His air was terrific, he uttered no sound,

He spake not, he moved not, he looked not around,
But earnestly gazed on the bride.

9. His visor was closed, and gigantic his height;
His armor was sable to view;

All pleasure and laughter were hushed at his sight,
The dogs as they eyed him drew back in affright
The lights in the chamber burned blue.

10. His presence all bosoms appeared to dismay,
The guests sat in silence and fear;

At length spake the bride, while she trembled, "I pray,
Sir Knight, that your helmet aside you would lay,
And deign to partake of our cheer."

11. The lady is silent, the stranger complies;
His visor he slowly unclosed;

Oh, God! what a sight met fair Imogene's eyes,
What words can express her dismay and surprise,
When a skeleton's head was exposed!

12. All present then uttered a terrified shout,

All turned with disgust from the scene;

The worms they crept in and the worms they crept out
And sported his eyes and temples about,

Whilst the specter addressed Imogene;

13. "Behold me, thou false one; behold me !" he cried, "Remember Alonzo the Brave;

God grants that to punish thy falsehood and pride
My ghost at thy marriage should sit by thy side,
Should tax thee with perjury, claim thee as bride,
And bear thee away to the grave!"

14. Thus saying, his arms round the lady he wound,
While loudly she shrieked in dismay;

Then sunk with his prey through the wide yawning. ground,

Nor ever again was fair Imogene found,

Or the specter that bore her away!

15. Not long lived the baron, and none since that time,
To inhabit the castle presume;
For chronicles tell, that by order sublime,
There Imogene suffers the pain of her crime
And mourns her deplorable doom.

16. At midnight, four times in each year, does her sprite,
When mortals in slumber are bound,

Arrayed in her bridal apparel of white,
Appear in the hall with the skeleton knight,
And shrieks as he whirls her around.

17. While they drink out of skulls newly torn from the grave,
Dancing round them the specters are seen;
Their liquor is blood, and this horrible stave
They howl: "to the health of Alonzo the Brave
And his consort, the fair Imogene."

This is an extraordinary poem. Ghosts and witches do not exist in reality. The poet imagines Alonzo's ghost appeared to the fair but false Imogene, in such an unquestionable shape as to bring "no airs from heaven;" nothing but "blasts from hell!"

Many people have been deluded in all ages and all countries, with the foolish notion that ghosts and witches actually exist. Spirit rapping," which is not even a common sense delusion, is, in some sense, a reproduction of repudiated witchcraft. The idea that audible sounds and intelligible responses are caused either by good or bad departed spirits, and that chairs and tables are moved and lifted by an invisible agency, is ridiculous and preposterous. "May heaven forefend" that any child of mine, or any friend, should be deceived and stultified by the miserable foolery of "spirit rapping" or "rapping spirits." With the permission of God, the departed spirits of our friends may be our guardian angels, to protect us from danger; but they cannot, independently of the body, "walk the earth,” and make communications to man. They are in another apartment in our Heavenly Father's house, "not made with hands," glorious and "eternal in the heavens." Washington Irving well observes: "Such visitations would be too happy for this world; they would be incompatible with the nature of this imperfect state of being."

152. CHRIST'S REGARD FOR CHILDREN.-Mrs. Z. Porter.

1. Dear little children to you it is given

To know ye are blessed of your Father in heaven,

Be cheerful and happy and banish alarms,
For Jesus took little ones up in his arms.

2. While on their loved heads, his rich blessings he shed,
Pronounced their salvation as meekly he said:
The kingdom of heaven is holy and free,
Then "suffer young children to come unto me."

3. My mission to earth is a world to redeem,
Including sweet babes in the glorious theme;
All kingdoms and nations, the bond and the free,
Shall share the inheritance purchased by me.

