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Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet?"God!" let the torrents, like a shout of nations, Answer; and let the ice-plains echo, “God!" "God!" sing ye meadow-streams, with gladsome voiceYe pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds ' And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow,

And, in their perilous fall, shall thunder, “God!”

6. HALLOWED GROUND. - Campbell.

WHAT 's hallowed ground?

- 'Tis what gives birth

To sacred thoughts in souls of worth!
Peace! Independence! Truth! Go forth,
Earth's compass round;

And your high priesthood shall make earth
All184 hallowed ground!

CX.

THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL.

1. VITAL spark of heavenly flame!
Quit, O, quit, this mortal frame!
Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,
O, the pain, the bliss, of dying!
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life!

2. Hark! they whisper; angels say,
Sister Spirit, come away!

What is this absorbs me quite,

Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirit, draws my breath? -
Tell me, my soul, can this be Death?
3. The world recedes, it disappears!
Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears
With sounds seraphic ring!
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave! where is thy victory?
O Death! where is thy sting?

РОРЕ.

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Polycarp, one of the lathers of the Christian church, suffered martyrdom at Smyrna, in the year of our Lord 167, during a general persecution of the Christians.

1. "Go, Lictor, I lead the prisoner forth, let all the assembly stay,
For he must openly abjure his Christian faith to-day."
The Prætor spake; the Lictor went, and Polycarp appeared;
And tottered, leaning on his staff, to where the pile was reared.
His silver hair, his look benign, which spake his heavenly lot,
Moved into tears both youth and age, but moved the Prætor not.

2. The heathen spake: "Renounce aloud thy Christian heresy !”—
"Hope all things else," the old man cried, " yet hope not this from
me.".

"But if thy stubborn heart refuse thy Saviour to deny,

Thy age shall not avert my wrath; thy doom shall be -to die!" "Think not, O judge! with menaces, to shake my faith in God; If in His righteous cause I die, I gladly kiss the rod.”—

3. "Blind wretch ! doth not the funeral pile thy vaunting faith appall?”— "No funeral pile my heart alarms, if God and duty call." "Then expiate thy insolence; ay, perish in the fire! Go, Lictor, drag him instantly forth to the funeral pyre! "EI The Lictor dragged him instantly forth to the pyre; with bands He bound him to the martyr's stake, he smote him with his hands.

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4. "Abjure thy God," the Prætor said, “and thou shalt yet be free.” "No," cried the hero, "rather let death be my destiny!" The Prætor bowed: the Lictor laid with haste the torches nigh: Forth from the fagots burst the flames, and glanced athwart the sky; The patient champion at the stake with flames engirdled stood, Looked up with rapture-kindling eye, and sealed his faith in blood.

Anon

CXII. DUFAVEL'S ADVENTURE IN THE WELL.

PART FIRST.

1. ONE morning, early in September, 1836, as Düfavel', one of the laborers employed in sinking a well at a place near Lyons, in France, was about to descend, in order to begin his work, ons of his companions called out to him not to go down, as the ground was giving way, and threatened to fall in. Dufavel, however did not profit by the warning, but, exclaiming, "I shall have

picnty of time to go down for my basket first," he entered the well, which was sixty-two feet in depth.

2. When about half-way down, he heard some large stōnes falling; but he nevertheless continued his descent, and reached the bottom in safety. After placing two pieces of plank in his basket, he was preparing to reäscend, when he suddenly heard a crashing sound above his head, and, looking up, he saw five of tne side supports of the well breaking at once.

3. Greatly alarmed, he shouted for assistance as loudly as he was able; but the next moment a large mass of the sandy soil fell upon him, precluding the possibility of his escape. By a singu lar good fortune, the broken supports fell together in such a manner, that they formed a species of arch over his head, and prevented the sand from pouring down, which must have smoth ered him at once.

4. To all appearance, however, he was separated from the rest of the world, and doomed to perish by suffocation or famine. He had a wife and child, and the recollection of them made him feel still more bitterly his imprudent obstinacy in descending into the well, after being warned of the danger to which he was exposing himself.

