domestic life, and plant no sting in the bosoms of those who love you most dearly, then dare to resist this tempter whatever form he may assume, whatever disguise he may wear! 2. If the highest in station in the land should seek to draw you off from this high position; yea, if she who seems to you the fairest and purest of her sex, commends this poisoned chalice to your lips, then, in all the confidence of rectitude and intelligent principle, refuse the offer, and prove yourself truly brave as free. 3. Around us intemperance is working out the ruin of hundreds of the young and the noble. In the wineparty and the club-room, it begins to throw around multitudes the silken net of its enchantment; in restaurants and elegant saloons these cords are trans muted into chains of brass; and ere they or their friends are aware, they have lost the confidence of employers, they are marked as men to be shunned by an eagle-eyed public; they are fast descending to the gross sensuality of the doomed and lost inebriate. 4. If any of you have begun to form this terrible habit, and feel a thirst for this poisonous stimulus; if you find growing the fondness for this fatal indulgence, and your feet at stated times seeking the haunts of intemperance, and you begin to comfort yourself with the deceptive argument that you are only a moderate drinker, to you I say, with the deepest solemnity, "turn! TURN! TURN!" 5. Mad swimmer! already thou art in the frightful vortex; round and round it has borne thee, till intoxicated with the pleasure, thou seest not how the circle narrows and stealthily moves thee nearer the liquid sides of the foaming abyss. QUESTIONS.-1. What are the motives to resist the wine cup presented in the first paragraph? 2. How are we to act when it is commended to us by persons of high station, or by one whom we most esteem? 3. In what places does intemperance begin to throw around us the "silken net of its enchantment?" 4. By what gradual steps does one sink, who yields to the temptation? 5. What admonition is given in the last paragraph? LESSON LXXV. SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. PASS' ING, exceeding; extremely. 2. As PIR' ED, aimed at. 3. GILD' ED, overlaid with gold; splendid. 4. SED' EN TA RY, sitting still; motionless. 5. AN' GLER, fisherman. 6. VERDICT, decision of a jury. MAR' VEL, Wonder. THE COLD WATER MAN. 1. There was an honest fisherman, 2. A grave and quiet man was he, His neighbors thought it odd. 3. For science and for books, he said No school to him was worth a fig, 4. He ne'er aspired to rank or wealth, JOHN G. SAXE For though much famed for fish was he, 5. Let others bend their necks at sight He ne'er had learned the art to "bob" 6. A cunning fisherman was he, 7 All day this fisherman would sit And gaze into the water, like 圃 8. With all the seeming innocence 9. To charm the fish he never spoke,- 10 And many a gudgeon of the pond, Would own, with grief, this angler had 11. Alas! one day this fisherman 12. 'Twas all in vain with might and main Down-down he went, to feed the fish 13. The jury gave their verdict, that Had caused the fisherman to be, 14. Though one stood out upon a whim, 15. The moral of this mournful tale, That drinking habits bring a man 16. And he who scorns to "take the pledge," And keep the promise fast, May be, in spite of fate, a stiff QUESTIONS.-1. In what does much of the wit of this piece eonsist? Ans. In playing upon words, which have double meanings 2. What is the moral, as given in the last two stanzas? LESSON LXXVI. SPELL AND DEFINE.-1. TEEM' ING, bringing forth; fertile. 2. ProNEERS', those that go ahead to clear away obstructions. 3. CAP' TURED, took; made captive. 4. WROUGHT, worked. 5. HER' MIT, solitary. 6. So' CIAL, pertaining to society. 7. SUS TAIN' ED, upheld; supported. 8 VERD' URE, greenness; grass; herbage. 9. HALT' ING, stopping. Avoid saying blas for blasts, sriek for shriek, earthen sky for earth and sky, &c. FIFTY YEARS AGO. W. D. GALLAGHER. 1. A song for the early times out west, A song for the free and gladsome life With a teeming soil beneath our feet, (=) Oh, the waves of life danced merrily, In the days when we were pioneers, 2. The hunt, the shot, the glorious chase, The camp, the big bright fire, and then The sweet, sound sleep, at dead of night, In the days when we were pioneers, 3. We shunned not labor; when 'twas due We lived not hermit lives; but oft And fires of love were kindled then, Oh, pleasantly the stream of life In the days when we were pioneers, 4. We felt that we were fellow-men; Sustained here in the wilderness, (s) And when the solemn Sabbath came, And lifted up our hearts in prayer Our temples then were earth and sky; In the days when we were pioneers, 5. Our forest life was rough and rude, Oh, free and manly lives we led, Mid verdure or mid snow, In the days when we were pioneers, 6. But now our course of life is short; And as, from day to day, We're walking on with halting step, (p.) And fainting by the way, Another land, more bright than this, And on our way to it we'll soon |