Yet even these bones from insult to protect,
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and

decked,

shapeless sculpture

Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered Muse,

The place of fame and elegy supply;

And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing, anxious being, e'er resigned; Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind?

On some fond breast the parting soul relies, Some pious drops the closing eye requires; Even from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,— Even in our ashes live their wonted fires.

For thee, who, mindful of the unhonored dead,
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;.

If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,.

Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,

Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,
"Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn,
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,

66

To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.

There, at the foot of yonder nodding beech, That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, His listless length at noontide would he stretch, And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

"Hard by yon wood, now, smiling as in scorn, Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove; Now drooping, woful, wan, like one forlorn,

Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love.

“One morn I missed him on the 'customed hill, Along the heath and near his favorite tree; Another came, nor yet beside the rill,

Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;

"The next, with dirges due in sad array

Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne:

Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.”

THE EPITAPH.

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth,

A youth, to Fortune and to Fame unknown;
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy marked him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere;

Heaven did a recompense as largely send;

He gave to Misery all he had, a tear;

He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished), a friend.

No further seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, (There they alike in trembling hope repose),—

The bosom of his Father and his God.

GRAY.

trophies, celestial, jocund,

lea,

Spell and pronounce :— droning, drowsy, moping, ingenuous, lowing, homely, clarion, inevitable, pealing, incense, destiny, and sequester.

molest-trouble;

frail

Synonyms. - hamlet — village; neighborhood. disturb; incommode; inconvenience; annoy; vex; tease. ties-frailness; infirmities; imperfections; failings; foibles. ingenuous-open; frank; unreserved; artless; plain; sincere; candid; fair; noble ; generous. obscure-retired; unnoticed; unknown; humble; mean; dark; dim; obstruse; intricate; difficult; mysterious; indistinct.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771), born in London, and educated at Cambridge College, was a lyric poet to whose fame even the famous pay tribute. "I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec," were the words of the gallant Wolfe on the night upon which he bought fame and paid for it with his life. And enviable, indeed, is the clear, pure eminence upon which the author of "The Elegy" sits enthroned forever. "The Elegy" is recognized as a classic in English Literature. "One familiar and remarkable tribute to the merit of this poem is the great number of translations of it which have been made into the various languages of Europe, both ancient and modern."

LESSON XCVI.

eŎn'sum măʼtion, completion. quī ē'tus, peace; quiet; death. bōurn, limit; a goal.

eŎn'tu me ly, rudeness; insobŏd'kin, a dagger.

[lence.

pith, importance.

HAMLET'S SOLILOQUY.

To be, or not to be,-that is the question:-
Whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune;
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them?-To die,-to sleep,—
No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,-'t is a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die;-to sleep;—

To sleep! perchance to dream;-ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause; there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life;
But that the dread of something after death,-
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveler returns,-puzzles the will;

And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

SHAKESPEARE.

Spell and pronounce :-slings, outrageous, heart-ache, arrows, opposing, perchance, insolence, traveler, conscience, puzzles, calamity, and sicklied.

LESSON XCVII.

ex ĕmpt', freed from duty.
der' vise, Turkish or Persian

monk.

jär'gon, confused language.

subtle ty (săt’1 tỷ), acuteness

of intellect; shrewdness.

in trin'sie al ly, really; truly. ǎs suāģe, lessen; relieve.

INFLUENCE OF ATHENS.

Of the indifference which Mr. Mitford shows on this subject, I will not speak, for I cannot speak with fairness. It is a subject in which I love to forget the accuracy of a judge, in the veneration of a worshiper and the gratitude of a child.

If we consider merely the subtlety of disquisition, the force of imagination, the perfect energy and elegance of expression, which characterize the great works of Athenian genius, we must pronounce them intrinsically most valuable; but what shall we say when we reflect that from hence have sprung, directly or indirectly, all the noblest creations of the human intellect; that from hence were the vast accomplishments and the brilliant fancy of Cicero; the withering fire of Juvenal; the plastic imagination of Dante; the humor of Cervantes; the comprehension of Bacon; the wit of Butler; the supreme and universal excellence of Shakespeare?

All the triumphs of truth and genius over prejudice and power, in every country and in every age, have been the triumphs of Athens. Wherever a few great minds have made a stand against violence and fraud, in the cause of liberty and reason, there has been her spirit in the midst of them; inspiring, encouraging, consoling;-by the lonely lamp of Erasmus; by the restless bed of Pascal; in the tribune of Mirabeau; in the cell of Galileo; on the scaffold of Sidney.

But who shall estimate her influence on private happiness? Who shall say how many thousands have been made wiser, happier, and better, by those pursuits in which she has taught mankind to engage; how many studies which took their rise from her have been wealth in poverty,-liberty in bondage,-health in sickness,-society in solitude.

Her power is indeed manifested at the bar; in the senate; in the field of battle; in the schools of philosophy. But these are not her glory. Wherever literature consoles sorrow, or assuages pain,—