7. "Something elusive as viewless air, Something we cannot understand, Strangely has vanished of the rare

Skill of the famous moulder's hand.

8. "So-when you plead that life is still
Full, as of old, with tingling joy,-
That I may hear its music thrill,
Just as I heard it when a boy ;-

9. "All I can say, is-Youth has passed—
Master of magic falls and swells,-
Bearing away the cunning cast

Into the moulding of the bells!"

Margaret J. Preston.

I. Explain the simile.-Verse 1. Where is Louvain ?—V. 2. Flanders ?—Lagoons, shallow lakes, especially those into which the sea flows.-V. 3. Carillon, a chime of bells played by clock-work or by finger-keys.

II.—Sunset.

Sunset is burning like the seal of God
Upon the close of day. This very hour

Night mounts her chariot in the eastern glooms,
To chase the flying Sun, whose flight has left
Footprints of glory in the clouded west:
Swift is she hailed by wingèd swimming steeds,
Whose cloudy manes are wet with heavy dews,
And dews are drizzling from her chariot-wheels
Brainful of dreams, as summer hive with bees.
And round her, in the pale and spectral light,
Flock bats and grizzly owls on noiseless wings.
The flying Sun goes down the burning west,
Vast Night comes noiseless up the eastern slope,
And so the eternal chase goes round the world.

Alex. Smith.

II. Night is here personified as doing what?-The Sun ?-What two similes ?-To what does "she" in the 6th line refer?— Whose cloudy chariots ?-To what does "brainful" refer?-Explain the various metaphors used,—such as flying Sun, footprints, etc.

CHAPTER XLV. JOHN PIERPONT.-1785-1866.

I.-Biographical.

The Rev. John Pierpont was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, whose first centennial he celebrated in 1851, in a poem of considerable length. He was descended from one of the founders of Yale College in a line of clergymen. From Yale College he went to South Carolina as a private tutor; thence he removed to Newburyport, Mass., to practise law, but soon entered mercantile life, first in Boston, then in Baltimore, where in 1816 he published the Airs of Palestine, a poem designed to trace the natural associations of music, as illustrated by the influence of local scenes and character. The verse is closely patterned upon that of Thomas Campbell, even to his inversions and love of alliteration. Blackwood, after criticising it as "a tasteful effusion of the Pope school," says, "Yet it is, nevertheless, full of beauty-with a few eloquent-a few good-and a few great passages in it." In the following extract the poet is considering to what subjects and scenes the Muse most invitingly wooes him; but, after referring to the classic associations which cluster around Greece, he leaves her charms for these of Palestine, to which his poem is then devoted.

II.-Invitations of the Muse.

1. Here let us pause:-the opening prospect view:-
How fresh this mountain-air!-how soft the blue
That throws its mantle o'er the lengthening scene!
Those waving groves,-those vales of living green,—

Those yellow fields,-that lake's cerulean face,-
That meets, with curling smiles, the cool embrace
Of roaring torrents, lulled by her to rest ;-
That white cloud, melting on the mountain's breast:
How the wide landscape laughs upon the sky!
How rich the light that gives it to the eye!

2. Where lies our path ?-though many a vista call,
We may admire, but cannot tread them all.
Where lies our path?-a poet, and inquire
What hills, what vales, what streams become the lyre?
See, there Parnassus lifts his head of snow;
See at his foot the cool Cephissus flow;
There Ossa rises; there Olympus towers;
Between them, Tempè breathes in beds of flowers,
Forever verdant; and there Peneus glides
Through laurels whispering on his shady sides.

3. Your theme is MUSIC:-Yonder rolls the wave
Where dolphins snatched Arion from his grave,
Enchanted by his lyre:-Citharon's shade
Is yonder seen, where first Amphion played
Those potent airs, that, from the yielding earth,
Charmed stones around him, and gave cities birth.
And fast by Hamus, Thracian Hebrus creeps
O'er golden sands, and still for Orpheus weeps,
Whose gory head, borne by the stream along,
Was still melodious, and expired in song.
There Nereids sing, and Triton winds his shell;
There be thy path,-for there the Muses dwell.

