I CLIMBED the dark brow of the mighty Hellvellyn, Lakes and mountains beneath me gleamed misty and wide On the right, Striden-edge round the Red-tarn was bending, One huge nameless rock in the front was ascending, When I marked the sad spot where the wanderer had died. Till the mountain-winds wasted the tenantless clay. 2 ; How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber? And pages stand mute by the canopied pall: Through the courts, at deep midnight, the torches are gleaming— But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature, To lay down thy head like the meek mountain lamb; 1. What is the meaning of the phrase pilgrim of nature? SIR W. SCOTT. 2. Why tenantless clay? VERSES BY ALEXANDER SELKIRK. 21 XIV. VERSES SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN BY ALEXANDER SELKIRK (ROBINSON CRUSOE) IN THE ISLAND OF JUAN FERNANDEZ. JUAN FERNANDEZ, an island in the Pacific Ocean, was discovered by a Spanish navigator, who gave to it his own name, and formed an establishment, which was afterwards abandoned. The buccaneers of the 17th century made it a place of resort during their cruises on the coast of Peru; and more recently, it was the solitary abode during four years of a Scotchman, called Alexander Selkirk, whose adven tures are supposed to have given rise to De Foe's inimitable novel of Robinson Crusoe, and whose probable musings have been pourtrayed in these verses by Cowper.-See Mc Culloch's Geographical Dictionary. Etymology. Derivations. I AM monarch of all I survey,' My right there is none to dispute; O Solitude! where are the charms Which sages have seen in thy face? I am out of humanity's reach; I must finish my journey alone; The beasts, that roam over the plain, Society, friendship, and love. My sorrows I then might assuage, Of a land I shall visit no more. 6 My friends, do they now and then send Though a friend I am never to see. And the swift-winged arrows of light. Soon hurries me back to despair. And I to my cavern repair. There is mercy in every place; And reconciles man to his lot. 1. Supply the ellipsis in this line. 2. Centre of what? 3. What part of the verb is reign ? 4. Own, what? 5. Put these two lines into natural order. COWPER. 6. Explain the meaning of this line. 7. How had the winds made him their sport? 8. Whose? THE LAPLANDER. 23 XV. THE LAPLANDER. LAPLAND is the most northerly country of Europe, belonging partly to Russia, partly to Sweden. The country is so cold in the winter, that the rivers in the interior are covered with ice to the depth of several feet. Towards the north the sun remains for many weeks under the horizon, and, of course, in the summer, is as many weeks above it without setting. The darkness of winter is partially relieved by the brightness of the moon and stars, and by the aurora borealis. WITH blue cold nose, and wrinkled brow, From Lapland's woods, and hills of frost, Where tapering grows the gloomy fir, Where the wild hare and the crow Whiten in surrounding snow; 1 Where the shivering huntsmen tear Their fur coats from the grim white bear; Prowl among the lonely rocks; And tardy suns to deserts drear, Give days and nights of half a year: 1. Speaking of animals, that most estimable writer, Dr. Paley, has remarked, that "their clothing, of its own accord, changes with their necessities. This is particularly the case with that large tribe of quadrupeds, which are CONDER. covered with furs. Every dealer in XVI. A VOYAGE TO INDIA. MILTON in describing the flight of Satan from the place of his confinement to the Garden of Paradise, has made use of a very beautiful illustration from the particulars of a voyage to India by the Cape. Let the pupil follow his description on the Map of the World. Distinguish between these words: Gentle and Gentile. Sail and Sale. Course and Coarse. Now gentle gales, Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Of Araby the bless'd, with such delay Well pleased, they slack their course, and many a league, 1. Who discovered the route by the Cape of Good Hope? What name was first given to it? 2. Mozambic, what? 3. Why Sabean odours? MILTON. 4. Give the three ancient divisions of Arabia, and the Latin name for Araby the bless'd? 5. Why Old Ocean? XVII. ADDRESS TO THE MUMMY IN BELZONI'S "LAUGH and mock if you will at the worship of stone idols, but mark ye this, ye breakers of images, that in one regard, the stone idol bears awful semblance of deity-unchangefulness in the midst of change the same seeming will, and intent for ever and ever inexorable! Upon ancient dynasties of Ethiopian and Egyptian kings, upon Greek and Roman, upon Arab and Ottoman conquerors-upon Napoleon dreaming of an eastern Empire-upon battle and pestilence -upon the ceaseless misery of the Egyptian race-upon keen-eyed travellers-Herodotus yesterday, and Warburton to day-upon all and more this unworldly Sphynx has watched and watched like a |