ceases to be when the body dies. He will not, he can not, believe it. He would not always sleep. He would not always be forgotten. He would live again,-live on in the memory of his fellow-man, as long as the flowers can be made to bloom, or the marble to perpetuate his name; and then still live on when "seas shall waste, and skies in smoke decay."

LESSON C.

VANITY OF EARTHLY FAME.

HENRY KIRKE WHITE.

1.

2.

Он, how weak

Is mortal man! how trifling! how confined
His scope of vision! Puffed with confidence,
His phrase grows big with immortality,
And he, poor insect of a summer's day,
Dreams of eternal honors to his name,
Of endless glory and perennial bays!
He idly reasons of eternity,

As of the train of ages; when, alas!
Ten thousand thousand of his centuries
Are, in comparison, a little point

Too trivial for account!

Oh, it is strange,

'Tis passing strange, to mark his fallacies!
Behold him proudly view some pompous pile,
Whose high dome swells to emulate the skies,
And smile, and say, "My name shall live with this
Till Time shall be no more; "while at his feet,

Yea, at his very feet, the crumbling dust
Of the fallen fabric of the other day

Preaches the solemn lesson !

3.

IIe should know

That Time must conquer; that the loudest blast
That ever filled Renown's obstreperous trump
Fades in the lapse of ages, and expires.
Who lies inhumed in the terrific gloom
Of the gigantic pyramid? or who

Reared its huge walls? Oblivion laughs, and says, "The prey is mine! They sleep, and never more Their names shall strike upon the ear of man!"

WILLIAM MOTHERWELL.

4. What is glory? What is fame?
The echo of a long-lost name;

A breath; an idle hour's brief talk;
The shadow of an arrant naught;
A flower that blossoms for a day,
Dying next morrow;

A stream that hurries on its way,
Singing of sorrow;

The last drop of a bootless shower,
Shed on a sear and leafless bower;
A rose stuck in a dead man's breast, -
This is the world's fame at the best!

5. What is fame? and what is glory?
A dream; a jester's lying story,
To tickle fools withal, or be
A theme for second infancy;

A joke scrawled on an epitaph;
A grin at Death's own ghastly laugh;
A visioning that tempts the eye,
But mocks the touch-nonentity;

A rainbow, substanceless as bright,
Flitting forever

O'er hill-top to more distant hight,
Nearing us never;

A bubble blown by fond conceit,
In very sooth itself to cheat;
The witch-fire of a frenzied brain;
A fortune that to lose were gain;

A word of praise, perchance of blame;
The wreck of a time-bandied name,
Ay, this is glory! — this is fame!

LESSON CI

1 CO RIN' THI AN, pertaining to the Corinthian order of architecture, characterized by a profusion of ornamentation.

"THIS, TOO, MUST PASS AWAY."

MRS. E. C. HOWARTH,

An old baron gave a grand banquet. In the midst of the festivities, he requested the seer to write some inscription on the wall in memory of the occasion. The seer wrote, "This, too, must pass away."

1.

NCE in a banquet-hall,

ONCE

'Mid mirth and music, wine and garlands gay, These words were written on the garnished wall, — "This, too, must pass away."

And eyes that sparkled when the wine was poured
'Mid song and jest, and merry minstrel lay,
Turned sad and thoughtful from the festive board
To read, 'mid pendent banner, lyre, and sword,
"This, too, must pass away."

2.

3.

And where are they to-night,
The gay retainers of that festive hall?
Like blooming rose, like waxen taper's light,
They have departed all.

Long since the banners crumbled into dust,
The proud Corinthian1 pillars met decay,
The lyre is broken, and the sword is rust;
The kingly bards who sang of love and trust-
They, too, have passed away.

Yet Genius seeks the crown,

And Art builds stately homes for wealth and pride,
And Love beside the household shrine kneels down,
And Dust is deified:

Yet, 'midst our loves, ambitions, pleasures, all,
The spirit struggles ever with the clay:
On every ear a warning voice will fall,

Each eye beholds the writing on the wall,—
"This, too, must pass away."

W

LESSON CII

GOD, THE TRUE OBJECT OF CONFIDENCE.

GREENWOOD.

E receive such repeated intimations of decay in the world, — decline, change, and loss follow in such rapid succession, that we can almost catch the sound of universal

wasting, and hear the work of desolation going on busily around us. "The mountain falling cometh to naught, and the rock is removed out of his place. The waters wear the stones. Thou washest away the things which grow

out of the dust of the earth, and Thou destroyest the hope of man. *

2. Conscious of our own instability, we look about for something on which to rest, but we look in vain. The heavens and the earth had a beginning, and they will have an end. The face of the world is changing daily and hourly. All animated things grow old, and die. The rocks crumble,—the trees fall, — the leaves fade, - the grass withers. The clouds are flying, and the waters are

flowing away from us.

3. The firmest works of man, too, are gradually giving way. The ivy clings to the moldering tower, -the brier hangs out from the shattered window, and the wall-flower springs from the disjointed stones. In the spacious domes which once held our fathers, the serpent hisses, and the wild bird screams. The halls which were once crowded with all that taste, and science, and labor could procure,which resounded with melody, and were lighted up with beauty,-are buried by their own ruins,-mocked by their own desolation. The voice of merriment or of wailing, the steps of the busy or the idle, have ceased in the deserted courts.

4. While we thus walk among the ruins of the past, a sad feeling of insecurity comes over us; and that feeling is by no means diminished when we arrive at home. If we turn to our friends, we can hardly speak to them, before they bid us farewell. We see them for a few moments; and, in a few moments more, their countenances are changed, and they are sent away. The ties which bind us together, are never too close to be parted, or too strong to be broken. We gain no confidence, then, no feeling of

*Job, 14th chap., 18th and 19th verses.