O, could she have turned, ere for ever departed, And beckoned with smiles, to her sad Cherokee! 4. Great Spirit of Good, whose abode is the heaven, Whose wampum2 of peace is the bow in the sky, O'er the ruins of home, o'er my heart's desolation, LESSON X. TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. MELLEN. 1. Wake your harp's music!- louder, — higher, And pour your strains along; And smite again each quivering wire, Shout like those godlike men of old, Who, daring storm, and foe, On this blest soil their anthem rolled, 2. From native shore by tempest driven, They sought a purer sky, And found beneath a milder heaven, The home of liberty! An altar rose, and prayers; a ray Broke on their night of woe, The harbinger of Freedom's day 3. They clung around that symbol too, Their refuge and their all; a Wam'-pum; strings of shells used as money by the Indians. b The Pilgrims, c England's shores. And swore while skies and waves were blue, They stood upon the red man's sod, 4. Oh! 't was a hard unyielding fate And Persecution strove with Hate, But safe above each coral grave, Each looming ship did go,· And God was on the western wave, 5. They knelt them on the desert sand," Alone upon the dreary strand Of oceaned solitude! They looked upon the high blue air, And felt their spirits glow, Resolved to live or perish there, 6. The warrior's' red right arm was bared, The dark chiefs yelled alarm, and swore The white man's blood should flow, And his hewn bones should bleach their shore, 7. But lo! the warrior's eye grew dim, His arm was left alone, The still black wilds which sheltered him, a The shore of Cape Cod. b The aboriginal Indians. Time fled, and on the hallowed ground And cities swell where forests frowned, 8. Oh! stay not to recount the tale, The firmest cheek might well grow pale, To hear it to the last. The God of heaven, who prospers us, Could bid a nation grow, And shield us from the red man's curse, 9. Come then, great shades of glorious men," Look on your own proud land again, O bravest of the brave! We call you from each moldering tomb, To bless the world ye snatched from doom, Two hundred years ago! 10. Then to your harps, yet louder, — higher, And pour your strains along, And smite again each quivering wire, In all the pride of song! Shout for those godlike men of old, Who, daring storm and foe, On this blest soil their anthem rolled, LESSON XI. WHAT YOUNG LADIES SHOULD READ. MRS. SIGOURNEY. 1. A TASTE for reading is important to all intellectual beings. To our sex, it may be pronounced peculiarly necessary. a Carver, Bradford, Winslow, &c. It is important to all, because it is the way in which aliment is conveyed to the mind; and to our sex peculiarly necessary, because dwelling much on the contemplation of little things, they are in danger of losing the intellectual appetite. 2. A taste for reading is therefore to them, an armor of defence. Home, the woman's province, admits of little variety. She should, therefore, diversify it by an acquaintance with the world of intellect, and shed over it the freshness derived from the exhaustless fountains of knowledge. 3. She should render herself an entertaining and instructive fireside companion, by daily replenishing her treasury with that gold which the hand of the robber may not waste, nor the rust of time corrode. Every young lady who, at leaving school, entertains a clear and comfortable conviction that she has finished her education, should recollect the reproof of the excellent Dr. Rush to a young physician, who spoke of the time when he finished his studies. "When you finished your studies! Why, you must be a happy man to have finished so young. I do not expect to finish mine as long as I live." 4. Life is but one great school, and we are all pupils, differing in growth and progress, but all subjects of discipline, all invested with the proud privilege of acquiring knowledge, as long as the mind retains its powers. 5. But while the value of knowledge renders a taste for reading so important, the choice of books is equally so. Books produce the same effect on the mind, that diet does on the body. They may either impart no salutary nutriment, or convey that which is pernicious. Miscellaneous reading has become so fashionable, and its materials so multifarious, that it is difficult to know how to select, or where to fix a limit. 6. Works of imagination usually predominate in the libraries of young ladies. To condemn them in a mass, as has been sometimes done, is hardly just. Some of them are the productions of the finest minds, and abound with the purest sentiments. Yet, discrimination, with regard to them, is exceedingly important, and such discrimination as a novice cannot exercise. The young should therefore ask guidance of an a Dr. Rush (Benjamin ;) an eminent physician and philosopher of Philadelphia, and one the signers of the Declaration of Independence. experienced and cultivated mind, and devote to this class of reading, only a moderate portion of time, as to a recreation. 7. History has ever been warmly commended to the attention of the young. It imparts knowledge of human nature, and supplies lofty subjects for contemplation. It should be read with constant reference to geography and chronology. A fine writer has called these "the eyes of history." They are also the grappling irons by which it adheres to memory. 8. As some historians are deficient in dates, or not lucid in their arrangment, a table of chronology, and an atlas, ancient and modern, should be the inseparable companions of all books of history, which are to be studied with profit. It is a good practice to fix in the memory some important eras, the subversion of an empire for instance, and then ascertain what events were taking place in all other nations, at the same period of time. A few of these parallels, running through the History of the World, will collect rich clusters of knowledge, and arrange them in the conservatory of the mind. 9. History is replete with moral lessons. The instability of human power, the tyranny of man over his brother, and the painful truth that the great are not always the good, mark almost every feature of its annals. Read History with can dor and independence of mind. The opinions of the historian should be examined, and the gilding stripped from false glory. 10. The admiration so profusely bestowed on warriors and conquerors, should be analyzed. And if conquerors are discovered to have wrought more evil than good, to have polluted the foundations of peace and liberty, and to have wantonly shed blood and caused misery for their own aggrandizement, let the sentence upon their deeds be given in equity. 11. Next in intellectual interest to History, and superior tu it in its influence upon the heart, is the study of Biography. Through this familiar intercourse with the wise and good, we forget the difference of rank, and the distance upon earth's surface that divided us. We almost listen to their voices, and number them among our household friends. 12. We see the methods by which they became distinguish |