Puslapio vaizdai
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Right sharp and quick the bells rang out, all night, from

Bristol town;

And, ere the day, three hundred horse had met on Clifton Down.

The sentinel on Whitehall gate looked forth into the night, And saw o'erhanging Richmond Hill, that streak of bloodred light.

The bugle's note, and cannon's roar, the deathlike silence broke,

;

And with one start, and with one cry the royal city woke ; At once, on all her stately gates, arose the answering fires At once the wild alarum clashed from all her reeling spires; From all the batteries of the Tower pealed loud the voice of fear,

And all the thousand masts of Thames sent back a louder

cheer;

And from the farthest wards was heard the rush of hurrying

feet,

And the broad streams of flags and pikes dashed down each rousing street;

And broader still became the blaze, and louder still the din, At fast from every village round the horse came spurring in ; And eastward straight, for wild Blackheath, the warlike errand went;

And roused in many an ancient hall, the gallant squires of Kent;

Southward, for Surrey's pleasant hills, flew those bright coursers forth;

High on black Hampstead's swarthy moor, they started for the north;

And on, and on, without a pause untired they bounded still; All night from tower to tower they sprang, all night from hill to hill;

Till the proud peak unfurled the flag o'er Derwent's rocky dales;

Till, like volcanoes, flared to heaven the stormy hills of Wales; Till twelve fair counties saw the blaze on Malvern's lonely

height;

Till streamed in crimson, on the wind, the Wrekin's crest of light;

Till, broad and fierce the star came forth, on Ely's stately fane, And town and hamlet rose in arms, o'er all the boundless

plain :

Till Belvoir's lordly towers the sign to Lincoln sent,

And Lincoln sped the message on, o'er the wide vale of Trent; Till Skiddaw saw the fire that burnt on Gaunt's1 embattled

pile,

And the red glare on Skiddaw roused the burghers of Car

lisle.

1. Give the number of ships of war, men, and pieces of cannon, employed by Philip for the invasion of England.

2. Of what number of ships did the English fleet consist?

3. To what number was it soon increased by the zeal of the people?

4. Describe the Queen as she appeared in the camp at Tilbury, and give the noble words with which she addressed the army. 5. With what success did the English squadron attack the Armada ?

6. What completed its destruction ? 7. Give the beautiful inscription on the medal.

8. Should we not trace all our successes to God's hand?

9. Who spied the Armada and gave the alarm ?

Macaulay.

10. What was immediately done in Plymouth?

11. What does unbonneted apply to? 12. Who is called "her grace"?

13. What country is meant by "the lion of the sea," and what by the "gay lilies" ? 14. What have you to tell me about "Picard field" ?

15. What about Agincourt?

16. Explain the Latin words "semper eadem."

17. If I put the large map of England before you, will any one point to Eddystone and tell me something about it?

18. Now who will point to each of the places mentioned?

19. For what is Stonehenge celebrated? 20. Why comes Lancaster castle to be called Gaunt's embattled pile?

XXVII.—HYMN BEFORE SUNRISE IN THE VALE OF

CHAMOUNI.

THE valley of Chamouni on N. W. of Mont Blanc, is the most celebrated in the Alps for its picturesque sites and the wild grandeur of its glaciers. The glaciers which descend into the valley from M. Blanc are without doubt the grandest in the Alps, and the grandest among these is the Mer de Glace or sea of ice. Cheever in his "Wan

derings of a Pilgrim in the Shadow of M. Blanc," says, "This Mer de Glace is an easy and excellent residence for the scientific study of the glaciers, a subject of very great interest, formerly filled with mysteries, which the bold and persevering investi. gations and theories of some modern naturalists have quite cleared up. The strange movements of the glaciers, their apparent wilful rejection of extraneous bodies and substances to the surface and the margin, their increase and decrease, long remained invested with something of the supernatural; they seemed to have a soul and a life of their own. They look motionless and silent, yet they are always moving and sounding on, and they have great voices that give prophetic warning of the weather to the shepherds of the Alps. Scientific men have set up huts upon the sea, and landmarks on the mountains opposite, to test the progress of the icy masses, and in this way it was found that a cabin constructed by Professor Hugi on the glacier of the Aar, had travelled, between the years 1827 and 1840, a distance of 4600 feet. It is supposed that the Mer de Glace moves down between four and five huudred feet annually.

It is impossible to form a grander image of the rigidity and barrenness, the coldness and death of winter, than when you stand among the billows of one of these frozen seas; and yet it is here that Nature locks up in her careful bosom the treasures of the Alpine valleys, the sources of rich summer verdure and vegetable life. They are hoarded up in winter, to be poured forth beneath the sun, and with the sun in summer. Some of the largest rivers in Europe take their rise from the glaciers, and give to the Swiss valleys their most abundant supply of water, in the season when ordinary streams are dried up. This is a most interesting provision in the economy of nature, for if the glaciers did not exist, those verdant valleys into which the summer sun pours with such fervour would be parched with drought. So the mountains are parents of perpetual streams, and the glaciers are reservoirs of plenty." -Cheever's Wanderings of a Pilgrim.

1 "Gaunt's embattled pile."-The castle of Lancaster. John, duke of Lancaster, was born in Gaunt or Ghent, in Belgium. He was the progenitor of the Lancastrian line of kings.