4. No, no-a lonelier, lovelier path be mine:
Greece and her charms I leave for Palestine.
There, purer streams through happier valleys flow,
And sweeter flowers on holier mountains blow.

I love to breathe where Gilead sheds her balm;
I love to walk on Jordan's banks of palm;

I love to wet my foot in Hermon's dews;
I love the promptings of Isaiah's muse;
In Carmel's holy grots I'll court repose,

And deck my mossy couch with Sharon's deathless rose.

II. Observe the many classical allusions in this selection. [See p. 98.] To those who do not understand their meaning, all their force and beauty will be lost.

Verse 2.-Par-nas'sus, a celebrated mountain in ancient Greece, sacred to the god Apollo and the Muses. In metaphorical language, the word Parnassus has come to signify poetry itself.

Ce-phis'sus, a river that rises at the foot of Parnassus, for whose waters the Graces had a peculiar attachment.

Os'sa, a mountain of Greece,-one of those which the giants piled upon Olympus in order to ascend to the heavens.

O-lym'pus, another of the celebrated mountains of Greece, the highest summit of which was fabled to be the residence of the gods,and there Jupiter, the king of the gods, held his court.

Tem'pe, a delightful valley between Ossa and Olympus, through which the river Pen-e'us flows. It is celebrated by the poets for its cool shades, singing birds, and romantic scenery.

V. 3.-A-ri'on, a wonderful Greek poet and musician, of whom this fable is related. Having gone to Italy, where he amassed a fortune, on his return voyage the mariners plotted to throw him overboard and seize his riches. Obtaining permission to sing for them and then drown himself, he put on his richest robes, took his harp, and performed the Orthian strain, as it was termed, and then leaped into the sea. But there a dolphin, charmed by the enrapturing melody, received Arion on his back and bore him safely to the shore.

Ci-tha'ron, a celebrated mountain-ridge noted as the scene of many interesting events recorded by the poets. Here Am-phi'on, a Theban prince, having received a golden lyre from Mercury, first cultivated music; and he was so successful that the very stones arranged themselves in obedience to the tones of his instrument, and thereby built the walls of Thebes. The meaning of the legend is supposed to be, that Amphion, by his mild and persuasive manners, prevailed upon his rude subjects to build walls around Thebes.

Ha'mus, a mountain-chain in northern Greece from which the river He'brus flows.

Orpheus, the most celebrated of all the poets and musicians of Greece. The ancient legends are full of the wonders of his voice and lyre. Being torn in pieces at a Bacchanal festival, his head was thrown into the river Hebrus, and as it was borne along by the waters his lips were still eloquent in song, and the river wept over his mournful fate.

Ner'e-ids, nymphs of the sea.

Triton, a sea-deity, the son of the sea-god Neptune. He was his father's trumpeter, and he blew through a shell to rouse or to allay the waves.

V. 4.—Gil'e-ad, land of, a region east of the Jordan, noted in Bible history for its rich pastures, and for its aromatic plants, which filled the air with their fragrance, and from which different sorts of balsams were produced.

Her'mon, a branch of the Lebanon Mountains east of the river Jordan.

Carʼmel, a range of high limestone hills in western Palestine, in which there are said to be more than a thousand caves and grottos, many of them in ancient times the abode of prophets and other religious persons.

Sha'ron, valley of, was south of Carmel, near the Mediterranean. The "rose of Sharon" (a narcissus) was famous for its flowers and for pasture; and Christ is supposed to say, in the Song of Solomon, ii. 1, "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys." Hence the figure, "Sharon's deathless rose."

Unsuccessful in business, Mr. Pierpont, at the age of thirty-one, entered the Harvard Theological School, and was duly ordained to the Unitarian ministry. His pastoral charges were in Boston, Troy, N. Y., and Medford, Mass., at which latter place he died at the advanced age of eightyone. When he was seventy-six years old he marched to the war as chaplain of the 22d Massachusetts Regiment, but he was transferred to a clerkship in the Treasury Department at Washington, where he digested fifty-four folio volumes of Decisions and Instructions into one hand-book, --which the Hon. Secretary Salmon P. Chase designated as a monument of talent and industry."

With the exception of the Airs of Palestine, Mr. Pier