Ninth Stanza. What is it to have "a heart for any fate"? What word do we commonly use to signify the same that heart does here? Give the etymology of that word. What does the word "still" mean in the third line? Is this its customary meaning? Why is it necessary to "learn to wait"? Give the etymology and meaning of mournful, numbers, real, earnest, grave, enjoyment, destined, art, time, funeral, marches, battle, bivouac, hero, future, pleasant, present, remind, sublime, solemn, main, fate, achieving. Are there many or few words of Greek and Latin origin in this selection? Count them up in any two of the stanzas, and compare the number with that of all the words in the same stanzas. Is it desirable to use many foreign words in any composition? Should poetry have more such words than would be proper for a scientific treatise, or fewer? LXVI. THE BLIND PREACHER. V WILLIAM WIRT. 1. I have been, my dear S . . . on an excursion through the countries which lie along the eastern side of the Blue Ridge. A general description of that country and its inhabitants may form the subject of a future letter. For the present, I must entertain you with an account of a most singular and interesting adventure which I met with in the course of the tour. 2. It was one Sunday, as I traveled through the county of Orange, that my eye was caught by a cluster of horses tied near a ruinous, old, wooden house, in the forest, not far from the roadside. Having frequently seen such objects before, in traveling through these States, I had no difficulty in understanding that this was a place of religious worship. 3. Devotion alone should have stopped me, to join in the duties of the congregation; but I must confess that curiosity to hear the preacher of such a wilderness was not the least of my motives. On entering, I was struck with his preternatural appearance. He was a tall and very spare old man; his head, which was covered with a white linen cap, his shriv cled hands, and his voice, were all shaking under the influence of palsy; and a few moments ascertained to me that he was perfectly blind. 4. The first emotions which touched my breast were those of mingled pity and veneration. But how soon were all my feelings changed! The lips of Plato were never more worthy of a prognostic swarm of bees, than were the lips of this holy man! It was a day of the administration of the sacrament; and his subject, of course, was the passion of our Savior. I had heard the subject handled a thousand times I had thought it exhausted long ago. Little did I suppose, that in the wild woods of America, I was to meet with a man whose eloquence would give to this topic a new and more sublime pathos than I had ever before witnessed. : 5. As he descended from the pulpit, to distribute the mystic symbols, there was a peculiar, a more than human solemnity in his air and manner, which made my blood run cold, and my whole frame shiver. 6. He then drew a picture of the sufferings of our Savior; his trial before Pilate; his ascent up Calvary; his crucifixion; and his death. I knew the whole history; but never, until then, had I heard the circumstances so selected, so arranged, so colored! It was all new; and I seemed to have heard it for the first time in my life. His enunciation was so deliberate, that his voice trembled on every syllable; and every heart in the assembly trembled in unison. His peculiar phrases had that force of description, that the original scene appeared to be, at that moment, acting before our eyes. We saw the very faces of the Jews; the staring, frightful distortions of malice and rage. We saw the buffet: my soul kindled with a flame of indignation; and my hands were involuntarily and convulsively clinched. 7. But when he came to touch on the patience, the forgiving meekness of our Savior; when he drew, to the life, his blessed eyes streaming in tears to heaven; his voice breathing to God a soft and gentle prayer of pardon on his enemies, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"-the voice of the preacher, which had all along faltered, grew fainter and fainter, until, his utterance being entirely obstructed by the force of his feelings, he raised his handkerchief to his eyes, and burst into a loud and irrepressible flow of grief. The effect is inconceivable. The whole house resounded with the mingled groans and sobs and shrieks of the congregation. 8. It was some time before the tumult had subsided so far as to permit him to proceed. Indeed, judging by the usual but fallacious standard of my own weakness, I began to be very uneasy for the situation of the preacher. For I could not conceive how he would be able to let his audience down from the height to which he had wound them, without impairing the solemnity and dignity of his subject, or perhaps shocking them by the abruptness of the fall. But-no: the descent was as beautiful and sublime, as the elevation had been rapid and enthusiastic. 9. The first sentence with which he broke the awful silence was a quotation from Rousseau: "Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ, like a God!" 10. I despair of giving you any idea of the effect produced by this short sentence, unless you could perfectly conceive the whole manner of the man, as well as the peculiar crisis in the discourse. Never before did I completely understand what Demosthenes meant by laying such stress on delivery. You are to bring before you the venerable figure of the preacher : his blindness, constantly recalling to your recollection old Homer, Ossian, and Milton, and associating with his performance the melancholy grandeur of their geniuses you are to imagine that you hear his slow, solemn, well-accented enunciation, and his voice of affecting, trembling melody: you are to remember the pitch of passion and enthusiasm to which the congregation were raised; and then, the few minutes of portentous, death-like silence, which reigned throughout the house: the preacher, removing his *white handkerchief from his aged face (even yet wet from the recent torrent of his tears), and slowly stretching forth the palsied hand which holds it, begins the sentence: "Socrates died like a philosopher"-then pausing, raising his other hand, pressing them both, clasped together, with warmth and energy to his breast, lifting his "sightless balls" to heaven, and pouring his whole soul into his tremulous voice-" but Jesus Christ-like a God!" If he had been indeed and in truth an angel of light, the effect could scarcely have been more divine. LXVII. THE HOUR OF DEATH. FELICIA HEMANS. 1. Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north-wind's breath, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death! 2. Day is for mortal care, Eve for glad meetings round the joyous hearth, 3. The banquet hath its hour, ; Its feverish hour of mirth and song and wine 4. Youth and the opening rose May look like things too glorious for decay, 5. Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north-wind's breath, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death! 6. We know when moons shall wane, When summer birds from far shall cross the sea, 7. Is it when spring's first gale Comes forth to whisper where the violets lie? They have one season—all are ours to die. 8. Thou art where billows foam, Thou art where music melts upon the air; 9. Thou art where friend meets friend, Beneath the shadow of the elm to rest Thou art where foe meets foe, and trumpets rend 10. Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north-wind's breath, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death! LXVIII.-MENTAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. JAMES T. BRADY. Extract from an Address delivered in 1858, at a meeting called to devise means for establishing a Woman's Free Library in the city of New York. 1. Much is often said by skeptics-for so I must call them —about this problem, as they denominate it, about this hope, false as they declare it to be, of improving the merit of woman by the culture of her intellect. This often leads to discussions about the comparative mental capacities of men and women, which debates are very learned and eloquent, but never profitable. It can scarcely be wise to speculate upon the results in such a comparison until we have done that which has never yet been performed, until we have afforded woman an opportunity entirely equal to that of man to exhibit the extent to which her capabilities may affect her elevation. 2. When we look at the history of the Old World, we find in Italy, during the period of the Republic, and in the eighteenth century, among the distinguished women who |