THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD. THE spacious firmament on high, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Th' unwearied SUN, from day to day, The work of an Almighty hand. Soon as the evening shades prevail, While all the stars that round her burn, And spread the truth from pole to pole. What though, in solemn silence, all "The Hand that made us is divine!” COMPOSITION. Write a paraphrase of the first stanza, in which tell what it is that proclaims the power of God. Take special care to bring out the ideas contained in the expressions, "spacious firmament," "blue, ethereal sky," "spangled heavens," 'shining frame." Elaborate ideas of "th' unwearied Sun," "Almighty hand." 66 prevail tidings terrestrial radiant THE CITY OF THE DEAD. THE 'HE material with which Herculaneum was destroyed was originally identical with that which destroyed Pompeii, but it having been afterwards fused into a concrete mass by the action of streams of boiling water, and become hardened in cooling, the attempt to exhume this city and its treasures has failed. The dusty, pumice-stone material, however, entombing Pompeii, is still light and friable, and easily removed. The upper stories of the buildings were probably composed of wood, and were either burned off or forced in by the enormous weight of the overwhelming mass. With this exception we see a beautiful and once flourishing city just as it existed eighteen centuries ago. As yet one-third only of the city has been exhumed; the excavations are carried on by Government, and no visitor is allowed to go over the city without a military guide. We had brought our own guide from Naples, but, in spite of that, a soldier accompanied us closely the whole time of our inspection. This is doubtless a necessary precaution, as day by day articles of value are being discovered. The bodies first found were recovered in a very imperfect way; but, a few years ago, a very ingenious plan was hit upon for securing them entire. A skeleton does not of course occupy the space of the original body, the flesh perishing off and leaving a hollow between the bones and their enveloping earth. When a workman finds that he has come to a hollow space he reports to the authorities; a more careful examination is then made by very minute probings and soundings; the uppermost part of the hollow space is determined, and then plaster of Paris is poured in the space till the hollow is filled; when this has solidified, the surrounding earth is removed, and there is the perfect form of the original man, in the very attitude in which he was overtaken by his terrible death. One most touching figure I saw, evidently that of a young girl writhing in the very agony in which she passed away. Her foot is lifted in pain, one hand presses a handkerchief to her head, and you can see that she was only covered by a thin night-dress, for the very texture of the material can be traced on the shoulder. The first street that you enter is the street of the Tombs, a part of the old Appian Way, and you are at once struck with the wonderful preservation of the pavement, and the seeming freshness of everything about you. To pace the lone and silent streets, and to come everywhere upon evidences of a seemingly recent life, is startling in the extreme. You can still read the painted names of the long dead residents on the door-posts. In that gateway the body of a sentinel was found at his post. There is the house of Diomede, with the colors on its frescoed walls still singularly fresh. There is the room where his daughter's skeleton was found, with her marriage ring fresh on her finger; and there is the dining-room where the wedding banquet might have been held, and where still you see the wine-cooler and the frescoed fruit. Here is the gateway near which the skeleton of Diomede himself was found, with a key in one hand and gold ornaments in another. In that street the charred corpse of a man in the act of running away with gold was found. You see the house of Sallust, with a fine fresco of Diana and Actæon on its walls. You are shown a bakehouse and ovens where thirty loaves of bread were found, and a cellar containing "amphora," or wine jars, stamped with the maker's name- — some cracked and mended. In that house fortysix surgical instruments were found, showing an advanced state of medical science. In another, supposed to be the Custom-house, were discovered steelyards and weights; and in another, on a counter, evidently of an apothecary's shop, was found a box of pills, and by its side a small cylindrical roll waiting to be cut up. The public baths are shown, with the marble steps as fresh as yesterday, and the well where the water was drawn, with even the marks of the rope on the rim. Signs outside the houses indicate the trades pursued therein. One represents two men carrying an amphora; this was evidently a wine shop. And on another you see a painting of a boy mounted on the back of another boy, and undergoing the process of flagellation -unmistakably a school and showing that in those days, as well as in ours, there were thought to be various channels through which learning might be conveyed. We visited the amphitheatre, some little distance from the city, and which at the time of the first outbreak is said to have been crowded with spectators. Returning to the city, we saw the ruins of the Forum and of the Temple of Venus, and were shown the tribunal of the magistrates, with the judges' seats, and went down into the prisons below. There is the Temple of Isis -- one of the most perfect of ancient temples-and the secret stairs by which the priests ascended to deliver the oracle; and here also is a refectory, where men were dining at the moment the eruption commenced, and where chickens' bones, eggs and earthen vessels were discovered. Burnt bread was also found here, together with the skeletons of priests who had not time to escape. Near the remains of one lay an axe, from which it would appear that he had delayed his departure till the door was choked up with falling ashes, and so had attempted to force his way through the walls with a hatchet. He had already penetrated through two, but before he could break through the third death arrested his flight. There, too, are the theatres, near one of which you are shown a place where a man was found in the stocks; and a marble slab, in process of polishing, is pointed out to you, the polishing of a part only of its surface being complete; and in the Forum you see an unfinished marble column which was being erected in place of another of "tufa," the mark of the chisel still perfectly distinct. Hinges are still to be seen on some of the door-posts; and the ruts are visible in the streets, and the stepping-stones for the crossings, and the worn footways, -- all can be traced, and you can scarcely believe that the trees and flowers around you are not identical with those blooming 1800 years ago; and might even fancy that the bird twittering over your head was carolling there before the sky became darkened by that cloud of death, and that it has just flown back to look at the destruction from. which it had itself escaped. Questions:- Write sentences to include all the words given for definition. State something about each proper name given. |