Great and good men have in all ages and countries both felt and manifested a deep and thrilling interest in the welfare of children. Fellenbergh, Rollin, Pestalozzi and Socrates dedicated their best exertions through life to the service and instruction of the young. Lycurgus, the Grecian lawgiver, made the education of youth the care of the state. St. Paul evinced a tender regard for children. And the Great TEACHER took them in his arms and said: "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." Locke says: "Of all mankind, we make nine parts in ten, of what they are, good or bad, by their education;" and the progressive spirit of the age received its birth in that sentence. Education is not religion or morality. The celebrated Alexander Campbell, of Virginia, says: "Literature is a lever of prodigious arm; yet it is no more religion or morals than lead is water, because the water passes through it. Still, if you have not a leaden pipe, you can have no water in the cup. It is a law of reason and of God, that the educated portion of every community must direct and form public opinion." When knowledge is acquired, and its power is employed to promote the happiness of man and the "glory of God," we may say with Albert Barnes, the learned and distinguished commentator on the New Testament: "Science and religion are streams flowing from adjacent mountains, uniting in the valleys below, and then, rolling on together into the ocean of eternity."

153. PARODY.-S. S. Greene.

1. You'd scarce expect one of my age
To plead for temperance on the stage,
And should I chance to fall below
Portraying all the drunkard's woe,

Don't view me with a critic's eye
Nor pass my simple story by.

2. Large streams from little fountains flow;
Great sots from moderate drinkers grow;
So, though I now am small and young,
No rum shall ever touch my tongue.

3. Let all the boys and girls like me,
From liquor pledge they will be free;
Then will not our Columbia's soil
Surpass, by far, the Emerald Isle?
Yes, Ireland then will be outdone,
And every land beneath the sun.

4. These thoughts inspire my youthful mind
To banish grog-shops from mankind;
Those shops that stain our land with blood
By pouring forth a poisonous flood,
Yet claim to be "a public good !"

154. THE CELEBRATED TEMPERANCE OX DISCOURSE.-Unknown.

1. Every man is responsible to God for the evils which result from his selfishness, or his indifference to the welfare of others. This principle will help us to illustrate the law. "If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die, then the ox shall surely be stoned, but the owner of the ox shall be quit." The design in stoning the ox, was to produce an effect upon men, to show them how highly the lawgiver valued human life. The very beast that destroyed it should be cast forth as an abomination.

2. God says to Noah: "Your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man.' A stigma shall be fixed upon man or beast that shall destroy him who is made after the similitude of God. But why is the owner in this case quit, or guiltless? Simply because the death is not in any way the result of his

carelessness, or of his selfishness. From any thing within his knowledge, he had no reason to expect such a result. But if the ox hath been wont to push with his horns, and he knew it, he shall be responsible for the consequences, whatever they may be. For he had every reason to expect that mischief would be done, and took no measures to prevent it. And if the ox kill a man or woman, the owner hath done the murder, he shall be put to death. Why? The death was the result of his selfishness, or of his indifference to the lives of others. And according to the law of God, his life shall go for it. The principle of this law is a principle of common

sense.

3. You see a fellow creature struggling in the water. You know that he can never deliver himself. And you know that a very little assistance, such as you can render, will rescue him from a watery grave. You look on and pass by. True, you did not thrust him in. But he dies by your neglect. His blood will be upon your head. At the bar of God, and at the bar of conscience, you are his murderer. Why? You did not kill him. Neither did the owner of the ox lift a hand. But he shall surely be put to death. You had no malice, neither had he. You did not intend his death, at the very worst. You did not care. This is just his crime. He did not care. turned loose a wild, fiery, ill-tempered, ungovernable animal, knowing him to be such; and what mischief that animal might do, or what suffering he might cause, he did not care. But God held him responsible.

He

4. Take another case upon the same principle. And it is concerning this which has caused fear and trembling to most of us. Your dog has gone mad. You hate to kill him, for he has or had some good qualities. You hate to tie him up, for it is too much trouble; and you hate, worst of all, to believe that he is mad. It has been testified to you that many have died of his bite, already raving mad; and that many more in different stages of the disease, are coming to the same miserable death. But still you will neither shoot nor shut up the cause of this wretchedness. You affect to doubt whether any one of them had the real hydrophobia, or whether the bite will produce the same effects again; and so you leave him loose among your neighbors and your neighbors' children.

5. Is it not a dictate of common sense, that you ought to

be responsible for the result? And you are. All that perish