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HAST thou a charm to stay the Morning-Star
In his steep course? So long he seems to pause
On thy bald awful head, O sovran Blanc!

The Arvē and Arveiron at thy base

Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful form!
Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines,
How silently! Around thee and above
Deep is the air, and dark, substantial, black,
An ebon mass: methinks thou piercest it,
As with a wedge! But when I look again,
It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine,
Thy habitation from eternity!

O dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee,
Till thou, still present to the bodily sense,

...katarattō

(hieros, arché.

Didst vanish from my thought: entranc'd in prayer
I worshipp'd the Invisible alone.

Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody,

So sweet we know not we are listening to it,

Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought,
Yea, with my life, and life's own secret joy:
Till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused,
Into the mighty Vision passing-there

As in her natural form, swell'd vast to Heaven!

Awake, my soul! not only passive praise
Thou owest! not alone these swelling tears,
Mute thanks and secret ecstasy! Awake,
Voice of sweet song! Awake, my heart, awake!
Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my Hymn.
Thou first and chief, sole sovran of the vale!
O struggling with the darkness all night long
And visited all night by troops of stars,
Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink

Companion of the morning-star at dawn,
Thyself earth's rosy star, and of the dawn
Co-herald! wake, O wake, and utter praise.
Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in earth?
Who filled thy countenance with rosy light?
Who made thee parent of perpetual streams?

And you, ye five wild torrents, fiercely glad!
Who call'd you forth from night and utter death,
From dark and icy caverns call'd you forth,
Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks
For ever shattered, and the same for ever?
Who gave you your invulnerable life,

Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy,
Unceasing thunder and eternal foam?

And who commanded (and the silence came),
Here let the billows stiffen and have rest?

Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow
Adown ravines enormous slope amain-
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice,
And stopp'd at once amid their maddest plunge.
Motionless torrents! silent cataracts!

Who made you glorious as the gates of Heaven
Beneath the keen full moon? Who bade the sun
Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers
Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet?-
God! let the torrents, like a shout of nations,
Answer! and let the ice-plains echo, God!

God! sing ye meadow-streams with gladsome voice!
Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds!
And they too have a voice, yon piles of snow,
And in their perilous fall shall thunder, God!

Ye livery flowers that skirt th' eternal frost!
Ye wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest!
Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain-storm!
Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds!
Ye signs and wonders of the element !

Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise!

Once more, hoar mount! with thy sky-pointing peaks,

Oft from whose feet the Avalanche,1 unheard,
Shoots downward, glittering thro' the pure serene
Into the depth of clouds that veil thy breast-
Thou too again, stupendous mountain! thou,
That as I raise my head, a while bow'd low
In adoration, upward from thy base

Slow travelling with dim eyes suffus'd with tears,
Solemnly seemest, like a vapoury cloud,

-Rise, O ever rise,

To rise before me

Rise like a cloud of incense, from the earth!
Thou kingly spirit thron'd among the hills,
Thou dread ambassador from earth to heaven,
Great Hierarch! tell thou the silent sky,
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun,
Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God.

1. Why seems the morning star to pause on the mountain top?

2. Name the principal rivers in the vale? 3. Are these the only rivers there ? 4. What sort of trees abound at the foot of the mountain?

5. How high does the mountain lift its head into the air?

6. Is the air around the summit really an ebon mass?

7. What gives it the dark appearance? 8. Is "calm home" correctly descriptive of the sky at the summit?

9. At what height in the air do storms usually rage?

10. Is the word eternity in line 12th strictly correct?

11. Substitute the correct word. 12. What was the effect of the poet's long and steady gaze at the mountain ?

13. What mean you by the soul in her natural form?

14. In what state was the soul of man originally?

15. Did he then see God in everything? 16. Are tears, thanks, ecstasy, passive or active praise ?

17. What active praise does the poet propose to give?

18. Do stars rise in the east and set in the west just like the sun?

19. Explain lines 31st and 32nd.

Coleridge.

20. Change the conjunctions in line 33rd. 21. Is Mont Blanc the highest point of the Alps?

22. Where will the rosy beams of morning first light?

23. Name the heralds of the dawn? 24. Name the questions in lines 37, 38, 39.

25. Whence have the five torrents their source?

26. How many questions are asked of the torrents?

27. What is the answer to them all? 28. By what agent does God stiffen the billows?

29. What do the icefalls seem in the poet's eye?

30. Name the colours of which light is made up.

31. Show that the icefalls are glorious in the moonlight.

32. Enumerate the questions put to the icefalls.

33. With what voice are the torrents to answer?

34. What objects echo the shout? 35. What objects are to sing?

36. Why is the 3rd personal pronoun used in speaking of the piles of snow? (Ans. They are so far above human reach, that he cannot speak to them, he must speak of them.)

1 Avalanches are the most dangerous and terrible phenomena to which the valleys embosomed between high snow-topped mountain-ranges are exposed. They are especially frequent in the Alps owing to the steepness of their declivities, but they are also known in other mountain regions, as in the Pyrenees and in Norway. They originate in the higher region of the mountains, when the accumulation of snow becomes so great that the inclined plane on which the mass rests cannot any longer support it. It is then pushed down the declivity by its own weight, and precipitated into the subjacent valley, where it often destroys forests and villages, buries men and cattle, and sometimes fills up the rivers and stops their course.-Knight's Cyclopædia.

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