5. But although he regretted the past, and feared for the future, he did not give way to despair. Calm and self-possessed, he raised his heart in prayer to God, and adopted every precaution in his power to prolong his life. His basket was fastened to the cord by which he had descended; and when his comradesEI above began to pull the rope, in the hope of drawing him up to the surface, he observed that, in their vain efforts, they were causing his basket to strike against the broken planks above him in such a manner as to bring down stones and other things.

6. He therefore cut the rope with his knife, which he had no sooner done than it was drawn up by those at the top of the well; and, when his friends saw the rope so cut, they knew that he must be alive, and they determined to make every exertion te save him.

7. The hole made by the passage of this rope through the sand that had fallen in was of the greatest use to Dufavel;

through it he received a supply of fresh air, and after a while his friends contrived to convey food to him, and even to speak to him. Of course he was in utter darkness; but he was enabled, in a curious manner, to keep a reckoning of time.

8. A large fly was shut up with him, and kept him company all the time that he remained there. When he heard it buzzing about, he knew that it was day; and when the fly was silent, he knew that it was night. The fly boarded as well as lodged with him; he was as careful as he could be not to interrupt it while taking its share of his meal; when he touched it, it would fly away, buzzing, as if offended, but soon return again. He often said, afterwards, that the company of this fly had been a great consolation to him.

9. More skilful persons than the poor laborers of the village were soon engaged in the attempt to liberate the unfortunate workman. The municipal authorities of Lyons procured the assistance of a band of military miners, who, under the direction of experienced officers, began to form a subterranean passage for the purpose of relieving him. Prayers for his safety were daily offered up in the churches of Lyons, and the most intense interest prevailed.

10. It was found necessary to erect a bărricade, and station a guard of soldiers round the scene of the accident, to keep off the flocking crowd from the neighborhood, all eager to obtain news, and see what was being done.

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1. THE cavity at the bottom of the well, over which the wooden rafters had so providentially formed a sort of roof, was at first about seven feet in height; but, owing to the sand constantly running through, and pressing down the roof from above, by the third day the space became so small, that the poor man could no longer stand, or even sit upright, but was crushed upon the ground in a peculiarly painful manner, his legs doubled

under him, and his head pressed on one side against his left shoulder.

2. His arms, however, were free, and he used his knife to cut away such parts of the wood-work as particularly incommoded him, and to widen the hole which the passage of the rope had made. Through this hole, by means of a small bottle, soup and wine were let down to him; and, after a few days, a narrow bag to receive and bring to the surface the constantly accumulating sand.

3. Of course, any pressure from above would have forced in the temporary roof: consequently, nothing could be attempted in the way of removing the mass of sand that had fallen in. They dared not to touch the surface above; but they contrived, by means of a tube, to converse with him. He inquired after his wife and child, and sent word to them to be of good cheer and hope for the best; at this time he had been a week in the well.

4. The miners worked night and day, but such was the treacherous nature of the soil that neither pickaxe nor shovel could be used. The foremost miner worked upon his knees, inserting cautiously a flat piece of wood into the ground, and afterwards gathering up with his hands, and passing to those behind him, the sand which he thus disturbed.

5. On the twelfth day they calculated that they were only twelve inches from the imprisoned man; and yet it took them two days longer to reach him. Every minute the ground was giving way; and it sometimes took many hours to repair the damage that a single moment had produced. They had to use the utmost caution, lest, when an opening was made, the sand should fall and suffocate him.

6. At length, about two o'clock in the morning, they made a small opening into the well, just above his shoulders. The poor man shouted for joy, and ble with his knife to assist in extricating himself. He was carefully conveyed along the horizontal gallery, and wrapped in blankets before he was drawn into the open air. Several medical men were in attendance, one of whom had him conveyed to his house and put to bed.

7. We will not attempt to describe Dufavel's happy meeting

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