulation of an orator. There, were gathered together, from all points of a great, free, enlightened, and prosperous realm, grace and female loveliness, wit, and learning, the representatives of every science and every art.

3. There, were seated around the queen, the fair-haired, young daughters of the house of Brunswick. There, the embassadors of great kings and commonwealths gazed with admiration on a spectacle which no other country in the world could present. There, Siddons,* in the pride of her majestic beauty, looked with

A celebrated actress.

emotion on a scene surpassing all the imitations of the stage. There, the historian of the Roman Empire* thought of the days when Cicero pleaded the cause of Sicily against Verres; and when, before a senate which had some show of freedom, Tacitus thundered against the oppressor of Africa; and there too, were seen, side by side, the greatest painter and the greatest scholar of the age; for the spectacle had fallured Reynolds from his easel, and Parr from his study.

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4. The sergeants made proclamation. Hastings advanced to the bar, and bent his knee. The culprit was indeed not unworthy of that great presence. He had ruled an extensive and populous country; had made laws and treaties; had sent forth armies; had set up, and pulled down princes; and in his high place he had so borne himself, that all had feared him, that most had loved him, and that hatred itself could deny him no title to glory, except virtue. A person, small and emaciated, yet deriving dignity from a carriage which, while it indicated deference to the court, indicated, also, habitual self-possession and self-respect; a high and intellectual forehead; a brow, pensive, but not gloomy; a mouth of inflexible decision; a face, pale and worn, but on which a great and well-balanced mind was legibly written such formed the aspect with which the great pro-consul presented himself to his judges.

5. The charges, and the answers of Hastings, were first read. This ceremony occupied two whole days On the third day, Burke rose. Four sittings of the court were occupied by his opening speech, which was intended to be a general introduction to all the charges. With an exuberance of thought and a splendor of diction, which more than satisfied the highly-raised expectations of the audience, he described the character and institutions of the natives of India; recounted the circumstances in which the Asiatic Empire of Britain had originated; and set forth the Constitution of the Company and of the English Presidencies.

6. Having thus attempted to communicate to his hearers an idea of eastern society, as vivid as that which existed in his own mind, he proceeded to arraign the administration of Hastings, as systematically conducted in defiance of morality and public law. The energy and pathos of the great orator textorted expressions of unwonted admiration from all; and, for a moment, seemed to pierce even the resolute heart of the defendant. The ladies in the galleries, unaccustomed to such displays of eloquence, excited by the solemnity of the occasion, and perhaps not unwilling to display their taste and sensibility, were in a state of incontrollable emotion. Handkerchiefs were pulled out; smelling-bottles were

*Gibbon.

handed round; hysterical sobs and screams were heard, and some were even carried out in fits.

ors.

7. At length, the orator concluded. Raising his voice, till the old arches of Irish oak resounded- "Therefore," said he, “hath it in all confidence been ordered by the Commons of Great Britain, that I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanI impeach him in the name of the Commons House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor of all."

EDINBURGH REVIEW.

LESSON LXXIX.ys

SPEECH ON THE TRIAL OF W. HASTINGS.

This extract comprises the concluding part of Mr. Burke's speech, on the impeachment of Warren Hastings. This trial was protracted through a period of nearly eight years, and finally terminated in the acquittal of Mr. Hastings.

1. MY LORDS:-What is it that we want here to a great act of national justice? Do we want a cause, my lords? You have the cause of oppressed princes, of desolated provinces, and of wasted kingdoms. Do you want a criminal, my lords? Where was there so much iniquity ever laid to the charge of any one? No, my lords, you must not look to punish any other delinquent from India. Warren Hastings has not left substance enough in India to nourish such another delinquent.

2. Is it a prosecutor you want? You have before you the Commons of Great Britain, as prosecutors; and I believe, my lords, that the sun, in his beneficent progress round the world, does not behold a more glorious sight, than that of men separated from a remote people by the material bounds and barriers of nature, united by the bond of a social and moral community; all the commons of England resenting as their own, the indignities and cruelties that are offered to all the people of India.

3. Do we want a tribunal? No example of antiquity, nothing in the modern world, nothing in the range of human imagination,

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