26. RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in England in 1772, and died, 1834. The "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," from which the following extract is taken, is one of the most interesting and delightful of his poems. Read the whole poem, if you can find it in the library.

1. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,

The furrow followed free:

We were the first that ever burst

Into that silent sea!

2. Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
'Twas sad as sad could be;

And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!

3. Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

4. Water, water, every-where,

And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every-where,

Nor any drop to drink.

5. The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

6. Ah! welladay! what evil looks

Had I from old and young!

Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

7. There passed a weary time. Each throat
Was parched, and glazed each eye.

A weary time! a weary time!
How glazed each weary eye,

When looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky.

8. A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! And still it neared and neared; As if it dodged a water-sprite,

It plunged and tacked and veered.

9. With throats unslaked, with black lips baked,
We could not laugh nor wail;

Through utter drought all dumb we stood!
I bit my arm, I sucked the blood,
And cried, A sail! a sail!

10. See! see! (I cried) she tacks no more!
Hither to work us weal;

Without a breeze, without a tide,
She steadies with upright keel!

11. The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out:
At one stride comes the dark;

With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea,
Off shot the specter-bark.

12. The stars were dim, and thick the night,

The steersman's face by his lamp gleamed white;

From the sails the dew did drip

Till clomb above the eastern bar

The hornéd Moon, with one bright star

Within the nether tip.

13. One after one, by the star-dogged Moon,
Too quick for groan or sigh,

Each turned his face with a ghastly pang,
And cursed me with his eye.

14. Four times fifty living men

(And I heard nor sigh nor groan),
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropped down one by one.

15. The souls did from their bodies fly,-
They fled to bliss or woe!

And every soul, it passed me by,

Like the whiz of my cross-bow!

COLERIDGE.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING. If possible, let the class also read Coleridge's "Morning Hymn to Mont Blanc."

27. WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY.

Let the boys of the class memorize this piece for declamation.

1. It is the anniversary of the birth of Washington. We should know this, even if we had lost our calendars, for we should be reminded of it by the shouts of joy and gladness. All the good, whether learned or unlearned, high or low, rich or poor, feel, this day, that there is one treasure common to them all, and that is the fame and character of Washington. They recount his deeds, ponder over his principles and teachings, and resolve to be more and more guided by them in the future.

2. To the old and the young, to all born in the land, and to all whose love of liberty has brought them from foreign shores to make this the home of their adoption, the name of Washington is this day an exhilarating theme. Americans by birth, are proud of his character, and exiles from foreign shores are eager to participate in admiration of him; and it is true that he is, this day, here, every-where, all the world over, more an object of love and regard than on any day since his birth.

From an Oration by DANIEL WEBSTER.

28. THE SHIPWRECK.

1. It was broad day-eight or nine o'clock; the storm raging in lieu of the batteries; and some one knocking and calling at my door.

"What is the matter?" I cried.

"A wreck close by!"

I sprang out of bed, and asked: "What wreck?"

2. "A schooner, from Spain or Portugal, laden with fruit and wine. Make haste, sir, if you want to see her! It's thought, down on the beach, she'll go to pieces every moment."

3. The excited voice went clamoring along the staircase; and I wrapped myself in my clothes as quickly as I could, and ran into the street.

4. Numbers of people were there before me, all running in one direction, to the beach. I ran the same way, outstripping a good many, and soon came facing the sea.

5. The wind might, by this time, have lulled a little, though not more sensibly than if the cannonading I had dreamed of, had been diminished by the silencing of half-a-dozen guns out of hundreds. But the sea, having upon it additional agitation of the whole night, was infinitely more terrific than when I had seen it last. Every appearance it had then presented bore the expression of being swelled; and the height to which the breakers rose, and, looking over one another, bore one another down and rolled in, in interminable hosts, was most appalling.

6. In the difficulty of hearing any thing but wind and waves, in the crowd and the unspeakable confusion, and my first breathless efforts to stand against the weather, I was so confused that I looked out to sea for the wreck, and saw nothing but the foaming heads of the great waves.

7. A half-dressed boatman, standing next me, pointed with his bare arm (a tattooed arrow on it pointing in the same direction) to the left. Then, O great Heaven, I saw it, close in upon us!

8. One mast was broken short off, six or eight feet from the deck, and lay over the side, entangled in a maze of sail and rigging; and all that ruin, as the ship rolled and beat,-which she did without a moment's pause, and with a violence quite inconceivable,-beat the side as if it would stave it in.

9. Some efforts were even then being made to cut this portion of the wreck away; for as the ship, which was broadside on, turned towards us in her rolling, I plainly descried her people at work with axes, especially one active figure with long curling hair, conspicuous among the rest. But a great cry, which was audible even above the wind and water, rose from the shore at this moment; the sea, sweeping over the rolling wreck, made a clean breach, and carried men, spars, casks, planks, bulwarks, heaps of such toys, into the boiling surge.

10. The second mast was yet standing, with the rags of a rent sail, and a wild confusion of broken cordage flapping to and fro. The ship had struck once, the same boatman hoarsely said in my ear, and then lifted in and struck again.

11. I understood him to add that she was parting amidships, and I could readily suppose so, for the rolling and beating were too tremendous for any human work to suffer long. As he spoke, there was another great cry of pity from the beach; four men arose with the wreck out of the deep, clinging to the rigging of the remaining mast, uppermost the active figure with the curling hair.

12. There was a bell on board; and as the ship rolled and dashed, like a desperate creature driven mad, now showing us the whole sweep of her deck as she turned